The Gas Light Cafe

                The Gas Light Café is a neighborhood joint, the kind of place we just love to visit. Mark had gone to the Gas Light on and off for years but hadn’t been in a while. For Josh, it was his first time. His reaction is it won’t be the last.

                This is one of those old school kind of places where, when you walk in, you expect half the people to already know each other and the other half just saying hi to you. We went on a Saturday and were absolutely delighted to find the special that day: double cheeseburger and fries. This is exactly what we would have ordered anyway. Not that burgers are the only items on the menu. Everyone can find a sandwich to their liking.

                Located at 6140 Montgomery Rd. in Pleasant Ridge, the Gas Light is one of those neighborhood establishments that everyone knows about. It has been around for a while and wears its years with pride throughout the décor. Along with the numerous signs, the dart boards, the games and the televisions always showing a game or two, this place is perfect with tables, booths and, of course, stools at the bar.

                With one of the consistently highest rated burgers in town, the Gas Light needs to be a on everyone’s to-do list.

Burgers

                Seeing the double cheeseburger special we both immediately knew what we wanted. Josh ordered his with lettuce and tomato and, of course, the standard tartar sauce. He added some mustard and ketchup. Mark got his with lettuce, pickle and tartar sauce. They don’t bother with offering choices in cheese. Not in a place like this. You get American but who cares.

                We both loved the burgers. Mark had forgotten the bit of seasoning that they used in their fresh ground beef. Josh pointed out that it was just enough, that it didn’t over power the flavor of the beef. A regular here is a quarter pound patty, so the double filled us both up with a half-pound of delicious, perfectly grilled (on the flat top) burger.

                The burgers were juicy and the right sized bun (what is it with places using buns that are too freakin’ big these days?) kind of slid around and started disappearing while we ate. Mark pointed out that at one point he was afraid of setting down his burger because it would fall apart. Josh replied, “Why would you want to set it down?” That sums up the flavor of a Gas Light burger.

                The crinkle cut fries were done just right, crisp on the outside and light in the middle. Not bad for frozen fries.

                Overall this is one of those places that it’s probably a good thing we don’t live closer to since we would be there all the time. Even though it is a 20-30 minute drive, it’s well worth it. Check out the Gas Light Café and enjoy one of the best burgers you can find.

Froggy Bottom Pub

                Don’t go looking for the Froggy Bottom Pub, no matter how much we enjoyed the burgers. You won’t find it. That is unless you happen to be in Washington, DC.

                We were up in DC where Josh was checking out colleges. Between the standard admissions office introduction and tour and our meeting with a professor from the history department, we stumbled across this little pub on the edge of the George Washington University Campus (thank you Urban Spoon).

                Opened in 1985, Froggy Bottom Pub is pretty much your typical college joint with staples such as burgers, pizza, chicken sandwiches, salads, and plenty of bar food. Located at 2142 Pennsylvania Ave. in the heart of the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of DC and on the web at http://www.froggybottompub.com/, this neighborhood bar has everything a college student would want in a favorite joint, including pool and foosball as well as plenty of room spread out over three levels.

Burgers

                We both ordered up a Bottom Cheeseburger, Josh’s with American and Mark’s with cheddar. Both were cooked to order and though it took a while to get to the table since it was the lunch hour, it arrived nice and hot and juicy.

                The lettuce and tomato were good, nothing special, and the bun was a bit oversized for the amount of meat it was holding. Not that the patty was small. It looked like a solid third pound piece of meat and tasted as though it had never been frozen.

                The fries were light, with a crispy exterior and a melt in your mouth interior. And the pickle spears (Josh didn’t eat his so Mark had them both) tasted like good deli dill slices I’ve had at some joints in New York.

                Even though it was crowded and our food took a bit to get out of the kitchen, it was well worth the wait and we made our appointment with the professor in plenty of time. If you’re ever up in DC, head about five blocks west of the White House and stop into the Froggy Bottom Pub. It’s well worth it. Who knows, in the fall of 2012 you may see Josh hanging out there.

Quaker Steak and Lube

              We don’t usually do chain restaurants but when we do they are chosen with care. Quaker Steak and Lube is a small chain of over 40 restaurants in mostly in Pennsylvania and Ohio but there are now locations in New York, Colorado, Florida and a host of other states.. We ate at the one in Milford because it was playing host to the 2^nd Annual Shriner’s Car and Bike show, something we report on for our other blog.

              Quaker Steak and Lube was founded in 1974 with the idea of keeping alive car culture, particularly muscle cars. The one in Milford is decked out to showcase this theme, complete with cars and lots of gas station décor.

    This Quaker Steak can be found at 590 Chamber Dr. in Milford and on-line at http://www.quakersteakandlube.com/.

Burgers

           Though Quaker Steak and Lube is perhaps best known for their wings, we both had the All-American Cheeseburger which, like all of their burgers, is a half-pound of 100% USDA steakburger. Josh ordered up American cheese and Mark’s had provolone. Both of us ordered up fries.

                The burgers were tender and flavorful and actually cooked to order, something that doesn’t always happen in chain restaurants. The burgers were also a bit juicy which seemed to give the garlic bun a bit of trouble because both of us got to the point where we couldn’t really set the burger down without it falling apart.

                While the lettuce was good and fresh, both tomatoes were a little under ripe causing them to not really have a whole lot of flavor. We both thought we might have been better off just putting ketchup on the burgers.

                It would be nice to say this is the best chain burger out there but it isn’t. Not that it’s bad. We both felt this burger beats a lot of its competition like Buddy Rich beating a drum. Still, there are a few better choices out there. In fact, this Quaker Steak is located very near a Red Robin which probably doesn’t help its burger showcasing abilities.

                Still, the combination of décor, the car and gas station theme and the quality of the service do go a long way in helping us recommend this restaurant. If all Quaker Steak and Lubes are the same quality as this one, then it is worth making a pit stop for some grub and to check out the cars.

Bertie and Huck's

                Bertie and Huck’s Restaurant looks exactly like what it is, a neighborhood place like grandma would run. With a quaint décor and attentive servers, you get the feeling that heading to 15 E. Foster-Mainville Rd., in Mainville, OH could easily be a regular drive. And it is a drive, unless you live near Mainville or Loveland or one of the other burgs in that part of the state.

Burger

                For this one I went alone since Josh had other plans (that included some girls but hey, he’s a high school kid so why not). The menu boasts a number of down home cooking kind of items, the kind of comfort food that you think of when you think of when grandma comes to mind.

I ordered up a double cheeseburger that, as promised, was hand patted from fresh ground chuck. I wasn’t given a choice on how it was to be cooked but when it arrived at the table, with melted American cheese, crispy lettuce, ripe tomato, a dill pickle spear and a generous helping of potato chips, the burger wasn’t charred the way many restaurants seem to think we should all eat them these days. Rather it was more on the medium side and each bite provided me with all the expected flavors.

                While the bun was rather mundane, seeming as though it came from the local grocery store rather than a bakery, it was the only thing about the burger itself that wasn’t very good. The pickle spear was kind of bland and the chips tasted like Lay’s. They definitely weren’t homemade, that’s for sure.

                One of the only other tables in the restaurant when I was there had their order all screwed up. Two of the four got the wrong sandwich but both went ahead and ate it rather than wait for the proper meal to be fixed. They then were treated to some homemade desert that they were still raving about when I left. Overall, it was worth the drive and warrants a recommendation to come back another time.