The Burger Philosophy (Andersonville)

The Burger Philosophy has been mentioned in the Burgers, Burgers thread, but doesn't have a dedicated thread. We headed out last night with plans to use an Amazon Local certificate I had bought. We did walk past Great Lake thinking we might have pizza instead, forgetting their limited hours. Sunshine Cafe was another thought, but they were also closed. So a burger it was. I was hungry, so might have been grumpier than usual when told they needed the print-out of the deal coupon. I ordered the "Into the Bleu," an all beef patty with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hickory smoked bacon, bleu cheese topped with tangy steak sauce. Mr. X had the mushroom burger special which was (going on my imperfect memory) sage-scented (sage-sauteed?) mushrooms, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, truffle aioil. One order of regular fries for the table and a peanut butter milkshake for Mr. X.

Both burgers were ordered medium-rare, mine was more medium. Since it was our first visit, I wanted to try something as they intended. Next time, I would not get the steak sauce. It overwhelmed everything. The mushrooms on Mr. X's burger might have been sage-scented or whatever, but they sure seemed like they came from a can. Fries were good, but could have been hotter. We had some of the truffle aioli on the side for the fries. The truffle flavor was very delicate, if it was there at all. I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter, but that shake was quite good.

If I'm in that area and really needed a burger, I'd probably go to the Edgewater Lounge. If I needed a milkshake with a burger, the Burger Philosophy would work. We'll be back to use up the deal coupon. I don't see it being a regular stop though.

The Burger Philosophy
1541 W BRYN MAWR AVE
CHICAGO IL, 60640
http://burgerphilosophy.com/home

The GP wrote:The Burger Philosophy has been mentioned in the Burgers, Burgers thread, but doesn't have a dedicated thread.

That's because I didn't think it was deserving of one.

Darren72 wrote:

The GP wrote:The Burger Philosophy has been mentioned in the Burgers, Burgers thread, but doesn't have a dedicated thread.

That's because I didn't think it was deserving of one.

Personally, I hate when things, good and bad, are buried in a general topic thread. Different folks, different strokes...it's all good.

I think Burger Philosophy could be a worthy stop for fries and a shake, but I don't know that after one visit.

I posted about it in that thread because it's a thread about burgers and that's what I ate. Obviously the idea that you only start a thread if the food is good wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I do know that the burger I had was not good enough to entice me to eat it again.

Hey guys,
I'm Nick, and I'm one of the owners of the Burger Philosophy. I've been encouraged by The GP to post and be active on the forums here. So therefore, here I am!

I actually have messaged back and forth a little with The GP. We are a family owned restaurant and I want to correct any issues that may be with the food at The Burger Philosophy. I definitely take criticism well and strive to make the best product possible for you guys to really enjoy what we feel is a great burger.

Any feedback you guys have would be fantastic.

The GP already has given me a few critiques, so to speak, that we are either already in the process of rectifying or just now brought to our attention.

I appreciate all your guys feedback as we want to be a fixture in Andersonville. Thanks again!

Orange40 wrote:Hey guys,
I'm Nick, and I'm one of the owners of the Burger Philosophy. I've been encouraged by The GP to post and be active on the forums here. So therefore, here I am!

I actually have messaged back and forth a little with The GP. We are a family owned restaurant and I want to correct any issues that may be with the food at The Burger Philosophy. I definitely take criticism well and strive to make the best product possible for you guys to really enjoy what we feel is a great burger.

Any feedback you guys have would be fantastic.

The GP already has given me a few critiques, so to speak, that we are either already in the process of rectifying or just now brought to our attention.

I appreciate all your guys feedback as we want to be a fixture in Andersonville. Thanks again!

Also feel free to give suggestions on what types of burgers or whatnot you may be interested in seeing us provide

Hi Nick and welcome. Here is what I wrote in another thread about my experience in July:

Darren72 wrote:I tried The Burger Philosophy the other day for lunch. It's basically another upscale burger joint that grinds their own meat, cuts their own fries, etc. I'm sorry to say that it did not live up to my expectations.

First, the good: the fries were excellent. They were crispy and nicely seasoned. It's $1.99 for enough fries for 2-3 people. They also have blue cheese and bacon fries and Greek fries (topped with feta and oregano).

I had the "back to basics" burger which is an "All beef patty with fresh crisp lettuce, tomatoes, and onions topped with American cheese" (from the website). Why go through all the trouble to grind your own beef, cut your own fries, if you are going to put an industrial version of a Kraft single on top of the burger? Half-decent cheese is still pretty darn cheap.

The main problem with the burger, though, was that it didn't have much taste. The meat needed to be properly seasoned. So the burger tasted like a mixture of bread, lettuce, gross cheese and condiments. The industrial tomato didn't have any taste and the meat didn't have any taste.

You cannot get the burger any less cooked medium-well, but even then the meat wasn't dry. Just flavorless.

The Burger Philosophy
1541 W BRYN MAWR AVE
CHICAGO IL, 60640
http://burgerphilosophy.com/home

The GP ordered burgers that were medium-rare, so perhaps the policy has changed since I was there.

We have changed policy actually. We used to, due to our focus on first getting everything set behind the kitchen, etc., just have the burgers made one way. Medium well. We now are made to order.

Either way, the point of me responding (again, due to encouragement from The GP==thanks!), was not only to get feedback, but to make our burgers better for all of you.

We have introduced a Horseshoe Burger at the BP. I suggest you guys try and and I would love your feedback. Thanks!

The Horseshoe wasn't available today at lunch. Finally printed out the deal coupon I had, so we were back at the Burger Philosophy. I had the Gobbler, a turkey burger with swiss, lettuce, tomato, onion and cranberry sauce, which I had on the side, Mr. X had the Back to Basics burger with a side of parmesan truffle fries with garlic aioli. I enjoyed my turkey burger, but was glad I had the cranberry on the side because it was a cranberry mayo and didn't add much to the taste. No complaints from Mr. X about his burger. The fries were cooked well, just not hot. (Looking back, we had the same problem last time with the fries.) I really dug the nutella shake. Too bad it was Monday otherwise we could have gone up to Edzo's for a shake taste-off. There was steady business while we were there, which I'm always glad to see in a neighborhood joint next to a Subway.

Orange40 wrote:We have introduced a Horseshoe Burger at the BP. I suggest you guys try and and I would love your feedback. Thanks!

Can you tell me more? Is this an homage to the Springfield horseshoe? The GP said it wasn't available at lunch. Was this a one-day thing, or is it never available at lunch?

Hi Nick,

I'll give your place a try in the future when I'm in the area. I appreciate any owner that wants to hear feedback and make an effort to adjust to constructive criticism (if warranted). Just to let you know, I'm a big Edzo's fan, so I hope you are in that league by the time I arrive.

I'm probably going to go there with a friend who lives for Merkt's Cheddar on burgers and fries. Do you/will you have Merkt's on the menu? Thanks.

Darren72 wrote:

Orange40 wrote:We have introduced a Horseshoe Burger at the BP. I suggest you guys try and and I would love your feedback. Thanks!

Can you tell me more? Is this an homage to the Springfield horseshoe? The GP said it wasn't available at lunch. Was this a one-day thing, or is it never available at lunch?

Darren-

I think it just wasn't available yesterday at all. If I recall, it was two burgers on texas toast topped with cheesy fries. Sorry I didn't pay more attention, I had Nutella shake on my brain.

Hey all-
If it wasn't available, it was because we had run out of cheese sauce and were in the process of getting and making more. It's been selling pretty well. We try not to make too large of a batch of cheese sauce in an effort to keep everything fresh for you guys. Our Horseshoe is our take on the Springfield classic. Consider it a tip of the hat. The Horseshoe can be altered in so many ways and there are so many different recipes.

We are looking into Merkt's cheddar as well, but you run into the problem that I mentioned above with the cheese sauce. It goes bad quickly, if not used, and unlike some restaurants we refuse to serve product that isn't fresh. Again, we're looking into this as well.

GP--can you go into more detail about the Cranberry sauce that we use? We get rave reviews about it and I'm surprised that you thought it didn't have much flavor. What didn't you like about it?

I appreciate all the feedback guys!

For those of you interested, we have the following happening at The Burger Philosophy:

* Renovations - We are renovating the inside. We're still in the process but there are significant changes already made!
* Living Social - We are on Living Social from March 1st - March 3rd
* Website - We have revamped (completely) our VERY basic website. It was just refreshed today with GoDaddy.com, so you may need to give it a couple of hours.

Just thought I'd let you all know. Thanks!

My friend Matt and I made it over to the Burger Philosophy yesterday. He went with the Good Morning Chicago (All beef patty with lettuce tomatoes, onions, hickory-smoke bacon, American cheese topped with a jumbo fried egg) on a pretzel bun and I went with their basic burger on their white (brioche?) bun. We both enjoyed the fries a lot and the portions were extremely generous. My burger was cooked to medium as ordered, but there was a seasoning that was on/in it that I was not in love with and somewhat held back my burger from being really great. Matt absolutely loved his burger and will definitely be back.

So my question to Nick is - do you apply a seasoning to all the burgers? Is it added while it cooks or in the meat? Can I get it without the seasoning?

Ram4 wrote:My friend Matt and I made it over to the Burger Philosophy yesterday. He went with the Good Morning Chicago (All beef patty with lettuce tomatoes, onions, hickory-smoke bacon, American cheese topped with a jumbo fried egg) on a pretzel bun and I went with their basic burger on their white (brioche?) bun. We both enjoyed the fries a lot and the portions were extremely generous. My burger was cooked to medium as ordered, but there was a seasoning that was on/in it that I was not in love with and somewhat held back my burger from being really great. Matt absolutely loved his burger and will definitely be back.

So my question to Nick is - do you apply a seasoning to all the burgers? Is it added while it cooks or in the meat? Can I get it without the seasoning?

Glad you guys could come in! We were pretty short-handed yesterday... . We do put a homemade rub in our meat. This is done prior to being put on the grill.

Also, if not apparent, we're currently going through interior renovations. We've been painting and adding light fixtures. We have a few more items in store as well.

Again, hope you enjoyed everything and I'm always all ears!

I think Burger Philosophy is deserving of a little more lth love. From what I've read on this board, I was a bit leery of being served a bland, boring burger. I have since visited a handful of times and have yet to encounter any such insipidity. As much as I hate pandering to their advertising hype, I have to laud Burger Philosophy for selectively grinding their own cuts of beef, resulting in a non-uniform, textured patty with a nicely satisfying chew. The surprising difference in mouthfeel between a BP offering and a standard burger with uniformly ground beef is so marked imo, I initially assumed that they were using a higher grade of meat. It makes for a remarkably fresh-tasting burger at this price, which they are now consistently banging out with cold efficiency. Out of a sample size of five visits in the last month, I've been rewarded with a chewy, juicy burger five times.

I have some minor quibbles with their set pieces which I've come to forgive. The Devil's Advocate barely registered any scovilles for me -- despite a layer of jalapenos, I was only dimly aware of any discernible heat. The bbq sauce completely and utterly neutralized the blue cheese in the Into the Blue, rendering the latter ingredient a non-factor. Every time I've ordered medium rare, my burgers have come out verging closer to what I would consider medium. I've given up hope of this last peeve ever changing, at least for any burger under ten bucks...but the quality of the beef brings me back.

Their toppings list exhibits a rather confusing pricing hierarchy with some ingredients (e.g. bacon) maxing out at a buck while others occupy a variety of pricepoints. You can opt for a wheat bun or a pretzel roll which incurs another upcharge. By now, I know from experience that a bacon cheeseburger on a pretzel roll is going to run around eight dollars including tax.

Although fairly new, clean, and spacious, the interior is rather an eyesore, pairing clunky, old-fashioned, wooden tables and seating reminiscent of a Red Lobster or an Arthur Treacher's with garishly painted walls largely done in purple. Yuck. The restaurant is obviously still a work in progress both physically and conceptually. It would likely win a dedicated following more quickly were it located on a college campus instead of Edgewater. It's basically a fast food restaurant offering BYOB which in these lean economic times ought to be hailed as a welcome hybrid concept, though one with a very fine burger as its core offering.

and oh yeah, gotta push the peanut butter shake; the nutella's kinda wimpy.

Long time- no post!

Just wanted to inform everyone that The Burger Philosophy received it's liquor license! Serving beer now.

Orange40 wrote:Serving beer now.

Cool. What's on your list?

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Orange40 wrote:Serving beer now.

Cool. What's on your list?

=R=

We currently are using Goose Island products. We have:

312
Goose Island I.P.A.
Bud Light

We also have Heineken's available. We're trying to secure canned Margarita beverages as well.

Metropolitan Brewing is in your neighborhood. Have you thought about adding their beers to your line-up?

Metropolitan Brewing is in your neighborhood. Have you thought about adding their beers to your line-up?

Half Acre should be considered, as well. Neighbor relations & all that. . .

I was going to BP quite often when the $5.99 daily special was in force. Seems it was pulled for summer. But there is no way I can justify spending $10 for the same deal, when, just down the street Edgewater Lounge has a $5 daily special.

Bring back the $5.99, and allow for veggie patty substitutions and with the booze now you'd be competitive with EL.