|
Burger bliss
Even buns notable in Amber Inn creations
March 11, 2008
| If
You Go |
|
Name: Amber Inn Bar and Grill.
Established: 1881 as a Walter's Brewery saloon. Under current ownership since 1981.
Owners-operators: Orv and Pat Johnson.
Address: 840 E. Madison St.
Hours: Grill is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays; noon to midnight Saturdays; and noon to 11 p.m. Sundays.
Phone: 832-0568.
Reservations: No.
Smoking: Yes.
Wheelchair accessible: No.
Parking: In lot behind tavern and on surrounding streets.
Prices: 1/2-pound hamburgers with various toppings, $4.39 to $6.09; the same hamburgers come in a basket, which includes french fries, potato wedges, cottage cheese, coleslaw or tossed salad, $5.89 to $7.59.
Children's menu: No.
Extras: Get the good seasoned potato wedges with your burger, $1.50. Happy hour is from 4 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
|
Please help!
We're searching for one-of-a-kind neighborhood bars and restaurants with great hamburgers. We'll write about them in future Diners' Notebook columns.
Send recommendations plus comments to our editor, Blythe Wachter, at blythe.wachter@ecpc.com.
Consider the Amber Inn Bar and Grill in Eau Claire, run by Orv and Pat Johnson since 1981. A friend recommended it as a place that takes its hamburgers seriously.
When was the last time you actually noticed your hamburger's bun? At the Amber Inn, you will. They're the best burger buns we know.
The menu proudly calls them "specially made bakery buns." Sue's Deluxe Bake Shop on Birch Street makes them to Orv's exacting specifications. The Inn staff toasts them expertly to order.
Available in white or wheat, the buns are yielding but not too soft or mushy; absorbent but not spongy; and tasty, but without the fluff and cakelike sweetness of commercial or grocery-store buns. They're also perfectly sized to help diners grip and control the thick half-pound meat patties and their dripping loads of toppings and condiments.
The meat here is fine: high-quality all-beef patties. They arrive with some welcome flamed-on char and a nice waft of grilly smokiness. Sometimes the burgers verge on juicy, especially if Orv himself is at the grill. Sometimes they end up dry inside, which can easily happen with commercially pattied ground beef that is cooked from frozen.
At the Amber Inn, therefore, the burgers with the wettest toppings are typically the most delicious. Try the Bacon Cheeseburger on a wheat bun with added - free - grilled onions, $5.59.
Or the new Reuben Burger with Thousand Island dressing and sauerkraut on toasted marble rye; we wish that real Wisconsin Swiss cheese might replace the processed glop, $5.79. Or the Thousand Island Burger on a white bun - it has generous doubled doses of Thousand Island dressing, shredded iceberg lettuce and gooey American cheese, $6.09.
Shall we call all hamburgers "Amber-gers"? Main Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review column, runs the fourth Sunday of the month. Diners' Notebook, a sampling of favorite restaurant offerings, runs the second Tuesday of the month. |
