New burger in town: The Counter Custom Built Burgers has opened at The Gateway (188 S. Rio Grande St.). In case the name doesn’t give it away, The Counter specializes in custom-built, have-it-your-way burgers, named by GQ as the “burger you must eat before you die.” Oprah Winfrey apparently is also a fan (insert favorite Oprah diet joke here). According to The Counter, there are 312,120 possible burger permutations available. It works like this: Customers are given a clipboard with a 5-step order sheet that allows for choices of options ranging from the burger itself (beef, turkey, veggie or chicken) and toppings (red onion, fried egg, roasted peppers, grilled pineapple, etc.) to cheese selection (Danish blue, Gruyere, herb goat cheese, Tillamook cheddar and more), sauce (ginger soy, red relish, sweet BBQ, Russian and so on) and, finally, your bun selection: English muffin, hamburger bun or honey wheat. Of course, for that kind of customization, you pay a price: The Counter Custom Built Burgers start at $7.50 a pop. Side and starter options include fried dill pickles, sweet potato fries, turkey chili and fried onion strings. I’m told there are handcrafted beers available, too. (TheCounterBurger.com) n
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Hot dog! A somewhat cheaper lunch option resides daily at the southeast corner of Main Street and 200 South, downtown. At the S. L. Kitchen Hot Dog stand, you’ll find regular hot dogs for a buck apiece, along with turkey dogs nachos, jumbo hot dogs, and Polish dogs. One of the best (and cheapest) lunches I’ve had in months consisted of a big, spicy Polish dog ($2) with sauerkraut (25¢), a bag of crunchy Cheetos (70¢) and an ice-cold Pepsi (75¢). Total lunch tab: $3.70, plus free outdoor seating at the Gallivan Center. And it all comes with loving service. The hot-dog dude treats each and every tubesteak with kid gloves, like it was a masterpiece meal, which I suppose it is. Amazingly, his hands never actually touch the food. Check out the hot-dog wizardry daily on Main Street, right across from the Monaco.
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Quote of the week: A hot dog at the ballpark is better than steak at the Ritz. —Humphrey Bogart
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