Fort Lauderdale Burger Report!

The BCS Championship game has us in town almost a week, so there was time to run down some burgers int he off hours!   There were plenty to try, the local favorite Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill, Jack’s Hamburgers, Five Guys, Cheeburger Cheeburger, and many more of the usual suspects.  A new chain that is getting a lot of buzz was also around, Smashburger.

My first stop was the highly rated, (by locals) Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill.  This is a family owned burger place that claims they make abetter burger because of using natural gas for their grill!  It’s a flame guys and you know my stand on burgers cooked over flame.  Not a fan!  Truthfully for a burger grilled over a fire it was not too bad, seasoned well, and cooked good and medium, so it was juicy.  They are also generous thick patties, but that flame broiled taste, I just couldn’t get past it.  So Gilbert’s burger gets a 3.5 pickles score, which isn’t good enough to break into our top 25 list.   The next place I checked out was Jack’s Burgers.  This is a conventional flat top grill burger and was actually very good.  The burgers was little on the thin side but well seasoned and well prepared, Jack’s got a 4.0  which is a very good score, pushing it’s way toward the top twenty five! I didn’t check out Five Guys, I’ve had plenty and they are always a solid 4.2 or better!  I also skipped on Cheeburger, Cheeburger, one of my favorite chains years ago, but wildly inconsistent in recent visit!  The new kid ont he block is Smash burger (lead image at the top!)  I actually first heard of Smashburger a couple of weeks ago from Mike Moats the great close-up shooter.  He wanted to know if I had tried one and I told him I had not but would on the first opportunity.  Well, once again I have something to thank Mike for!!!  The burger at Smashburger was fantastic, a solid 4.5, placing it well up in the pack of great American burgers!  So it was a lot better week for Alabama fans and cheeseburger lovers than Notre Dame fans!

Blessings,

the pilgrim