Welcome to part 5 of the burger series. I can’t believe we actually made it to 5. I’d like to thank the academy. As a reminder, this is a series based on a top 10 list of burgers published in Toronto Life. The journey thus far has been an emotional roller coaster, from the emotional low of the thing that Doomies calls a burger to the redemptive high of tasting a good burger at the Wickson Social. I’m excited to see what’s next and am fully preparing myself for the ups and downs along the way.
Just a reminder, the control burger in this experiment is the Skyline burger (that is the middle of the pack) with the upper range being Casino El Camino’s Amarillo burger from Austin, Texas.
Our fifth burger takes place in a foreign far away land – Queen East to try out the Carbon Bar’s Brisket Cheese Burger.
The Burger
Brisket Cheese Burger – brioche bun, sliced beef brisket, American cheese, charred & pickled chili peppers, burnt onion aioli, fries. $22!!!!!
Before we venture on… 22 dollars for a burger! In what world is a burger $22? Forget the avocado toast, this burger is why I don’t have a home.
The Verdict
Last time, I quoted Primal Scream to give an overview of the burger, and so this time I will do the same. Here are the lyrics:
Too much of something is bad enough
Too much of nothing is just as tough
Yeah, that’s the Spice Girls, whatever. But wiser words regarding food have never been spoken. This is ultimately a decision every cook has to make when putting together a burger. What do you put in, exactly? If you put in too little, then perhaps the burger lacks that spark, you put in too much, and well, you get what happened with the brisket burger.
Let’s take a look at the items on the burger
– brioche bun
– sliced beef brisket
– American cheese
– charred & pickled chili peppers
– lettuce
– burnt onion aioli
Does anything stand out? Sliced beef brisket
Don’t get me wrong, brisket is awesome. It’s the one thing I look forward to when I go to Texas. It’s arguably one of the best meats you can eat. Franklin BBQ is world famous because basically they have the best brisket in the world.
The downside of this is that brisket has it’s own taste. It’s what makes brisket special – the smokey, peppery taste you get when you take a bite combined with the simultaneous action of the fat melting in your mouth is one the most pleasant eating experiences you can get. It’s a strong flavor.
Too strong.
The brisket in the burger overwhelmed the patty to the point I still don’t know what the patty tastes like. Every bite of the burger where you get brisket, it completely overwhelms and you feel like you are just eating a brisket sandwich. It kind of goes against the whole burger vibe. When I want a burger, I want a burger. It’s why the burger was disappointing because I had my mind set on something, and got something else.
Complements
On a positive note, this burger had the best lettuce we’ve had in a burger and I enjoyed the pickled chili peppers as it added a nice heat to the flavor. In a weird way, this burger was designed to actually not taste like your classic American burger and something else entirely.
Handfeel
The burger felt like a burger in my hand, the brioche bun held up and felt like a burger. However, fellow burger enthusiast Sarah had a completely different experience. Perhaps we had difference slices of brisket, or perhaps her patty was formed from fattier meats, but her burger disintegrated from the grease. We had two very different burger eating experiences from a touch perspective.
Overall
The idea was good, but perhaps the execution was not. The Carbon Bar is known more for their bbq-centric menu items than their burgers, so I can see why they would want to slip in a brisket to their burger (and also allowing them to jack up the price). However, the brisket’s taste completely overwhelmed the burger and combined with the inconsistency we experienced within our two burgers, I can conclude that we were disappointed with the offering.
Still, the Carbon Bar has a beautiful interior and we had really good cauliflower as an appetizer. The octopus also looked fantastic so it is most likely that we just tried to fit a square peg in a round hole with our burger ordering decision here. I’d be curious to see what their other items taste like.
Here was Sarah’s take on the burger:
This was definitely the most inconsistent burger of the burgers we’ve eaten so far. Mine was also dripping in grease, which was a negative. Ricky’s, on the other hand, seemed like it was just right. You win some, you lose some. There were moments where I bit into it and enjoyed the burger, but mostly I was hoping it would all be over soon. The fries were also not great, but I will return one day to try the octopus
Inconsistent!
Burger Scale
Amarillo Burger, Casino El Camino – 10$ USD
The Burger, Wickson Social – 19$
Prime Beef Double Cheeseburger, Museum Tavern – 19$
Skyline Burger, Skyline Diner – 14$
Brisket Cheese Burger, Carbon Bar – 22$
Game Burger, Antler – 18$
Vegan Mac Daddy, Doomies – 16$