It had been over two years since I’d been to any location of BGR – The Burger Joint, and following the credo, “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing,” I continued my day’s theme of hamburgers, having already been to Elevation Burger earlier in the day.
I’d finished a remarkable amount of work, and although I wasn’t starving, I knew I’d need to eat one more time that evening, so I thought I’m compare the exact same sandwiches: a Double-Meat Hamburger ($9.98), with nothing on it but mustard and pickle.
Unlike with Elevation Burger, I was asked about doneness, and I said Medium-Rare, which is exactly what I got. Also unlike with Elevation Burger, I was relegated to the toppings station to add my own mustard (the pickles, and an inexplicable piece of Swiss Cheese, were already on the burger – I had made it a point to specify no cheese since I was trying to do a direct comparison. To BGR’s credit, they offered to *remake* my ten-dollar sandwich – I told them there was absolutely no need, that the cheese was fine, and even if it wasn’t, I could just scrape it off.
So after 5-10 minutes, my buzzer went off, and my burger was waiting for me. I saw right away that it was almost *double* the size of my earlier Elevation Burger – the patties themselves being over a half-inch thick, and cooked to the correct temperature. This burger was large enough (a second patty isn’t the norm here) that it was not that easy to fit the sandwich into my mouth – and, in fact, I gave up after awhile and ate one patty at a time.
The difference in quality was laughable. I had previously lowered BGR when it changed ownership, but it is now *strongly* back in Italic, and is, in fact, the only chain hamburger restaurant to be so in the entire DC area. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say this was one of the best BGR burgers I’ve ever eaten. And it was so big, that I could scarcely finish it – the last bite or so was discarded because I was just too full.
This was an excellent hamburger (I went to the Spout Run location), and one which I would *gladly* seek out in the future; Elevation Burger would only be frequented in similar, emergency-type situations. Raised to the #1 Hamburger chain in the Dining Guide, and rated in Italic once again. If there’s a higher quality chain hamburger than this, I’d like to know what it is.