Between the Bread

Rarely do I end up at Frankie's Bohemian Cafe sober. This bar's burgers would taste good any time, but it's just the perfect place to wrap up a sunny day like last Sunday, spent up to no good in Alamo Square. (I'm a bit late on this post, but that's what happens when you're having fun.)

Frankie's is famous for its beef patties, but I can't resist the iron turkey burger (top photo), made with ground turkey and spinach. Though simple, the sesame buns stand out for their perfect texture, and the burger toppings are creative. My friend Jonas got the Gilroy Burger (above), covered in a dangerous blanket of green garlic sauce.

Read on for more wild, young bohemian burger action.

Does Friendly's new Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt one-up the KFC Double Down in decadence? It's a patty melt made from two hot grilled cheese sandwiches instead of bread and dressed with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. (The mayo seems like overkill, doesn't it?) Apparently, it's even worse for you than the Double Down, with 1500 calories, 97 grams fat, and 2090 mgs sodium, but also delicious.

Though this new menu item may seem like a sign of the apocalypse, making a burger with grilled cheese sandwiches isn't a new idea. A very similar sandwich, called the Logan County Burger, led Katie Lee Joel to victory in the Burger Bash at the Food Network's NYC Wine and Food Festival in 2008.

No matter who's making it, I admire the ingenuity, but I doubt I could eat one. How about you?

On a recent Sunday night after a very long Saturday night, we picked up food at our neighborhood burger joint and popped Zombieland into the DVD player. Really a great night, actually.

I'd been to Acme Burgerhaus once before and got a good impression on my first visit, with a delightful turkey, mushroom, and Swiss burger.

This time I opted for the chicken "burger." I'd really call it a chicken sandwich, since the meat isn't ground into a patty but sliced off the breast and grilled. Not that I'm complaining, because it was delicious. Andrew got a real burger — bacon cheese, to be exact. For my full review, read more

Ever since I discovered beets beyond the can, my eyes widen at any mention of fresh beets on a menu. When SF Weekly named the Plant Burger one of its 10 best sandwiches in San Fran, I wanted one immediately. Served at the Plant Cafe Organic, the housemade veggie burger combines lentils, mushrooms, beets, cashews, and bulgur.

With so many ingredients, I expected the burger to pack more flavor punch. Still, the patty was moist and delicious and very, very filling. The bun was just OK; next time I would opt for the sliced wheat. At $10, neither this nor the other menu items are cheap, but the ingredients are topnotch — the salad really outdid its side salad status — and the setting is cute.

I wouldn't say the Plant Burger is one of the best sandwiches in the city, but I'd definitely go back to the Plant Cafe and order something else. The menu was full of things I wanted to eat. Dare I say, my friend Ann's Tikka Wrap with chicken beat out my beet burger, and we vowed to meet again for more.

Have you ever eaten so much sandwich that you just had to lie down and give your body over to digestion? I have, several times, including my first trip to Ike's.

Now, for those times, there is the burger bed, which, as my buddy Adam points out, gives a whole new meaning to "between the bread." Don't you just want to curl up in there with some bread gloves?

Allow me to interrupt our Dublin sandwich coverage for a quick report from my New Mexico correspondent, my mom, who's been gallivanting about the Southwest. She and her travel companions managed to eat a few sandwiches on the trip, including this elk burger with green chiles from Doc Martin's at Taos Inn.

I can't see the green chile, and she suspects it's cooked into the burger. The elk was also topped with a whole lot of other goodness. To get the full effect, read more