First visit: Feb 2012 (Roanoke - now closed)
Since we're on a burger kick here, I thought I'd pick up where we left off from last week. According to the Star-Telegram, Bronson's Burgers is now open for lunch as of this week. So we'll be certain to try it soon, and finish our Keller-goes-bar-and-burgers series.
In the meantime, I took a right turn on US-377 from 1709 and headed north to Roanoke, which now has tagged itself as the "Unique Dining Capital of Texas". These are truly modern times when official city boosters see fit to call out their restaurant scene as their main asset. In any case, it is here that we find Outlaw Burgers.
In the very early days of the RJG, we spoke of a restaurant called C&A Italian Family Deli (which is now Tirelli's and has moved to Keller). Outlaw Burgers is now in that location. Though funny enough, the shopping center billboard has both Outlaw Burgers AND Italian Family Deli on it. Maybe they didn't notice they left three years ago! "Vern, dident wee'd have one of 'dem sanwhich places here too? Where is it? I cain't seem to find it."
This is the first expansion of Outlaw Burgers, a restaurant that first started up the road a piece in Justin. They renovated the place and gave it a small town diner feel. You order up at the counter, grab a drink cup and they'll serve you the meal. I ordered an Outlaw Burger *HOT*, which basically means a standard cheeseburger with a homemade spicy sauce concoction (made of various chile's). Almost seems like a menu item custom-designed directly for the RJG! Since fries don't come with it, I passed as is my custom (I'll eat a few if they're there, but otherwise I don't need it in my diet). As well, I always like soda fountains with Diet Dr. Pepper, and Outlaw Burger has it. So far, so great. I wandered the place briefly, noticing that each table featured a small biographical history of notorious criminals from the Old West. Nice touch.
So I sat down, grabbed my iPhone to catch up a bit on work e-mail (the RJG receives an e-mail about every 2-3 minutes during work hours, so an hour long lunch can bury me if I don't keep up) - and the meal was just arriving. Uh-oh, that's not a good sign. Waaaay too fast. I like my meal cooked hot off the grill. Now I understand that a lunch place will forecast a certain amount of traffic to move the line a bit quicker. I guess they miscalculated. The burger was well-cooked and all that, but it just wasn't very hot (temperature). So that's a bummer, and I imagine I could have an entirely different experience next time. Just mentioning it, that's all. As for hot in the spicy sense of the term, yea - we have a winner there for sure! Great sauce. The bun was toasted nicely, though again it seemed to be off the grill a bit longer than it should have. Overall flavor? Well, I put it behind the 3 Keller places we covered last week. Mike isn't going to want to hear that (LOL)! Maybe on par with the Best Tex Burger we covered awhile back. Still, I did like it and rated it favorable on Urbanspoon. Not sure, though, that I will be a regular visitor here. Am I wrong? If you say different, of course I'll be happy to run back here and try it again sooner.
As of this writing, the Roanoke store has a relatively low 64% rating with a small amount of votes. But their flagship Justin location maintains a very fine 92% rating with a good number of votes. Not sure what all that means, as again, I gave the Roanoke place a positive myself. Just interesting I guess.
Since we're on a burger kick here, I thought I'd pick up where we left off from last week. According to the Star-Telegram, Bronson's Burgers is now open for lunch as of this week. So we'll be certain to try it soon, and finish our Keller-goes-bar-and-burgers series.
In the meantime, I took a right turn on US-377 from 1709 and headed north to Roanoke, which now has tagged itself as the "Unique Dining Capital of Texas". These are truly modern times when official city boosters see fit to call out their restaurant scene as their main asset. In any case, it is here that we find Outlaw Burgers.
In the very early days of the RJG, we spoke of a restaurant called C&A Italian Family Deli (which is now Tirelli's and has moved to Keller). Outlaw Burgers is now in that location. Though funny enough, the shopping center billboard has both Outlaw Burgers AND Italian Family Deli on it. Maybe they didn't notice they left three years ago! "Vern, dident wee'd have one of 'dem sanwhich places here too? Where is it? I cain't seem to find it."
This is the first expansion of Outlaw Burgers, a restaurant that first started up the road a piece in Justin. They renovated the place and gave it a small town diner feel. You order up at the counter, grab a drink cup and they'll serve you the meal. I ordered an Outlaw Burger *HOT*, which basically means a standard cheeseburger with a homemade spicy sauce concoction (made of various chile's). Almost seems like a menu item custom-designed directly for the RJG! Since fries don't come with it, I passed as is my custom (I'll eat a few if they're there, but otherwise I don't need it in my diet). As well, I always like soda fountains with Diet Dr. Pepper, and Outlaw Burger has it. So far, so great. I wandered the place briefly, noticing that each table featured a small biographical history of notorious criminals from the Old West. Nice touch.
So I sat down, grabbed my iPhone to catch up a bit on work e-mail (the RJG receives an e-mail about every 2-3 minutes during work hours, so an hour long lunch can bury me if I don't keep up) - and the meal was just arriving. Uh-oh, that's not a good sign. Waaaay too fast. I like my meal cooked hot off the grill. Now I understand that a lunch place will forecast a certain amount of traffic to move the line a bit quicker. I guess they miscalculated. The burger was well-cooked and all that, but it just wasn't very hot (temperature). So that's a bummer, and I imagine I could have an entirely different experience next time. Just mentioning it, that's all. As for hot in the spicy sense of the term, yea - we have a winner there for sure! Great sauce. The bun was toasted nicely, though again it seemed to be off the grill a bit longer than it should have. Overall flavor? Well, I put it behind the 3 Keller places we covered last week. Mike isn't going to want to hear that (LOL)! Maybe on par with the Best Tex Burger we covered awhile back. Still, I did like it and rated it favorable on Urbanspoon. Not sure, though, that I will be a regular visitor here. Am I wrong? If you say different, of course I'll be happy to run back here and try it again sooner.
As of this writing, the Roanoke store has a relatively low 64% rating with a small amount of votes. But their flagship Justin location maintains a very fine 92% rating with a good number of votes. Not sure what all that means, as again, I gave the Roanoke place a positive myself. Just interesting I guess.
2/10/12 (new entry)
2 comments:
Darn. I was really hoping it'd be something special. I wonder of the Justin location gets better ratings due to local competition...or lack thereof. Twisted Root is practically right next door.
I've been meaning to get over to Twisted Root again. We've only been once. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
If you do try Outlaw, let me know if I'm off base here. Always willing to give the independents another try!
Thanks for the comment.
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