FoodNerd!

wild willy's burgers

Tonight i was feeling a vague, unformed craving for sushi, but tallasiandude wasn't feeling that, but he was feeling like we should go to Target, and I agreed, so we cast about for someplace in Watertown to go eat dinner. I was tired of everything in the fridge, and it's been a long week at work, and i wanted some yummy happy food-joy. Molana is where we usually go in that neighborhood, but for some reason i didn't feel like it tonight. Dithering ensued. And then I remembered the weird random burger place just outside the square that has always seemed like i should check it out, if only to know that it is horrible for certain.

And the more i thought "burger" the more i didn't want to go anywhere else.

So we found ourselves at Wild Willy's Burgers. I gave us the option of ditching if it turned out to be wretched theme-mediocrity, like a burgery version of Bugaboo Creek, but the moment we walked in, there was a huge sign advertising the fact that you can have a grass-fed local-beef patty on any burger they offer.

SOLD.

Big soft tasty burgers with various toppings, nothing too wacky or foofy, cooked as requested. Mine had smoked vermont cheddar, lettuce, tomato (red!) and lots of mayo. Tallasiandude's had entirely-respectable chili and american cheese (you can take the boy out of LA...). The fries are a little soggy, but very delicious even when cloaked in melty cheez-whiz. The onion rings are fine, with very tasty onions but that fine, floury style of breading that neither of us cares for much. Draft root beer and hand-squeezed lemonade. It made short work of my savory-fat-salty happy-food craving, and I am totally going back to this place.

These are not my preferred super-skinny burger, but they are the way I like my hand-formed burgers to be: not too thick, good soft texture, moist and juicy (even when cooked well-done), well-balanced with their toppings and bun. The burgers actually remind me a lot of the burgers at Jubilee Juice in Chicago, big and flat and soft and fresh and all kinds of yummy. And if I can have a good gooey drippy cheeseburger that also happens to be locally-sourced, grass-fed, and cooked to order, I am very much in favor of that.

Do not be put off by the random franchise-y exterior or the chuck-wagon kitsch or the clumps of college kids. These people are hewing closely to the principles of In-N-Out Burger and provide a well-sourced, well-cooked, good quality product. Yums.

Posted by foodnerd at May 9, 2008 10:36 PM