#loulay

Loulay Kitchen & Bar

On Friday I went to Loulay to try their Beef Burger.

The lunch menu describe the Beef Burger simply as “Fries, aioli, bacon-shallot jam.” I’ve wondered about bacon jam (first popularized by Skillet Diner to my knowledge). What was the impetus behind the creation of bacon jam? Was it to be fancy and actually use less bacon than putting on 2–3 strips? Or was artistry and originality truly desired?

Now I showed up at Loulay a mere five minutes after they opened for lunch, but the service was fast and the burger took only about ten minutes to arrive.

I appreciate burgers that are constructed in a way to make it possible to eat them. The Loulay burger’s cheese, lettuce and jam was all arranged within the bun, and not spilling out upon arrival.

The beef was wonderful, moist, flavorful, but not over seasoned.

The bun was quite good: soft, yet able to hold together.

The toppings were good: bacon jam, cheese (not sure what kind) and butter lettuce (I think).

So on to the scoring portion.

I’ve scored about 10 burgers and noticed a place where my methodology falls short. The burgers under $4 always come out on top in both the BMVB and OMVB rankings, due to the large disparity in price. Basically, the possible disparity in price is larger on a relative scale than the possible disparity in quality, since I used a 1–10 scale for each quality category.

To remedy this, and hopefully I’m not making too many actual statisticians squirm with my ad hoc changes, I’m squaring each of the quality terms before dividing by price. This makes sense, since the quality improvement of a burger is not usually linear as price increases; the improvement is exponential. We can quabble on what exactly the exponent should be, but my model is closer to reality than when I assumed a linear relationship

Loulay Beef Burger:

Beef = 7.5 Bun = 6.5 Toppings = 7.0 Fries = 6.0

Price = $22.34

OMVB = 15.77

Service = 8.5 Ambience - 6.0

Chef Thierry Rautureau is as close as it comes to being a legend on the Seattle food scene. From Rovers to Luc to Loulay - he's been delighting local diners with his food for decades. Many know him as 'The Chef in the Hat' and through his appearances on Top Chef Masters and his local radio shows. Read on to learn about Thierry's passion for food, eating locally and giving people amazing dining experiences!

The Evolution of a Chef: with Thierry Rautureau

Full disclosure:  I’ve long been a fan of Chef Thierry Rautureau.  Of course, there’s the food that he’s brought to Seattle for so many years at Rover’s, Luc and now Loulay – his newest restaurant in the heart of downtown.  There’s also the fact that he’s a master at brand marketing.  From his appearances on Top Chef Mastersto his radio shows on…