#shoestringfrenchfries

Burger Claus: After a week away, Brain, my friend Priceline Alerts, and I found ourselves at Village Burger Bar in the West Village area of Uptown Dallas.  I couldn’t tell if we were getting strange looks because we weren’t in costume for All Hallow’s Eve or because Brain is channelling his inner Tom Selleck right now.  Either way, it was a great day for a burger at this trendy and hip Dallas burger joint.  With locations in Uptown, Plano, and Allen, and a pretty solid outdoor patio (at least at the Uptown location) VBB is blossoming into a mini burger empire.  Alongside a full bar (half off wine on Wednesdays, $3.25 ‘Ritas on Fridays), you can order burgers bespoke or off the rack.  Here’s a meaningless fact: TripAdvisor rates VBB the 478th best restaurant in Dallas (out of 2,809 total).  Let’s begin:

The Champagne & Cheddar Burger: If you know me well, you know that I generally don’t enjoy reading menus.  So when I asked the cashier what to order, I was quick to follow his recommendation for what some might call VBB’s signature burger.  Cooked medium (restaurant policy), the Champagne & Cheddar burger is a fluffy wheat bun with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and dill pickles covering a beef pattie, all smothered with a gratuitous helping of champagne mustard.  I found the meat to be a little bland, but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the chef on this since heavy seasoning and champagne mustard don’t necessarily sound like they would mix that well.  I enjoyed the flavor of the pickles, but the cheddar cheese was nowhere to be found.  I was impressed with the bun’s resiliency in the face of strong potential for soggy bun syndrome.

Shoestring Fries: VBB is known for their sweet potato fries, but since this blog is for posterity and Brain called dibs on ordering them, I was stuck with the shoestring fries.  I’ve always found these little guys so hard to eat, mostly because they’re just so dadgum disproportionate to my finger size.  It’s unfortunate really, but hey, I did it for the readers.  Bottom line: if you go, order Sweet Potato -- they’re the same price as the shoestring fries anyway.

Service: Nice, but really slow.  There isn’t a ton of space in front of the counter where you order, so standing in line is mayhem.  There were only 3 front of house employees during the peak lunch rush, so we did more waiting for our food.  Fortunately, my friend Priceline Alerts is a cool cat, and we spent a good chunk of time talking about what his nickname should be in my blog post.

Ambiance: It’s above average I guess.  SportsCenter is on mute (OU made the Top Ten for reasons you may not expect) and there is fun music on in the background (but not too loud).  At one point they played an annoying Halloween organ solo, but I guess that’s understable.

Sriracha?: VBB has been negatively impacted by the looming shortage, apparently.    

Price: Burger, fries, and water.  $9.33.