Dave & Tony's Premium Burgers - Visited January 2015

Today was my son's pick for Saturday lunch, so I was preparing myself for another ho-hum trip to Applebee's when I was excited to hear he decided to go to Dave & Tony's Premium Burger Joint. We had not been there in a while and they always make a much better than average burger.

When we arrived I perused their list of "Signature" sandwiches and I liked the sound of the Southwest Turkey Burger - but I did not want a turkey burger! But that was no problem with their "Build Your Own" option. So I picked a premium steakburger (medium-well) on a Pumpernickel bun with pepper jack cheese, banana peppers, crispy tortillas, jalapenos, roasted peppers and salsa. My son ordered what would best be called the "heart attack special", a steakburger with a fried egg and bacon and cheese on top, my wife ordered a completely plain burger, and my mother-in-law ordered a plain burger with lettuce and tomato. We also had an order of onion rings which we split and also an order of fries plus a chocolate chip cookie.

One thing we noticed when we sat down was the place was cold. I realize it is winter and it was 20 degrees outside, but that place was still unreasonably cold. It does not help having three doors and large panels of windows on two sides of the place, but we were quite chilly. My mother-in-law enjoys getting the Fitz's root beer on tap, but it did not seem to have much fizz today. The onion rings were okay, but we still prefer the ones at Five Star Burgers (crisp, not wilty).

The highlight remains the burgers, and I liked my beef version of the Southwest burger quite well. It was a good combination of flavors and the meat patty was juicy and delicious. The pumpernickel bun held up quite well and added its own flavor to the sandwich. My son obviously enjoyed his heart attack burger and finished it off quite ravenously (for him it was breakfast and lunch combined!) Even my mother-in-law ate more than half of her burger (as well as downing her root beer and her portion of the cookie.) As for their chocolate chip cookie, it did not seem fully cooked and it was not overly impressive. But I still ate the last part of it that nobody else wanted to eat!

So the burgers there are still very good, but do not dine there when it is too cold outside and do not get the cookies. It sure beats just about any fast food burger by a mile.