An Experiment at Lunchbox Laboratory
Kendra August 16th, 2008
I had been hearing a lot about the trend of comfort food at gourmet levels. Then I saw this trend come to Ballard via the opening of Lunchbox Laboratory on 15th Ave. NW. It’s located in the former Ballard Brothers Burgers space next to a nail salon. From the outside it reminded me of the little clam shacks you see in New England. A small painted structure with some picnic tables outside for dining. But this is not a seafood place, but a burger place, though that doesn’t fully describe choices such as the ‘Dork’, a duck and pork burger, nor fries that have rosemary salt on them.
Before I ventured over to check it out for myself, I checked out the reviews on a Ballard website and Yelp. The results were surprising. On the Ballard website the reviews were decidedly not in favor of the Lab citing service, cost, inability to order a certain temperature and amount of grease. However, Yelpers as a whole were strongly positive about the place and the ironic thing was that most of the reasons they felt positively were the same reasons people on the other site felt negatively. On the issue of not being able to order a burger well done, the gourmands on Yelp pointed out that meat shouldn’t be ordered that way as it dries out and isn’t as flavorful. The high cost for burgers cited by the Ballard website was explained by Yelpers as justified due to the more exotic choices of meat as well as the higher quality than a typical burger joint supplies. Yelpers also argued against the complaints about the food being too greasy by defending the grease as the reason you visit a burger place and claiming that the entire flavor is in the grease itself. These completely opposite positions were reason enough to pay the place a visit.
I arrived at 6:15pm on a weeknight which turned out to be the optimal time as there were only two customers ahead of me and no one waiting behind me so I could figure out the ‘system.’ Yes, there is a definite system to the place. There are daily specials posted but its more fun to create your own burger vision. A large board outside helps you build your burger by labeling the steps. Step one is to choose your meat, which is not as straightforward as it sounds, not when the choices range beyond ground beef to prime rib, the aforementioned dork, buffalo, durken (duck and turkey) though the latter was not on the board the night I went. The next step is to choose the type of cheese, another complex decision as the choices include feta, gorgonzola, and havarti in addition to the usual cheddar and Swiss. However, my favorite step was number three, choosing a sauce or two sauces if you prefer. This is where I spent the most time pondering. Varieties such as Jalapeno Ranch, Basil aioli, 7 pickle dill tartar sauce, sweet and sour pineapple kept me standing lost in thought for several minutes. If you are the type of person who goes out to Baskin Robbins and orders vanilla ice cream, there are bottles of ketchup available too. For French fries you can choose because skinny, sweet potato and tater tots and then choose a flavored salt. I was torn between the bacon salt and the rosemary. A custom blend of ice tea, which I was glad included refills, was my drink of choice, although there was an extensive menu of shakes with similarly exotic flavors.
The portion size of the food brought to me was more than adequate. I did understand the comments made about the amount of grease as the burger was literally dripping when I picked it up in my hand. The cheese had the glossy greasy feel, but maybe Havarti doesn’t have the same melting ability as other types of cheese? The burger was good, but was it almost $10 worth of good? Personally I feel that’s a stretch – I think somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 would be appropriate. The surprise was liking the fries even more than the burger, plus at $3 they were a better value. I usually don’t like skinny fries as I don’t like mine too crisp. However, the fries reminded me of the ones I have had in countries like the Netherlands, where they are cooked to just the right amount of crispness on the outside, but are soft and fluffy on the inside. The magic may also have been in the bacon salt I chose. I would visit again to order the fries again and maybe even try another salt flavor. I also hear the chef makes a mean macaroni that I would be tempted to see how it compares to Beecher’s. Hailing from the Midwest, I appreciate a great Mac and cheese.
So in the end who got it right? I think this is a case where the only way to know is to try it for yourself.
Those burgers sound fantastic! I’m going to check it out.
It was likely the Havarti that bumped up your price a little. Havarti is a very mild cheese on the softer side, but it tends to run $7-9 a pound in the delis and grocery stores. I can’t honestly imagine it on a burger, as Havarti has a delicate flavor that’s far better pared with cold, crisp apples.