Burger Photo Gallery (click pictures to enlarge)

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THE JOINT

Suzie Burger is a local burger joint only found in the Midtown area of Sacramento, CA. It opened in January of 2008 inside of a converted 1960’s era gas station. The interior of the restaurant has a retro-futuristic type of feel like the Jetsons and is one of a group of restaurants owned locally by SRO.  The same company  The serve burgers, fries, shakes and cheesesteak sandwiches in a fast food style environment.

I think my first trip to Suzie Burger was a couple of years ago shortly after they first opened.  I didn’t remember much about the experience other than they had a great special sauce and they had a nice variety of toppings that you could add to the burger, including my personal favorite: fried egg.

The same company opened Spin Burger,  a new, more upscale burger bar in downtown Sacramento, so I decided to make a trip back their first burger joint during National Hamburger Month to reacquainted myself with the original before I sampled the suped up sequel.

THE BURGER

At the counter I ordered a Double Deluxe Bacon Cheeseburger and looked around for a bit for their cool list of toppings that I remembered. After a couple of minutes of going up and down each menu item it began to dawn on me that the menu may have changed. Bewildered, I asked the managerial looking guy behind the counter if they changed the menu. He said they changed it about 2 years ago because many of the special toppings (like my fried egg) weren’t getting ordered as often so in order to use the freshest ingredients, they trimmed down the list.

Another change they made was to offer “unlimited free toppings” ala the 5 Guys Burgers & Fries chain. So now you can get grilled mushrooms, jalapeño peppers, grilled or raw onions added to the burger at no extra charge. Since I was bummed about the fried egg, I added mushrooms to help cheer my spirits.

I got my food a few short minutes later and I didn’t see any strips of bacon poking out. I double checked my bill and somehow the bacon in the Double Deluxe Bacon Cheeseburger got left off. I think it’s because he asked me if I wanted to make it a combo and during the conversion from a burger order to a combo, the bacon didn’t get carried over. That wasn’t the end of the world though, I’ve certainly eaten a burger without bacon before :) The other thing I noticed was that the burger looked a lot like an In N Out burger. I think it might have been the super cheesey exterior, the smaller beef patties and simple bun wrapped in paper.

The taste of the burger, however, was all its own. I didn’t get a strong taste of the special sauce that I remembered from my past trips there. The thing I tasted most was the pickles they used on the burger. For some reason the pickle flavor overwhelmed all the other flavors in the burger. Nothing against pickles, but I think I lost the actual beef flavor with the pickle’s briny bogart. The lettuce and tomato topping were fresh and crisp and the fries were just OK.

THE VERDICT

Suzie Burger gets a few extra points for being located in a novel building. Eating under the converted garage or outside on the covered seating areas is a nice touch. I’m just not sure this is a burger I would be craving any time soon. I haven’t written off the SRO restaurants yet. I’m hoping a trip to Spin Burger or their 33rd Street Bistro will fare better.

Tags: cheesy, featured, national hamburger month, sacburgermonth