Burger Photo Gallery (click pictures to enlarge)

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THE JOINT

The L Wine Lounge is a wine bar and restaurant localed in midtown Sacramento, CA. It has been open since spring of 2007 and its menu features foods sourced from local farms, ranches and fisheries. Their philosophy is “Trust Your Chef” and they often have menu items that include the names and prices of foods, but no description.  The restaurant as a nice seating area near the front that features a wide open window that gives a great view of L street. On a beautiful Sacramento Spring day, it’s a perfect place for burger eating and people watching.

I heard about L Wine Lounge from their tweets on Twitter. They kept doing teasers of something called a “Prescription Burger”, encouraging diners to post pictures of the burger to Twitter when they’ve had their “dose”.   Not knowing that they liked to keep their ingredients a mystery, I asked what’s on the burgers and was told the chef’s wouldn’t divulge that information :)  My mom has an amazing butter cake recipe that I keep trying to get from her and she says something similar “just a little bit of this and a little of that…”

THE BURGER

Immediately I was intrigued by this burger because it’s not featured on their menu. You can only get it if you’ve heard about it from Twitter (or from a friend). So when I looked at the menu, I felt like a regular when I pushed it aside and said, “I’ll have the Prescription Burger”. After that, the waitress said those 8 magic words I love to hear:

“Would you like the bloody mary with that?”

Not “a” bloody mary, but “the” bloody mary.  As in, when you order this burger, you’re probably gonna want THE bloody mary that comes with it. In case you missed it, I freakin’ LOVE spicy bloody marys (thanks to my buddy, and fellow burger lover, Jamie). Any burger that comes paired with a bloody mary gets a few extra points right off the bat in my book.

When the burger came out, the first thing I noticed was the spices and peppers embedded in the patty. Although the taste of pure beef is always good in a hamburger, I love it when the chef takes the time to add some extra flavor to the meat itself. This one was packed with spicy flavors and topped with a nice mustard. My burger seemed to be cooked a bit too long, so it wasn’t as juicy as I would have liked but the kicked up flavors of the mustard, red onions and pickles helped to make up for it. The waitress said they created the burger for those times when folks are hungover and they need a cure, so they give them a spicy prescription burger with a perfectly spicy bloody mary as a chaser :) I wasn’t hungover, but this zesty burger really hit the spot. I’m a big fan of almost anything super spicy, but this burger wasn’t too fiery. Just enough spice to give it a good kick, but not too much so as to overwhelm you with burn.

THE VERDICT

The Prescription Burger at L Wine Lounge gets extra points for having the mystique of not being on the menu and a force multiplier for having a suggested pairing of a bloody mary. It’s one of those burgers that has a unique enough flavor that makes me want to go back and try it again. While I was there I heard another diner order a Prescription Burger with fried chicken instead of a beef patty which adds a whole new level of fun to this spicy sandwich!

I’ve let out the secret and now you’re “in the know” about the Prescription Burger. If you’re in Sacramento, stop by the L Wine Lounge and tell them BurgerJunkies sent you :)

Tags: bloody mary, featured, national hamburger month, sacburgermonth, spicy