Burger Photo Gallery (click pictures to enlarge)

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THE JOINT

The Firehouse is a fine dining restaurant in Old Sacramento with a rich history. The building originally housed California’s first paid fire department. It was also the first building renovated in city’s historic Old Sacramento district and opened in 1960 as an elegant bar and restaurant. To this day, it is the most award winning, fine dining restaurant in the Sacramento Region.

This is the kind of restaurant that people think of first when looking for a “special occasion” type dinner. Prom dates, anniversaries, wedding receptions and other types of celebrations can often be found happening during their daily dinner service. The place is so fancy that I didn’t even realize that they served lunch until a member our #sactweats gang scheduled a lunch meetup there. After checking the menu and seeing a “Steakhouse Burger” listed, I knew this was a lunch outing I couldn’t miss.

THE BURGER

The Steakhouse Burger is described as a chargrilled Niman Ranch beef patty with caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms served on a brioche roll with horseradish Havarti and peppercorn aioli. For a side, you get your choice of waffle fries or a small salad. I ordered mine medium rare and begged the waitress for some bacon to be added to it. Thankfully she obliged and I started getting excited about the potential of the burger that was to come.  Horseradish Havarti are like two of my favorite H words, and when you talk burger buns, a freshly baked brioche should be right up there in the hall of fame.

The burger came out a nice medium rare with a respectable char. Not a huge crust, but just enough to give you a little texture at the top of each bite. Speaking of bite, that peppercorn aioli seemed to show up at just the right moments throughout the meal. Every now and then I’d get a little spice kick. Not a burn your mouth off feeling by any means, but enough to wake up your palette.

THE VERDICT

About a week after I first had the Steakhouse Burger from The Firehouse I started craving it again. That’s the sign of a solid burger offering. I wish they’d go all the way in and offer the burger on their dinner menu (even as a secret off menu offering), but I’m happy that they did’t just phone in a lunch burgerhis is one of the better burgers I’ve had in Sacramento in the past few weeks! If you’re strolling around Old Sacramento during lunchtime, drop by The Firehouse and tell them burgerjunkies.com said they have a must try burger!

Tags: bacon, brioche bun, featured, old sacramento