Chuck Ya

Eccentric English writer Charles Caleb Colton would be lost to the sands of time had he not offered up one of the most famous quotes in history. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." By my estimation The Burgers Priest should be very flattered.

When local restaurateurs Johnny Prassoulis and Bill Koutroubis needed a new challenge they decided to get in on the burgeoning flat top burger craze in Toronto. They approached Burger’s Priest about opening a franchise but were declined. So they decided to reverse engineer another age old adage and took the “If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em” mentality and opened Holy Chuck in late summer 2011.

To be fair, Holy Chuck isn’t a Burger’s Priest doppelganger. They too are doing the classic American burger. But the Priest didn’t invent that. He didn’t invent it either but Ray Croc built an empire on it. Sadly lacking in TO, BP merely reintroduced the GTA to it’s juicy goodness. Call it Classic American, California style or “Smashed” burgers as they do around these parts (they’re put on the flat top as a ball then “Smashed” flat with a spatula).  When done properly, it’s the best burger on the planet in my opinion.

You could almost call HC the Burger’s Anti-Christ. Where the Priest has a secret menu, Chuck’s menu is there for everyone to see. Where the Priest has a more hip, edgy vibe, Chuck is more generic and family oriented. Chuck has white board specials as well. BP tries to keep the menu small. HC's "specials" feature burgers like duck or lamb as well as regional burger styles like the Oklahoma burger. Popular in its namesake state and characterized by a layer of sautéed onions cooked right into the patty. Feel like punishing yourself?? HC has the "Go Chuck Yourself" challenge for those brave enough.

So if HC is taking on BP in the flat top burger genre, they better bring their A game. They do. Meat is ground in house and just about every other menu item is made from scratch and the milkshakes are  blended to order.

So how does Chuck’s food stand up?? Well, let’s have a look.

The Holy Chuck Fries are fresh cut shoe string style fries covered with cheese slices, bacon and their chili. Over all I'd say these are okay but broken down my mileage differs. First off, as a fry alone, it's very good. Definite potato flavour and cooked to a gorgeous, rich brown colour. So that's good. I'd prefer real cheddar rather than sliced on my chili fries. So there's problem for me. I thought the bacon was pretty much lost under the chili and thus didn't offer much. I did manage to get a taste of bacon, cheese fries and it was terrific. The chili I'm not a big fan of. Not bad, just not my cup of tea. It seemed to be lacking any heat and didn't bring a big "Chili" flavour. So chili cheese fries would be okay. Bacon cheese fries would be much better but bacon, chili, cheese fries just didn't make it for me. I'll order them naked next time and dip in ketchup. 

The Holy Chuck burger is right in my wheelhouse. 2 quarter pound patties done on a flat top with bacon and sliced cheese. This one comes dressed up with sautéed onions. I had an interesting dilemma with this burger. On the menu it says "No toppings allowed!" The conundrum posed by this is one on which I just can't seem to come to an opinion. Part of me says, "It's my food, I decide how I'm gonna eat it. Not you." The other part understands completely that sometimes you are going for a certain thing and an alteration would screw it up. Kind of like ordering a Hawaiian pizza and subbing bell pepper for pineapple and adding onions. It's just not the same thing anymore. So as is it's a fabulous burger. I'd be interested to add some pickle and mustard and see how it turned out. Only because I thought there was a certain succulence to the burger that wasn't balanced out by something sharper.

A slight row occurred when they unveiled a specialty burger. I won’t tell you the old name out of respect for those who were offended but for now (Aug/12) it’s unnamed.
Consisting of 2 patties that are a 50/50 mix of beef and bacon topped with cheese and a ladle of their spicy chili it’s one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. As far as specialty burgers go that is. The patties, loaded in bacon are, naturally, tasty and juicy. The reborn chili (they’ve played with the recipe since I last tried it) had a slight zip to it and was a nice touch on top. The cheese tied it all together. I opted to add fresh, chopped onion and after a bit of experimenting found that mustard was a nice complement as well. Truly excellent all around.

Another of their specialty burgers is the Farmers Threesome. What you have here is one cheese topped beef patty. One cheese topped lamb patty. One cheese topped bacon patty. All topped with more bacon and sautéed onions. I found a bit of mustard rounded the whole thing out nicely. It walks the fine line between unctuous and greasy. Salty and over salty. It’s not an everyday burger. Being fatty and salty and all. But for a special treat it’s incredible. Tasty and juicy. Fabulous.

The Depressed Cow is a burger done "Oklahoma Style" which is to say they smash slivered onions right into the burger as they squish it down. A style of burger cooking popular in, you guessed it, Oklahoma. First off, if you don't LOVE onions, don't bother. I love them and found this a bit on the oniony side. Don't order it if you're on a date either as it's one of their more messy burgers. So all in all, it was a tasty burger but not one of my favourites.

Poutine, as you probably remember, is fries with cheese curd and gravy. As is the norm around here they don't make it authentic. It's beef gravy instead of chicken. That doesn't mean it's not tasty though. It's as good as any I've had in this city. I think I'll ask them to hold the parsley garnish next time. It was an odd addition in my books. 

The eye opener, the discovery, the revelation, the Oh! My! God! moment came the first sip I had from my milk shake. Made with whole milk and quality ice cream as it's base I opted for the Nutella and Salted Caramel and it blew me away. Easily the best shake I've had in the city and perhaps ever. Top two for sure. They come ultra thick but melt enough to sip through the straw fairly quickly.
I’ve since sampled a number of them and let me tell you, they’re excellent. The Bacon, Fudge and Seasalt (the bacon didn’t do much for me though), Wasabi, Green Onion and Fresh Ginger (Slight zing from the wasabi), Strawberry Cheesecake and Grandma’s Apple Pie. It seems like you just can’t go wrong with any of them.

You can find Holy Chuck at 1450 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario.

 
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You can find them on the web, facebook and twitter.


Well that's all for now folks. See ya next time in the food court.
 

Davwud

Uncle Betty’s Diner (Toronto, On)

Eat Well and Smile

In 1950, die hard perfectionist and butcher Rudy DeSanti Sr. started offering donuts to his Dreesen's Excelsior Market clientele. So popular they were that people started shopping just for the donuts. "Hand made" by a robot they would gain such a following that Rudy Jr. started licensing establishments to not only sell Dreesen's Donuts but prepare them on site. The recipe and robot were sold all over the metro NYC area and eventually neighbouring counties and states. The robot would be displayed prominently and customers could watch their goodies made fresh before their eyes.
When Toronto ex-pats Rob Lewocz and Samara Melanson returned home from a  life in New York City there were two things they missed. Dreesen's Donuts and the neighbourhood diner. Face with the reality that those two things were sparse to unavailable they decided to fill their particular void. In spring of 2011 they started second careers as restaurateurs and opened Uncle Betty's Diner. Named for Melanson's "Take charge, no guff" mother, Uncle Betty's is doing diner fare with it's own unique, gourmet twist. The menu is a blend of classics and nouveau diner foods featuring home made Twinkies, meatloaf, sloppy Joes and Toronto's first, Dreesen's Donuts. Hand made by their very own robot.

I had this on my “To do” list almost since it opened but for one reason or another I hadn’t made it. Then last week I saw it featured on “You Gotta Eat Here.” Canada’s spin on the very popular “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. The grilled cheese sandwich looked far too good to resist. I made plans with a buddy and off we went.

On the outside there isn't much to talk about. It's a corner unit in a string of small mom and pop type shops on Toronto's famous Yonge St. The teal paint has it stand out from the rest of the Lawrence Park merchants.

Inside there's 60 some odd seats, a dessert station, counter and, of course the donut robot. The walls are fairly spartan and seem to be just waiting for autographed head shots and framed magazine articles. It's what a venerable old place looks like when it first opens I suspect.

In the kitchen they're doing stuff they way it should be done in a diner. In house. Practically everything is made on the premises and what isn't is top notch. Nathan's hot dogs, perhaps the best widely available dog around and Greg's premium, all natural ice cream are notable items.

Myself and JEB paid a lunch visit on a snowy Friday. While the weather reeked havoc with their 10am opening, once inside Rob treated us with gratitude for our patience. We were in turn rewarded with an excellent lunch.

So let's take a look at the food shall we.

The onion rings are really good. Panko breaded and served with Fancy Sauce they had a good taste and nice crunch. I prefer beer battered rings but these provided a nice change. Usually served with garlic aioli they subbed out the Fancy Sauce. House made it’s pretty much Thousand Island Dressing. A pretty nice match.

Quebec’s favourite street food, poutine, is given due justice here. A terrific gravy smothers cheese curd and shoe string fries. I’d prefer a heftier fry but these tasted very good so I won’t complain. The purists will deduct points for the lack of squeek in the curds but I prefer to let the dish sit so the curds start to melt. Ya, the fries get kinda soggy but they’re going to anyway, so why fight it. The cheesy, gravy goo is worth it.

Perhaps there’s no better hot dog on the planet than Nathan’s. At least, not that I’ve tried. It’s certainly the king of the grocery store brands. It should then come as no surprise that the Uncle Betty Dog was hit with me. Sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions and garlic aioli are invited along for the ride. I would never have put mushrooms on a dog but here they fit right in. A great dog all in all.

The Chicken Fried Steak is not exactly traditional but close and quite good none the less. A nice crispy breading envelope a piece of (not cube) steak and smothered in a milky white gravy that’s got sauteed onion and mushroom. I’d prefer they leave those out but it was good with them. A delicious take but I must deduct points for the beading falling off.

The accompanying Mashed Potatoes are very nice. The gravy on here was much better suited. I like that the potatoes aren’t whipped so there’s little bits of unmashed tater. They say they shouldn’t be lumpy but I like ‘em better that way. These are some good.

One of Uncle Betty’s signature menu items is the Ultimate Grilled Cheese. Cheddar cheese glues this sandwich together and it needs adhesion. Stuffed inside is mac and cheese and meatloaf. A slice of great tasting old school M&C and slab meatloaf. On it’s own it was great. The workhorse kind like Ma used to make. The whole is better than that of it’s parts which is always a good thing.

We both had donut ice cream sandwiches for dessert. JEB’s was cappucino ice cream with toffee sprinkles. The ice cream was quite rich and creamy and the toffee added a bit of crunch and some more flavour. It’s wasn’t sickeningly sweet either which was nice.

My sandwich was malteezer flavoured ice cream and oreo cookie crumbs. The ice cream was a terrific flavour and I though was matched perfectly with the donut. The Oreo sprinkles on top punched up the chocolate flavour.

Another of their signature items is the Twinkie. Again, taking artistic license in the kitchen this is a chocolate cake log with whipped cream injected and topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Oh my. I need a moment. Ahhhhh.

As for those Dreesen's donuts....they're every bit as good as advertised. Cakey but not heavy and with a slight chew. I prefer the cinnamon sugar version but both are great. I took a bag home with me and even the next day they were still good. Straight off the line is certainly the way to go. Incidentally, they come in powdered or cinnamon sugar flavours.

So for some great diner food that’s sometimes old school, sometimes contemporary head to Uncle Betty’s.

You can find Uncle Betty’s at 2590 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario.

 
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You can also find them on the web and facebook.


Well that’s all for now folks. See ya next time in the food court.
 

Davwud