COLUMBIA'S LUNCH REVIEW

Thanks to all of you who voted in our inaugural poll on one of the most important topics facing Columbia today - where we can find the best hamburger. Garnering 40% of the total votes, you have indicated that I was right all along - Five Guys Burger and Fries puts out the tastiest burger in Columbia. Although I'm slow to endorse any chain, when food is this good you can't knock it just because it is produced in multiple cities. Five Guys have elevated the chain hamburger with the use of never-frozen beef, freshly sliced produced, custom-ordered buns, and all the fixings a burger-lover could desire for the same low price. My burger is usually a 1000-calorie creation consisting of two beef patties, bacon, cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos, mustard, mayo, and A-1 sauce, and it is so unwieldy by the time the speedy staff of Five Guys is done building it that it ends up looking like a train wreck. If only all train wrecks were so delicious....

In our estimation, famous Columbia establishment Rockaway's and flashy new-comer Pauley's Front Porch put out the second-best burgers in Columbia. You agreed, giving both establishments 23% percent each of the remaining vote. The Rockaway burger, which comes topped with the best pimento cheese in town, is so good that former President George W. Bush could not resist its lure during his last trip to Columbia. As for Pauley's, well, we have already dedicated an entry of this blog to rave about the nifty burger creations they are cranking out, but these burgers are so good that they deserve another shout-out here. If you want to ride the next wave of burger innovation, saddle up to the bar at Pauley's and experience a burger that you could not have dreamed up on your own.

Apparently, we have overlooked some favorites. It was inevitable, considering how many tasty burgers our restaurants serve up. 11% of you thought that Columbia's burger was simply not on our ballot. Please post a comment and let us know which ones we missed, because I'd hate to think that somewhere here in town is a hidden jewel of a burger that the Lunchmen have yet to tackle!