Village Squire, 1980-09, Page 11In search
of the
perfect
hamburger
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BY LAURA DRUMMOND
In all my many writing assignments,
my husband has never once offered to
help me. Except this time. When he
heard I was assigned to find the best
hamburger in the area, he became
quite interested. Beef is his favourite
meat. He is willing to raise it and more
especially to eat it.
His taste for beef reflects the great
Canadian love affair with beef. The
hamburger is the favourite North
American economical meal.
I was asked to sample small, local
area restaurants and that meant no
franchises with golden arches.
Wayne Diemert, owner of the Albion
Hotel in Bayfield, estimates that half of
the people who eat there order
hamburgers. At the Eastwood Tavern
Restaurant in Stratford, that figure is
not as high. Manager Cavell Chadwick
estimates 35 percent of her customers
order that meaty delight. But the people
who eat the most hamburgers are the
children. Cavell estimates those ham-
burger lovers at 75 percent.
The first restaurant I visited was the
Limelight Steakhouse Tavern on Dow-
nie Street off the main street, Stratford.
This was the most elegant, and the most
expensive. $1.25 bought me an open
faced burger with onions, relish, tomato
and mustard. The hamburger patty well
covered the bun. The hamburger
definitely had filler in it and tasted just
okay. I preferred the restaurant's
atmosphere and decor to their ham-
burger.
Perhaps there was an inconsistency in
eating the lowly hamburger in a setting
of a deep red, black and yellow colour
scheme, low hanging Tiffany lamps,
dark red tablecloths, quality serviettes,
five foot high iron railing, subdued
lighting and classical music. The price
of the hamburger was worth the
atmosphere alone.
TRAVELLING EAST
Travelling east on Ontario Street I
stopped at the Eastwood Restaurant
and Tavern. Inside by its full height
windows I could see civilization pass by
on the outside, unlike at the Limelight.
The natural daylight, golden flowered
wallpaper and cream shutters gave a
warm and bright cheery atmosphere.
The Eastwood's hamburgers were 10
cents less than Limelight's. The wait-
ress gave me a knife and fork --silver-
ware that's not always served with a
hamburger order. The table had a
placemat and a fine quality serviette,
but no tablecloth. The hamburger came
with a tomato. I added my own ketchup,
relish, mustard, and onion. The patty
was thicker than Limelight's, but it
tasted as if if had even more filler.
Kathy's Truck Stop on the west end of
Shakespeare served a hamburger with
extremely little filler in it. It cost only
51.00. The burger almost tasted like the
ones I cook at home. They do not buy
their meat from commercial meat
packers, but from a local butcher. He
adds just enough filler so the meat will
hold together.
This hamburger was the least greasy.
Kathy's cooks drain it on a paper towel
before serving. Personally I wouldn't
mind the extra fat for flavour. Their
Weston bun came complete with
lettuce, onion, mustard and relish.
THAT SNACK BAR FEELING
Like many truck stops, Kathy's had
long rows of built-in tables back to back
adjacent to the windows that looked out
over the road. Swivel chairs stood at the
counter. A tile floor, natural pine on one
wall, and the menu posted on a board
high on the wall gave me the feeling of
an old fashioned local snack bar.
When I visited Diana's Restaurant on
the main street in Listowel, 1 ate
another hamburger with filler. This
time though, I learned what the
commercial meat packers add to their
hamburgers. I found all this out after 1
ate the hamburger. These "tasty
burgers" contain beef, water, toasted
wheat crumbs, ground spices, salt
monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed
plant protein, dried onion and spice
extractives.
Diana's Restaurant served their S1.10
burger with a fairly large sesame seed
bun with mustard, onions and relish. In
general, I learned that if a hamburger
has a medium amount of filler in it, the
overall taste is favourable if it is
charcoal grilled. If it is not charcoal
grilled, the filler is very obvious and not
as pleasing.
At the Albion Hotel in Bayfield, I
enjoyed one of the best hamburgers I
ever tasted. And the price was right,
too. For S1.00 1 received a quarter
pound of pure beef, onion, a slice of dill
pickle, slice of tomato, mustard and
relish on a large sesame seed bun.
The owner, Wayne Diemert, also
features an "Albion Burger" for $1.49.
It's a hamburger with bacon, a sauce,
lettuce and french fries. Wayne says
that of the 50 per cent of people that
order hamburgers, 90 percent of them
order Albion Burgers. A local butcher
sell him his beef.
ANOTHER ERA
The drinking and eating section of the
hotel has an authentic old fashioned
look, with its huge oak bar, well worn
antique press back chairs and tables.
They all speak of another era, but the
pop tunes brought me back to 1980.
My hamburger splurge ended in
Goderich at the Court Restaurant on the
square. The hamburger was fairly
expensive --$1.20. But, the actual beef
was the best I tasted of all six
restaurants. The owner sa' 3 he believes
in real beef, that's what he serves --real
beef with some spices.
This delectable burger came with a
toasted bun, several rings of onions, a
slice of tomato, a small dab of mustard
and lots of relish.
Everything in the restaurant seemed
new --tables, captain style chairs, and
the full length autumn coloured cur-
tains. On the walls were several plaques
with such sayings as, "Italy or
Dungannon, you'll move for our
spaghetti."
In this small sampling of six
southwestern Ontario restaurants, I
found I can order a delicious hamburger
at a reasonable price. The search may
take some time and tasting, but it's
worth while when you finally sink your
teeth into a juicy, filler -free piece of
ground meat --with all the trimmings of
relish, tomatoes, onion and sauces.
VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1980 PG. 9