Would a Leprechaun trade his pot of gold for this BURGER?

While the Irish have no words for yes.... YES!

 

My friend Gypsy Jeff (look for him singing Django Reinhardt tunes in front of the Rite Aid on 2nd Street) recommended this burger to me.  Located in the heart of the gay ghetto on 4th and Broadway, EJ Malloys is a great neighborhood pub with a long copper top bar and open outside patio in the back.  

We entered EJ Malloys at about 8:00, and the place was packed to the gills. I let Heatmeiser walk in first, his flaming red hair gave us instant street cred.  I scanned the crowd and observed all types of local night crawlers and characters.  Fortunately, there were 3 spots at the  bar, so we pulled up and grabbed a menu.  

The menu at EJ's is enough to make Karen Carpenter roll over in her grave.  The lengthy menu offers something for everyone,  from corn beef and cabbage for all you red headed, haggis lovers to BBQ pork carnitas for all of our hermanos to the South. I scanned the menu looking for their basic burger, then I found it for $8.25.  Creatively named the Basic burger for its simplistic ingredients of bun, meat and vegetable.

While waiting for my burger, I began to chat with the bartender and quickly realized that we had gone to high school together.  We caught up on local stories and rumors over a few more beers as I anxiously waited for my burger.  Then it came as beautiful as the fabled blarney stone itself.  After the first bite, I was thinking EJ stood for extra juicy. Served hot and cooked PERFECTLY PINK,  the burger had a great meat taste. The sort of taste one would expect from a great midwestern steak house.  The bun was toasted and covered in a tangy 1000 island sauce.  The burger was topped with lettuce, tomato and red onion.  I ordered cheese on the burger for an extra $.50.  My only complaint is that the cheese was not melted enough... what do you expect for $.50?

In review, this was a great burger.  Not just a great burger for an Irish Pub, but just a great burger.  If you stop by EJ's say Dia Duit (Hello in Irish) to John the Bartender and tell him Hungler and Gypsy Jeff sent you.