Nail in the Coffin.

I am officially over burgers. 

I’ve eaten a pretty impressive amount of red meat since this whole burger boutique trend started when Flip Burger opened, and frankly I’m done. 

I know where to find my three favorite burgers in town: Bocado, Holeman + Finch and Farmburger.  I’ve tried the best, and I really don’t need to try anything else.  Burgers are so over.  SHOW ME SOMETHING NEW FOR THE LOVE OF LADY GAGA!!

How did the nail finally get hammered into the velvet-lined coffin of my burger boutique experiences?  Simply, I visited Yeah! Burger, Shaun Doty’s newest venture, on Friday.

@ yeah! burger...

My friends, Nick + Todd, were in town from Kentucky, and we met for lunch on Friday afternoon with a colleague friend of ours from work.  I insisted on trying Yeah! Burger, and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.  So, we all drove to Howell Mill, parked in the White Provisions parking deck and stood in an insanely long line (approx. 30 minutes) to order what turned out to be pretty mediocre food. 

To me, the line was long not because there were a ton of people there hoping to try out the new restaurant (which there actually were), but rather because they only had ONE person taking everyone’s orders at the register.  Should have thought that one through, Mr. Doty.  It’s a workday, we are in suits and it’s 95 degrees outside!!  Doesn’t make for happy customers, does it?  Moving on…

The menu was simple and straightforward, which I appreciate, encouraging you to customize your burg w/ your preference of patty, bun, toppings and sauce.  Yeah! has a number of organic, gluten-free and farm fresh items on their menu: gluten-free white buns + french fries, organic chopped/ sliced or grilled Vidalia onions, cage-free fried eggs, nitrate-free bacon, organic Muir Glen ketchup, etc. 

Everyone I was with ordered simple beef burgers and fries.  Jen’s is pictured above.  I ordered the bison burger w/ pimento cheese, whole wheat bun, lettuce, dill pickles and honey mustard – which is pictured below.

Todd got the fried pickles, and although he didn’t finish them, he said that they were quite good – which led us into a discussion about how anything fried tastes “quite good.”  We were hard-pressed to brainstorm what would not taste good fried.

The consensus was soap.

So listen, I ate everything, but I wasn’t impressed.  The burger was blah – the pimento cheese, especially, did not taste housemade.  It was runny.  The fries, usually the item to draw me in, were kind of a let down, too.  I appreciate the farm-friendliness of the restaurant, but it seemed a little contrived when I found myself flipping through the brochure of the farm that supplies the restaurant, which was displayed for our reading pleasure while we were waiting in the horrendously long line to order.

That being said, here are five reasons why you might want to try Yeah! Burger:

1 – You are gluten-intolerant.  They have a lot of gluten-free options for you here - more so than I’ve seen at other restaurants in Atlanta.

2 – You want a burger on a Sunday afternoon, but don’t want to drive to Decatur to hit up Farmburger.  Holeman + Finch burgers aren’t available on Sundays after 3:00 p.m., and Bocado isn’t open.  If Decatur is too far for you to travel for burger bliss, Yeah! Burger is conveniently located on Howell Mill + 14th Street.

3 – You have two hours to eat lunch during the week OR just enjoy waiting in really, really long lines…  (No, clearly I am not over it.)

4 – You want to try one of their Concretes: Vanilla soft-serve ice cream blended at high speed with your favorite mix-ins – hot fudge, cookies + cream, peanut butter cups, chopped peanuts, peanut brittle, Heath candy bar, chocolate almond bark or chocolate espresso beans.  Sounds like a fancy McFlurry - yummmmmmm!  FYI: They start at $6.00.

5 – Howell Mill is happening.  WESTSIDE!

I really don’t want to detract readers from this restaurant merely because I’m so over the whole burger thing, but I just had to say that the burgs @ Yeah! were far from the best I’ve had in Atlanta – and I will never willingly stand in that long line again.

Bye, bye burgers – it’s time to go…

xx, L

Yeah! Burger
1168 Howell Mill Road, Suite E
Atlanta, GA  30318
404.496.4393
www.yeahburger.com