// June 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Restaurant Reviews
Tin Chef Josh
Two new burger bars have opened in Toledo: Burger Bar 419 and Bar 145.
FYI I have not read TC Chucks review on the burger bars before I write this.
I am going to start with Burger Bar 419. This place is located where the old Matthew’s and Mustard Seed used to be in the plaza off Heatherdowns next to Shawn’s and the Beer and Wine Cave. Go see Matt at the Beer and Wine Cave… but that will be a blog post for another time. The menu for the burger bar 419 was posted online a month or two before it opened and I have to say I was so excited to see a smaller menu with great ingredients South Toledo doesn’t have! For example: bone marrow, crispy pork belly, kimchi, sriracha, taleggio cheese for some great examples and items I’m in love with! Maybe the second or third day it opened TC Chuck and I went and ordered the whole appetizer menu and burgers and milkshakes… We had a great time trying the appetizers: like crispy pork belly with kimchi, bone marrow, soy deviled eggs with sriracha and arugula (Which is my fav appetizer there). The only execution error of all the apps was the bone marrow was undercooked but they fixed it no problem. I must say an awesome appetizer list. Now lets get to the burgers… The first burger I had there was the “Must Have” but I have tried almost all of them except maybe two, I will have to look. Here is my ranking of my top 3 favorites:
1. Pate Melt – This burger is so so so damn good. It is rich and very delicious, but me being who I am (critical) I wish the pate was thicker and stayed more as a patty on the burger then pretty much melting into a sauce. I understand the play on words with the pate melt name but I don’t like it because the association with patty melts don’t really come with a good reputation.
2. Vintage Bleu – This burger is awesome. I love bleu cheese, I love pickled red onions (we make those a lot at home) Great Burger!
3. Three Little Pigs – Another over the top awesome burger. Everyone will love this burger and I wouldn’t be surprised if its the most ordered one on the menu.
These burgers are more on the rich, dark, messy in a good way side of the burger world.
Their sides are also good. Fries are good especially with bacon and crazy cheese melted all over them! The only side I thought was just ok are the onion pedals. They are good but they are what they are.
I have tried two of the milkshakes: the banana foster and the oreo mint. For $5 a shake I don’t think there are amazing, and this will be my really only not great review here. The oreo mint I got to go and it came in a really small styrofoam cup and it was good but not over the top great I would expect from a place like this. The banana foster shake I got sitting at the bar and it was pretty good but again I didn’t feel like it was amazing. I would definitely add Captain Morgans to the banana foster shake next time. But then it would be like a $10 shake probably. I saw the peanut butter they get is from Gordon Foods so I will say the shakes should be a little bigger and probably use better ingredients. Little surprising from a place that has awesome ingredients like taleggio and gruyere cheeses and get there meat from a local butcher. I am technically a milkshake snob being that that was one of the things my dad and I always made together growing up and I never stopped making shakes at home by hand with great ingredients. I haven’t had any of there salads, desserts or floats yet.
I am so happy there is a place like this in South Toledo. A small place with a small kitchen, a small menu with great food ingredients that is casual. I love that you can sit at the bar and see into the kitchen and watch everything being made. That is awesome. With that said I haven’t sat in the dinning room and have had a server so I cant really comment on the service there. This place is a mile from my house which is so fantastic. Every time I have been there at the bar, Moussa (one of the owners) has come over and said hi to make sure everything was good and stayed and chatted a bit, and has even bought us drinks. Try the Widmer dark IPA, it is awesome. I will be a regular.
Bar 145 is located out on Monroe street a little farther from my house… I hear the place is owned by the guy that owns a few places at Put-n-Bay like Mr.Eds. Before going I had a few different friends give me some not to great reviews about the place except the inside of the restaurant is cool but the service was bad and burgers are ok but not seasoned properly, over cooked from the temp they ordered and a little overpriced for what you got. Ok… wow… bummer.
So TC Chuck and I go and Chuck ended up knowing the day manager very well and who I have meet a few times. This is awesome for us because I know service will not be an issue and it wasn’t, it was great… but we were sitting with the manager. We tried all the appetizers and made our burgers from the make your own sheet instead of ordering off their menu. The appetizers aren’t as good as BB419 but very different and I am sure more appropriate for the masses instead of things like kimchi and crispy pork belly… Not they are boring but just not as crazy as BB419. Most of Toledo is a chain restaurant loving (what I call) the “chicken finger and diet coke crowd”!! Anyway I will say there apps are good and you cant go wrong with any of them but none of them where wow this is over the top.
Now to the burgers… I created my own (Which I like this because I am crazy and dangerous when it comes to these things) I created a $12 burger which consisted the onion roll (luv!) burger at 145 degrees (the name of the place if you wondered) spicy cole slaw, pickle chips, heirloom tomatoes, gruyere and brick house cheese (Brick house is from Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor!!!! Best deli in the country if you didn’t know.) Arugula, fried egg, hot sauce, and garlic aioli. I think that’s it. My burger did look good when it came out. I do think the toppings are a little on the skimpy side, I got two pickle chips, a tiny bit of the spicy slaw, and for ordering two different cheeses it wasn’t over the top cheesy. The fried egg was over cooked and not runny but seasoned well and tasted good. For ordering a burger 145 degrees hence the name on the place and on the menu it says perfect or perfection. My burger was overcooked, like the reviews from the others I heard. Now this is the most important thing I think. You have to get this right with no exceptions especially since its the name of the place. Even though my burger was over done than what I ordered it still was juicy and really good. Was it a $12 burger… probably not, but it was very good despite for all my critical observations. I definitely need to go back and get a burger off their menu that is cheaper and see what’s up.
Back to Zingerman’s deli, Bar 145 gets 3 cheeses and their gelato from Zingerman’s. This is soooooooo x 10 to the 5th cool!
Now the vibe here is more of a Jed’s/Bar Louie which I’m not real fond of. I hear the bands that play at night are so loud you can hear them in the neighborhoods surrounding. I know I’m getting old when I say this… But If I can’t talk to someone next to me because its so loud then I’m not going there to eat. Not that that’s entirely a bad thing. I go there for lunch and eat and go there at night for drinks, maybe apps and listen to bands. People hear in Toledo love this kind of atmosphere and I can see this place staying in Toledo and doing well. I will probably take people from work there for lunches since its closer to my work and maybe go occasionally at night.
