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Sometimes mingling health conscience with junk food makes doublecheese feel like all those green yuppies need to just eat lettuce all day and leave doublecheese’s ever corrupting arteries alone. But, after a very harsh look into the food industry, doublecheese realizes that what doublecheese thought was pure meat, sometimes isn’t. Sometimes cheese isn’t really real cheese. And that some of these co-mingling savor flavors are the product of an equation that includes chemicals and processing and unhappy animals and mutated vegetation. That scared doublecheese.

Enter The Cove. Organic. Fresh. Real. Buying from local growers, The Cove makes gourmet food that is real. Located not far from the San Antonio burger institution Chris Madrid’s, which feeds off artery pollution, The Cove takes a fresh modern stand on food production. That stand has garnered attention from the Food Network’s Guy Fieri and was declared the best burger in San Antonio, 5th in the state by Texas Monthly.

So what’d doublecheese think of the SOL ( sustainable/organic/local) revolution that includes serving soda containing no high fructose corn syrup. Yum. Yum. Yes. And yum. A taste of the 09er burger has doublecheese reeling in delight for a goodness definable in every bite as a bite of the all natural product of people who do things conscience of the balance of nature. The burger selection is constructed thoughtfully, putting inconsideration the gourmet and still evading the pretention that can tag along in these matters. The patty is juicy and cooked with skill. Sweet potato and potato fries are available and savory. The sauce that accompanied my burger, although never defined, had an interesting zest that was spiced perfectly and made my sweet potato fries inhalable.

Something that also needs to be mentioned is the environment. Compared to an Austin dive, The Cove does have something fun about it. Maybe it’s the ping-pong table, the kid playground, the live music or the offer to do your laundry and wash your car their if you need to- that’s right maybe The Cove does have it all. Every 2nd Thursday is wine-tasting Thursday. Every 3rd Thursday is beer tasting Thursday and the fees for these events are decent.

My qualm with The Cove is the pricing. The menu is awesome with a seriously awesome shrimp taco under it’s belt and several other items on the menu that demand several lip-licking moments. But a ten dollar burger has never been my dream pricing. Maybe it’s telling of the economic times and maybe it’s just the price of buying local and dealing with growers who are hurting in the food inc times. While doublecheese has yet to return to Smashburger, for the deliciously over-priced, doublecheese definitely will be returning for the feel good burger revolution.

Now, the final count. Ideals, taste and price combined, doublecheese is compelled to give The Cove a 9. The burger is great. They are one of the best burgers in the San Antonio area. I say: Eat it and it local.

The Cove
606 W Cypress St
San Antonio, TX 78212
(210) 227-2683

Doublecheese brings to you, my darling sizzling patties, a country grill. Down Bandera road past the rolling hills and huge hot Texas sky comes the Apple Store in Medina, Texas.

The Apple Store is your burger home away from home. Nestled next to Love Creek Orchards, The Apple Store serves up a lazy good burger. I don’t mean to say every worker there was lacking around, but this isn’t the place to go if you’re in a rush. Nevermind the detour, the Apple Store wants you to relax and take it easy and not check your emails every ten minutes to see if the world is actually falling apart without you. This burgertorium makes no apologies for taking it easy and for definitely not being fast food.

And is it worth it? All that god forbidden non-21st century analog undownloaded sit there?! Could it possibly be more burger zen than a good game of tap tap revenge and angry birds?

Yeah. ‘Cause it’s hot. And you’re in the middle of apple, Tx. So, whatever, relax. The decorum is as mom and pop apple pie as you can get- for reeeeeeeeelz. But you want it. And when your burger does show up you’ve soaked in a good two and a half decades of too adorable for words.

Now to the beef, right? I’ll admit, the bun’s a sweetie. If you’re ordering the the Spicy Pepper Jack burger then I definitely recommend going ” all the way” (wink) with the spicy jalapeño bun (even more awkward wink) which is actually the Sheila Partin’s jalapeño bun. Sure, Sheila. But really. The meat is crazy fresh, crazy delish, and crazy awesome. Your choice of cheese that comes nicely melted and a bag of chips and bam, a summer treat have you! Although you have to order the fries separate, the seasoning on those fried papas makes the separate order worth it. Beverages are free lemonade refills as well as tea and sodas available by the can.

So doublecheese says, sweet bun and awesome adventure warrant a nice plump 7.5. That sweet bun was a little tiresome, though, but Doublecheese will be returning for some more of that sweet country EAT IT.

Love Creek Orchards
State Highway 16 North
Medina, Texas 78055

This weekend the humid Texas heat that preludes the hurricane season was misery. The sun burns your skin, the wind is a stranger, beer and water are your only friends. So after a dip in the pool, doublecheese needed something…cheesy.

Enter Willie’s Icehouse and Grill. A Dallas rooted chain that flowers fried greasy whatever. Willie’s has opened a nice burger and icehouse out in Leon Valley, not far from the original Rudy’s Bar-B-Que. Placed on the access road of I-10, Willie’s does an amazing job of blocking out the world. You can sit on the decently sized patio for hours and feel only the same pressure the man selling peaches from the back of his pick-up might feel.

Enough of the welcoming atmosphere. Now, the grub! My opener was Willie’s queso, specialized with taco meat, accompanied by a chunky salsa and thin, lightly salted chips. This appetizing cast, my friends, stole the show! Creamy queso and deliciously seasoned taco meat stand strongly alone. However, when you co-mingle the salsa, with the delicious other pair, you get an addictive dip. ADDICTIVE.

Into my second Blue Moon, poured in a fresh, frosted mug, my Hickory Burger arrived. The circumference on this burger was intimidating. The accenting BBQ sauce is definitely meant to be accented with a cold beer. The onions are cut and grilled to embrace both the sweet and sharp onion flavors. A strong taste that overtook all these flavors was the extremely well done patty. The center of the patty was cooked and tasted awesome, the outside tasted like the burnt crumble of meat that stayed on the grill all day.

The cheese, the beer, the queso- an amazingly deliciously meal. The burger, hard to enjoy. So, although I do recommend Willie’s for a peaceful patio and beer retreat, I need to say: make sure you request a medium well patty. So, the burger at a 5.7, I say Don’t Eat It! But feel free to drink and dip it all up!

Willie’s Grill & Icehouse
Leon Springs
24200 IH 10 W
Leon Springs, TX 78257
210-698-5337

Doublecheese has been in a slump. Doublecheese was lost in the ground beef and cheese hub-bub and may have forgotten what it’s all about. Deep in the belly of the whale, struggling for some light, Doublecheese returned to where it all started. Venturing deep into West Zarzamora, Doublecheese tried to return to the burger roots. Those roots, all the sweet burger memories, where found at the Malt House.

The Malt House brings a tear to doublecheese’s eye and a thousand precious moments where Selena plays on a jukebox while burgers and black cows are inhaled. Thoughts of my Pa laughing and drinking beer, enjoying chips and salsa, enjoying the peoples and products of a 50 year tradition are still encompassed by this well known establishment. And although change is transforming this place, carhops are still running food out to parked cars and the latest trends can still be purchased from a lone vendor on the outside benches.

Situated on the cusp of the touristy San Antonio downtown area, with Mi Tierra’s and El Mercado blocks away and one of the few remaining operating Handy Andy’s a few blocks into the real heart of San Antonio, the Malt House is an icon to west San Antonians. An icon portrayed in Jesse Trevino’s recent exhibition on display at the Museo Alemada in 2009. The painter captures San Antonio’s distinct cultural flavor with simple honesty a restaurant that caters to the neighborhood it serves.

When you bite into a malt house burger you’ll want to compare it to a Whataburger, easy. But, a few bites in you’ll quickly realize the small differences. The cheese and mayo mingle so sweetly with the standard simple bun. The juices of the patty create a flavor that feels so classically cheeseburgery delicious. Adding ketchup to the jumbo cheeseburger gives the sweet mayo and cheese medley a hint of sour, a taste that highlights the patty in a new light.

Although you may go to a hundred chain burger restaurants and order the same burger, you’ll walk away with a different experience almost every time. The Malt House has been serving the same burger and experience for over 50 years. A diner experience of a waitress that may not speak English fluently. An experience peppered with live mariachis and street vendors selling bracelets decorated with saints or keychains hand braided with a note of a deaf person’s prayer. I recommend this eatery to true San Antonians who understand the culture of the hard working class.

The prices are unbelievably affordable in a time where a $10 burger is becoming the standard. The service is fast and friendly. Revisions have definitely changed the once brown and tan building, but carhops are still available if you “leave your lights on.” It may never be the best burger in town, but it will be the burger place for generations to come. The place where families can leave full for under $20 bucks. I give the burger a 7.5. However, because I was raised on this burger, it will always be a 10 to me. So, Eat It!

Malt House
115 S Zarzamora St
San Antonio, TX 78207
(210) 433-8441

Everyone burger it up into the wee hours of the night! It is National Burger Day!