It’s actually been quite some time since I’ve been able to go out to find the best burger around due to the shelter-at-home order that was placed on the city (the last was a burger club outing in March), but I did manage to try a few earlier in the year, so here are my experiences with the burgers from Spruce, Little Creatures Brewery and Shake Shack. Will any of them rise to the occasion and beat the current champion at Comstock Saloon?
1. Spruce
Spruce, while having been on my list for quite some time, is another burger club entry. We decided to splurge and go for a fine dining style burger. The spruce burger is served on an English muffin with lots of very fresh vegetables and pickled onions. It is priced as a whopping $22, and if you want to go really extravagant, you can add taleggio cheese for an additional $7. Of course, we decided to go for the cheese, so this burger may be the most expensive one I’ve had to date. The burger itself was really tasty though, as the fresh vegetables really added a nice touch. The English muffin was an interesting approach for the bun, but it also was really filling as it isn’t quite as light as a bun may be. It was a fairly stellar burger all around.
2. Little Creatures Brewery
I ran across Little Creatures Brewery as they were advertising their burger decathlon: Ten days of a burger special paired with beer. I stopped in on day one, and the burger special was a triple burger paired with IPA. For $23, a beer and a brew seemed like an excellent price, and I opted for fries instead of a salad (which was later a choice I slightly regretted). The burger arrived, and while I was aware it was a triple burger I didn’t expect it to be so massive. There was also nary a vegetable to be seen, so I would have really loved that salad right about now. The burger was very tasty though, with really oozy cheese and very tasty and meaty beef. The only downside is the burger was more of a medium-well temperature, so the texture was a bit tough, and if the burger would have been medium-rare, I probably would have been in burger heaven with this monstrosity. It could have used some pickles just to give it a bit of acid to cut through the richness and fattiness of the sandwich, but that is just a minor issue for an otherwise great burger.
3. Shake Shack
The opening of Shake Shack in San Francisco was all the hype at the beginning of the year, so of course (and much to my chagrin), my burger club had to jump on the bandwagon and give it a try. About a week after they opened. So, of course, it was chaos. Long waits were happening and they claimed they ran out of onions so early in the day that they couldn’t even provide some of their burgers. I went with the Double Shack Burger ($9) with fries ($3). I ordered separately from the rest of the club as some people hadn’t arrived yet, and I just thought it would be easier for paying purposes. This caused my burger to come out in 15 minutes while everyone else’s took an hour! Clearly there were some growing pains. The burger itself was perfectly fine. There was a nice crust on the burger patties, but overall, the burger gave me flashbacks to Wendy’s from when I was a kid, so really nothing special. The fries are pretty bad (although not as bad as In-N-Out). I didn’t get the cheese sauce, but it looked like your standard, gross pre-made nacho cheese you would get somewhere.
Winner: Comstock Saloon
While I did enjoy my monster of a burger from Little Creatures as well as the Spruce burger, neither of them really get in my top five. I think the Spruce burger is a bit pricey for what you get. Shake Shack really isn’t worth the hype, so I’d probably avoid it, unless you really feel like you need to give it a try. Perhaps wait several months until they get things figured out though. Hopefully, I’ll get to try some new burgers soon and keep working on my search!
My current top five:
1. Comstock Saloon
2. Black Sands Brewery
3. Wayfare Tavern
4. Fort Point Brewery
5. Son’s Addition
Honorable mentions:
Classic toppings/burgers:
Gaspar
Nopa
Epic Steak
4505 Burgers and Barbecue
Magnolia Brewing
The Showdown
Spruce
Little Creatures Brewery
Unusual toppings/burgers:
City Beer Store
The Saratoga
ABV
Biergarten
Multiple toppings/burgers:
Papa Mak’s
Brickhouse
Super Duper Burgers
Sides:
Umami Burger
Wes Burger ‘n’ More
