Grub Burger Bar, Atlanta GA

Atlanta’s reputation as a city for great burgers led a chain from Texas, Grub Burger Bar, to open a couple of stores in town. Grub is still fairly small, with only twelve locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Delaware, and Pennsylania. Their website lists five more locations in the works within these states as well.

Last month, Marie and I stopped by the location in Akers Mill, because I wished to stop by that particularly wonderful Barnes & Noble across the street to return something. We had our four year-old son in tow, and he was not the sweetest treat in the bag that day. Despite enjoying burgers, he flared in discontent about having to go someplace new, and settled on a small order of apple slices.

Marie absolutely loves peanut butter on burgers, so she gave the Thai Peanut Burger a try, asking them to hold the cilantro and the coconut flakes. This was a big win; Grub instantly leaped into the upper tiers of her list of great burgers in the city. She was really pleased.

As for me, the Front Porch is simple and just about exactly what I would have ordered on my first visit anyway. Simply lettuce, tomato, mayo, and mustard, accentuating a juicy, awesome, dripping burger. I agree with Marie; this really was a very tasty surprise, and better than quite a few burgers that we have championed before. The shoestring fries and onion rings were also very good. Our son missed out, not even accepting a single fry through his shield of four year-old stubbornness. Ah well, it is certainly true that he ate healthier than we did. (Pro tip: get a side of the sambal mayo for the onion rings!)

As with many higher-end burger places, they have a pretty deep menu of interesting flavor combinations, including a meatless chickpea and eggplant burger, a Greek chicken breast burger, and the delightfully silly Texas Luau, which tops the beef patty with pulled pork and grilled pineapple. Heaven knows when we may branch out and try one of these promising sandwiches, because we were each so pleased with our own that I don’t know that we’ll be in a rush to sample anything different on our next visit!

(Sticky note: We weren’t. Marie had the Thai peanut burger again; I was all set to repeat myself, but I was sold on the current special, a pizza burger with tomato sauce and pepperoni. It was all right, but I would have been happier with the Front Porch again!)