I asked Kim to help me get everything I needed for lunch situated while I finished packing for my annual caching trip with Chuck and instead of my frozen stew cubes she gave me two frozen spaghetti sauce ones instead. After a quick call to ask if she would do lunch with me to make up for her horrible mistake (heh) we were off to The Burger Place.

The line was out the door to this “Best of” from both Citysearch and Minneapolis/St Paul Magazine. The menu is just inside the door and lists breakfast (between $3.59 and $4.32) and lunch items (between $3.95 and $7.58) which are burgers (duh) and hot or cold sandwiches. The burger list is fucking massive with 20 different burgers (one has no bun or fries and one has chicken instead of beef) and they allow you to substitute any burger with either chicken or turkey for less than 80 cents.

We ordered and I found a seat while Kim waited to pay. There is enough seating for about 80 people and there isn’t much room for anything else. Kim finally came and joined me and we chatted while we waited for our food to arrive. About 10 minutes after I sat down and 20 since I met up with Kim in her building we were eating.

My Southwestern Burger was an absolute mess. Nothing good looking about this meal. The “salad” was larger than I expected but was 99.8% lettuce. The salad dressing (Italian) was decent and I was glad to offset 1/8th of this unhealthy burger with a salad instead of fries. The jalapenjos were jarred or canned and while it wasn’t anything nearly as nice as what I had at Moe’s, it was fine for the price. The bun was soft and soaked up any grease the burger might have otherwise leaked onto the plate. First bite? Good but nothing that deservs the “Best of” anything.

They offer and prominently tout their Monday special: $5.95 for burger, salad or fries, and medium drink. Not a bad deal and much less than we ended up paying today ($15.76). If you’re looking for some place cheap to eat, except for Mondays, this is not it.

Address:
The Burger Place
501 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Phone:
612-338-1213

Hours:
7:00 AM - 2:30 PM

Check out all the pictures from The Burger Place on Flickr here (camera).

According to this article over at the Star Trib, fourteen Minneapolis restaurants are joining the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign to promote drinking local tap water instead of supporting the 10+ billion dollar tap water turned bottled water industry.

I’m 100% behind people drinking tap water at home and hell, I have almost no problem with drinking it at restaurants when it’s served to me. I certainly don’t go out of my way to pay for it but when you read stories about Minneapolis water smelling like fish, you have to think twice about whether or not you really want to be served that at a restaurant.

Our tap water here in Apple Valley tastes like shit. The sulfur smell and chlorine taste is so bad that I run it through a Brita water filter before drinking it. I honestly hate even having our dog drink it, knowing full well that if he had the opportunity he’d probably eat his own shit. I realize that chilling the water is what helps to kill off most of the odor and flavors but it just doesn’t do enough here in the South Metro so the expensive Brita it is.

What does your water taste/smell like and do you buy bottled, filter it or do you just suck it up and drink it straight from the tap and take it like a (wo)man?

Top 5 reasons you went to the Home and Garden Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center:

5. It was 33F and raining on a Sunday and the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie on USA just wasn’t holding your attention.

4. You really needed a yard stick and just knew someone would be passing one out for free.

3. You were dying to spend entirely too much money for concession stand hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza or beer.

2. You had free passes — does anyone ever pay full price to attend an event at the Convention Center?

1. Your wife told you that you were going and you really didn’t have much other choice.

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Top 5 attractions at the show:

5. The bar. They had overpriced beer and liquor for sale but that’s almost the only thing that could possibly make this show tolerable for anyone.

4. The Southern Lights booth. If there was a tackiness award, this booth’s wares deserved it.

3. The Static Duster Booth. I am fully aware of the 100s of uses for this device but I’m shocked that they make enough money selling them to pay for the rent for a booth here. Amazing!

2. Smith’s Greenhouse (seriously) offered some really good stuff and the only items we purchased at the expo which were organic herb seeds (Genovese Sweet Basil and Bouquet Dill) from Seeds of Change. We’re going to be purchasing the rest of our seeds from Seed Savers Exchange but it was nice to get a couple ahead of time.

1. The Outdoor Paella Party Set at the Kitchen Window booth. Not only was the entire display visually appealing and interesting, it was the only one on Sunday that was offering free and hot food of some substance. They were making their paella with shrimp and sundried tomatoes and it could have been the ~15 blocks we wandered via skyway making me hungry but this booth had my attention for the longest of any — I actually heard their spiel and was mildly interested although I’m not sure when I would ever rent this set (to serve 40, 100 or 200) starting at $39.95/weekend. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a copy of the recipe that was available but I did get a decent cup of the paella that ended up being very tasty.

We’ve been to the Home Building and Remodeling Expo at the Convention Center before and that paled in comparison to this. I was expecting the bullshit booths that prevailed at that one and was mildly surprised at the vast and crazy setups that the companies had for this show. While I wasn’t interested in buying anything and all their hard work setting up their elaborate displays didn’t help change my mind, I guess it must be worth it for someone.

See all the pictures from the Home and Garden Expo in Minneapolis here (camera).