Deluxe Town Diner
627 Mount Auburn St.
Watertown, MA 02472
A neat thing about burgers is how much they vary from place to place. Even when ordering the same type of burger, each
restaurant puts its own unique spin on it. The beef and
beef-to-fat ratios vary, the seasonings vary, the buns vary, the cooking
techniques vary, even the brands of condiments vary. The focus of this week's post, Deluxe Town Diner, uses Hunts ketchup. Call me a condiment snob, but what's wrong with Heinz?
Another great thing about burgers is you can stumble upon a good one just about anywhere, be it dive bar, seafood shack or white
tablecloth eatery.
Deluxe isn’t a dive bar or fancy eatery; it's just a
good old-fashioned diner that’s been a Watertown institution since 1947. With its
two-tone porcelain siding and rounded, glass-block corners, this vintage Worcester
Lunch Car Co. building is a slice of Americana for sure. As proof, it is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
When the burgers were served, they looked beautiful on their plates. The cheese was melted perfectly around the patties, the bacon was stacked high and the brioche buns glistened invitingly. A small, white paper cup full of slaw accompanied them, as did a lethal dose of skinny, skin-on fries. |
| Deluxe Town Diner: A certified classic Photo Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation There are people who love diners and people who fail to see their majesty. No doubt, diners can be loud, cramped and quick-paced. The waitresses are often surly and the patrons overly colorful. And those are just a few reasons to love them. Not to mention the nostalgia invoked when perusing a plastic-matted menu from a corner booth, or seeing a kid half-turn on a wobbly counter stool between sips of a frappe. But never mind all that. What’s important is Deluxe is said to offer a pretty decent burger, which prompted me to pick it for our second outing. And nostalgia aside, upon reading the prices you're quickly returned to the 21st century, as the burgers start at around ten bucks. Scott and I ordered almost the same burger: cheddar, bacon, lettuce and tomato. He asked for raw onions on his; I requested caramelized onions on mine. Deluxe Town Diner caramelizes their onions in granulated sugar and butter, and while they taste great, they make for a slippery, sloppy burger. I can’t hold the diner accountable for my burger being sloppy though; it is a fait accompli with caramelized onions. |
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| Deluxe Town Diner's awesome looking burger |
Upon first bite we thought we were in heaven. The burgers were juicy and delicious, the bacon smokey and flavorful. But things began to go awry about halfway through, as the burgers started to lose their flavor. Scott theorized that his medium rare burger had kept cooking on the plate. I'm not sure about that, but it did seem as though the juices of each burger began to congeal, making the meat more dense and less flavorful.
Not quite as detrimental, but still an issue, the lettuce and tomato slices were served at room temperature. Many years ago, a fast food chain that will remain nameless promoted a container that "keeps the hot side hot and cool side cool." I never ate a burger from one of those containers, but the concept is sound. Cool ripe tomatoes and crisp chilled lettuce add layers of complexity that these burgers didn't have.
After the juices had congealed and the lettuce and tomato continued to warm under the bun, the burgers lost their initial mouth appeal. And that's when we discovered that the bottom buns seemed to disappear. It wasn't that they disintegrated from excess moisture as much as having been too small to begin with, which is unusual because the top bun was almost too big. So, yeah, the bun to patty ratio was ascew; or more accurately, the bun to bun ratio.
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| Scott wondering what happened to his awesome burger |
I wanna burger……. Z
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