BRGR BAR in Portsmouth NH!

When a place as cool as BRGR Bar opens up in our backyard, you know it's only a matter of time before we get the whole Fatguyfoodblog crew together and take a trip down there. How could we not? Cool name. Word of mouth told us they had an interesting menu. Word through the grapevine is that they also had crazy milkshakes. That's about all we needed to know. So here you go, we all throw our two cents in about BRGR BAR in Portsmouth, NH! 

RICH:  I started off my BRGR Bar experience by making a mistake I have often made in the past and will most surely make sometime again in the near future. I got a milkshake before my food. I know what you're thinking: "What a moron. That's going to fill him up like crazy and he won't be able to finish his food." Well, you'd be wrong. I did finish it all, but I simply wanted to die after from being so full. That being said; Damn, what a milkshake. I couldn't pass it up. When I read the words: Nutella + Marshmallow + Graham Cracker milkshake, it was like a voice from a primitive part of my brain spoke up and told me I had to get it. End of story. So how was it? 

It was like something you'd make up if you were offered three wishes from a genie. "Uh, I'd like Super powers, a trillion dollars and... A NUTELLA MARSHMALLOW GRAHAM CRACKER MILKSHAKE!" And you would not be disappointed. It was spectacular. Not too thick, not too thin, bursting with Nutella and marshmallow flavor. If you let it melt in your mouth you would find little flecks of graham cracker. Just absolutely excellent. When you get to the very end you get to slurp up a melted marshmallow that's slightly toasted on top. It's the perfect ending to a perfect shake.

JOSH:  You know what? I was insanely jealous of this thing. I'm more steak-and-potatoes-workin-man-thick and not a bearded man circle chuggin down sweets, so I opted out of getting one.

RICH: Nothing wrong with getting a milkshake with your burger and fries, Josh. It's a time honored tradition. Just because you're on a diet...

RICH: Despite telling me I was making a mistake and was going to feel awful after, I could see the jealousy in the eyes of Mike and Josh every time I took a sip and exclaimed to them how good it was. If you want some good advice from me, I'll dish it out right here. If you find yourself in BRGR Bar for a lunch or dinner, order this shake. I'm slapping an A+ rating on this bad boy with zero hesitation.

MIKE: He's right. I was jealous. I wanted to get a different shake or ADULT shake with booze in it. I wanted both, but ate before we went there since I thought the plan was for dinner, not a 3pm lunch! I may just stop in for a milkshake the next time I'm in Portsmouth.

RICH: For an appetizer I ordered up the Ricotta Sweet Potato Tots. I honestly didn't see how these could be bad and I was right. Upon delivery to our table, I was a little shocked at how few of these you get for seven bucks, but after slugging down half of that milkshake I was happy I only had a couple of these to eat after sharing with my fellow Fatguyfoodbloggers.

Crunchy outside breaded coating with a slight sweetness to it, followed by hot, gooey cheese middle. Excellent but very rich. I bet if you ate a whole order of these you would want someone to put you out of your misery. I, however would definitely recommend them. They get a B+ from me. The only downside is how few you get for your hard earned cash.

JOSH: Those were pretty good. I know what you're gonna say: "YEAH RIGHT JOSH YOU DUMB!" Just listen ok? The star of the appetizer that day were the Buffalo Brussels Sprouts. How could disgusting brussels sprouts be good? I have no clue, but the magicians at BRGR Bar somehow made these things into majestic flavorful beasts. The buffalo encasing the weird brussels sprout flavor was oddly satisfying, and dipping them into creamy gorganzola, just Michael Jordan dunked over Rich's lame ass tots. He said it to the waitress like Napoleon Dynamite: "Gimme yer tots." The flavor was unlike anything I'd had before, and was absolutely stellar.

MIKE: I'll eat something fancy or weird every now and then, but I'm generally an American Fatass when it comes to food- I like pretty basic, delicious, bad-for-me foods. I think I spit out the last Brussels Sprout I ate. The waitress kept saying "trust me, they're amazing." I don't think I would have taken the bait, but Josh is a weirdo who likes vegetables, so he did. They were incredible. I wouldn't even really say they tasted like vegetables- they were more of just something you could chew that was covered in delicious (and unique) buffalo flavoring. They weren't too hot, and they were oddly kind of sweet. And the gorganzola cheese was just fantastic. A perfect, messy mix of flavors. I have nothing but good to say about these things. 

RICH: I was very surprised that we even liked these. The waitress was very adamant that we try them. She told us numerous times that we would love them and I have to say I didn't believe here at all, but I was wrong. They were excellent. Such a weird, complex flavor. I'd definitely get them if I went there again, despite the fact that they look like something caught on an

"eat your buffalo brussels sprouts Tina"

RICH: For my burger I ordered the "OO-MOMMY," which boasts a Maine Family Farms patty topped with Gorgonzola, bacon jam, and crispy, fried onion rings. While there aren't a ton of choices on the BRGR BAR menu, I did find it pretty tough to decide which one to get, but come on, bacon jam? Onion rings? How could I NOT get this one?

Mike in the background is actually staring at my milkshake, longingly. 

The waitress said they recommend having it cooked medium, so I took her word on it, despite a nagging fear that it would be too rare for me. When it came out, it was a thing of beauty. Buttery bun glistening, massive onion rings bulging from the sides and the Gorgonzola slathered burger patty was practically still sizzling there on my plate. Since BRGR Bar is a little more fancy than your usual burger joint, I opted for cutting it in half, to lessen the chance I was going to have to scrub sauce or grease off of my shirt. After cutting it, I thought it did indeed look too pink in the middle. But after my first bite, my fears were put to rest. It was excellent!

Looked too pink, tasted tremendous. 

The onion rings have a bunch of thick batter around them and are full of great onion flavor. The bacon jam and Gorgonzola cheese melded together into a delicious sauce that I wish I could buy in a bottle. The bun was soft and chewy. I loved it all but the big deal ended up being the meat. So good. You could tell it's not processed frozen crap. This was straight up, grass fed local beef. You simply cannot go wrong with that.
I give this burger an A-. I enjoyed the hell out of it and was very satisfied. Why the minus? Get those damn greens off of that burger, man! They do nothing but take up space where there could be more cheese!

JOSH: Rich likes to blabber on, me I like to dip in and out, tell a few jokes, and say if the place was good. I opted for the "Poutine on a Portwalk"!

 

I ordered mine medium rare, and as you can see, it was a lot more rare than I thought it was going to be. But, being the man that I am, I powered on and still loved every bit of this thing. The burger consists of grass fed beef, fries, peppercorn gravy, melted cheese curd, and horseradish aioli.

Messy as hell and THICK

Is that just straight up raw meat?

yep it is.

JOSH: Biting into this burger, you find it's all the same consistency between two chewy buns. The flavors all blend together, and I honestly don't remember tasting much of the horseradish aioli, except for maybe a slight burn going on somewhere in the background. The cheese, fries, and meat all melded together to give the feeling you were biting into one giant delicious cheesy mess. The peppercorn gravy, which was also kind of lost inside the meat mess helped make sure the fries couldn't produce any texture. Don't get me wrong, as gross as it sounds, the burger had this quality to it that made that mess an absolute delight. The gravy and horseradish took me away enough from the cheese curd and meat to let me feel each level in my mouth. I'd 100% get this beast again, but maybe cooked this time to give the piece some backbone with which to stand. 

I'd give it a B. 

Was just great burger.  

MIKE: I got the same burger as Rich because it was the only one where I knew what every ingredient was. I'm not fancy enough for this place! It was good, but it didn't blow me away. I didn't taste different ingredients all that well, and the meat was a bit too pink for my taste. I still demolished it though, I'd just give it more like a B-/C+. I like my burgers trashy I guess.

Something these dudes didn't mention that is absolutely worth mentioning was the fries!

MIKE: We all got Parmesan Truffle fries, and although they didn't give us a ton, they were really good. I think we all forgot to take a close up shot, but they were pretty basic fries with cheese and seasoning that was really really good. They had a real herby taste to them, and they included mayonnaise- I'm not sure if that was for the burgers, or if we were supposed to pretend we were British and dip the fries in the mayo, but that's what I did. And it was fantastic- an absolutely awesome mix of tangy and spicy. They were served in a small metal bucket which was odd, but they could have been served in an old catcher's mitt and if they tasted as good as this, I'd have eaten every last one.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE-

RICH: I liked this place a lot and would definitely come back. Very interesting choices on the menu too. I feel like I could come back here six or seven times to try things that looked good. Also I have to say our waitress was phenomenal. I kept my receipt in my pocket for a few days so I could remember to get her name off of it for this review but ended up throwing it away without realizing what I was doing. She was so good. She knew the menu very well and convinced us to try something we were not going to try and it ended up being great. Not only that but she didn't attack us with 100 cliche waitress lines of small talk. She was great and she never let our drinks get empty. If I can find her name I'll edit this post so you can all ask for her when you go try them out.

JOSH: I agree, the waitress was incredible. The vibe to the place was small city chic (was I magically transported to New York City?) and everything in the place was its own creation. I applaud them in their creativity, service, and portions. I'll go back and definitely try to hit something else. maybe hit that shake that I made fun of Rich about. I'd give the cook a hearty clap on the back and a slightly too hard handshake while I stare into his eyes and measure his manliness with my ice cold gaze.  

MIKE: Josh's description of small city chic is pretty perfect. I absolutely felt like I was in NYC. The food is served on weird little metal platters with metal buckets which kind of made me feel like it was somewhere between hospital food and some sort of weird science lab, but I guess that's their gimmick. 

MIKE: I wasn't blown away by the burger, but I'd go back just for those brussels sprouts and a milkshake, 100%. Maybe TWO MILKSHAKES (I mean, if all I'm eating is vegetables, why not 2??)

Before you visit BRGR BAR, check out their site online and familiarize yourself with the menu!
http://brgr-bar.com/menus

Feel free to drop us a line if you think of an item or place you would like us to review! You can reach us by email at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com . Or perhaps you're a fan of tweets. WE TWEET! Follow us, we are @fatguyfoodblog on there! Perhaps you'd rather hit us up on Facebook. NO PROBLEM. Give us a LIKE and get all our up to date reviews the moment they go live and some great extras, as well as info on any contests we do! You can find us on there at www.facebook.com/fatguyfoodblog. Until next time... STAY HUNGRY!

Denny's Build Your Own Omelette!

It's no secret that the Fatguyfoodblog crew loves them some Denny's. Any restaurant that offers a "Bacon Pyramid" to educate their guests, along with a Maple Bacon Sundae special...that's great in our book. Yeah. They actually did that. Check out the review HERE. 

So when we see that Denny's is offering a "BUILD YOUR OWN OMELETTE" we got wondering what kind of awesome monstrosity we could create within our nearest Denny's location. So we hopped in the Fatguyfoodblog mobile and drove an hour to the Salem, NH location to tackle this beast. 

The sign lights the way for weary travelers. 

We rode three deep and were greeted like kings when we walked through the door. Perhaps they saw the familiar logo on our shirts and knew we meant business, but I'd like to think that this location simply has their stuff together and knows how to treat customers right. Since there were three of us, we decided this was a call for a three pronged review! So like three would-be Doctor Frankensteins, we grabbed menus and began putting together our own personal monster omelettes!

RICH: I started out with the New Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake. I have to tell you, one thing Denny's always does right is supplying you with that extra bit of the milkshake that doesn't fit in the fancy glass. They could just throw it away or try to pawn it off on some other rube, but no, they give you so much, that it's almost like two milkshakes! Everyone knows the only thing better than one milkshake is two, so this starts off great. How was it? Loaded with peanut butter flavor. The chocolate was an afterthought, but I was okay with it, because I'm a peanut butter fanatic.

 Then my omelette arrived with it's side of hash browns and grilled English muffin. The omelette was pretty damn big. Loaded to the max with Prime Rib, American Cheese, Cheddar cheese,Bacon, Peppers and onions. I had to draw the line at those. I looked at the offered choices and while the fat guy part of my brain was screaming at me to get ALL THE CHEESES, I knew it would be a mistake I would pay dearly for, so I went with a combo I know works, American & Cheddar. Like the dynamic duo of cheeses.

I'll be honest, I had trouble finishing this thing. I mean look at the omelette there on the plate, just dumping out ingredients. It was so loaded that I feel like I would have been full if I had just eaten all of that without the egg at all! But, as any champion knows, you have to dig down deep if you want to achieve glory, so I did what had to be done and put this monster down.


JOSH: You know, I searched high and low for an appropriate tag team wrestling gif for the occasion, but couldn't find anything! So here we are, in an image-less segue. If anyone can find a cool one, post it in the comments and I swear I'll use it in my next post. Onto my review!

I decided to dive into the usual diner standby: coffee. The new Denny's menu boasts flavored coffees, hazelnut and vanilla.

I got myself the vanilla side of these new flavored coffees. I was pleasantly surprised it was exactly as I had hoped, a classic diner brew with a smooth vanilla flavor mixed in. Denny knocked it out of the park by not straying far from what makes a diner cup of joe appealing, and just amped it up a notch.

I then proceeded to Build My Own Sampler, featuring Cheese Quesadilla's and Jalepeno Bottle Caps. The Quesadilla's weren't all that appealing, but I mean what can you expect from a cheese quesadilla. Much like pizza, a bad cheese quesadilla is still a good cheese quesadilla. But these new jalepeno bottle caps, were where we hit the snag. I'm into decently hot stuff, but these, these were just hot for hot's sake. The pepper hotness was not of flavor, but of just whatever hot chemical equation restaurants figure out to make each one of their peppers a different hot level. I'd say dial back the kelvin's and we'd have a more solid appetizer.

That's paint on his thumbnail, folks, Josh is an artist!

sour cream doused the flame

Onto the star of the show, the omelette. I ordered a Ham, Onion, Avacado, American, and Smoky Cheese blend.

rye bread rules

The presentation looked clean, but a man of my tastes was skeptic because of how little I could see my fillings. Normally I want these things bursting with so much that I can look into the kitchen and see a Beautiful Katamari winking at me because he spent the past 30 minutes rolling things into it for me.

My fears were unfounded, as you can see this glorious testament to man's achievement birthed 9lbs 6oz of my favorite various fillings. A Spartan parent would keep this egg baby safe and train him to one day fight alongside it's legion of 300. I loved this omelet. Aside from the not so great quality ham bits you find when they happen to lose the rest of their omelet friends, everything about this was stellar.

Unlike Rich, I was unable to conquer this guy. Tried as I might, I was the Ivan Drago to it's Rocky Balboa. My every bite, taking it's toll, like I was eating iron. This Build Your Own Omelet business should be a permanent thing!

HEATH: Being the "Wild Card" that I am I went straight for the NEW! double chocolate pancake puppies with peanut butter sauce. Being an avid fan of their normal pancake puppies I knew I was in for a treat!

Like Rich, I also love peanut butter! It pumps through my veins, If I ever need a blood transfusion save the O- for someone who needs it more than I do. Fill my I.V. bag up with peanut butter and shoot it straight in. Don't forget the cookie after, I don't want to pass out. This peanut butter sauce was nothing to mess with. They even serve it warmed up a bit! BRAVO.

Being a man of carriage I felt the need to amp this up and asked for some chocolate sauce as well. The waitress happily obliged and smiled. I saw that in her head she was saying "That's a great idea". This was served chilled, opposite of the peanut butter sauce. Together it was as close to heaven as I'm ever going to get, but in my mouth!

double dipping allowed

In the end I couldn't have asked for more! The six puppies I received were more than enough, but I did finish them. I Don't know if they beat the red velvet pancake puppies with cream cheese icing that I had last year, but they were damn good!

So I think, all in all, there's not much bad we can say about this promotion. It was pretty damn fantastic and well worth the money. Get to your local Denny's as fast as you can! When you do, tweet us a pic of your omelette and we'll see if it's as impressive as ours. Will you chicken out like Josh, or rise to glory in the arena like Rich? Either way, GO BUILD YOUR OWN OMELETTE RIGHT NOW!

Visit http://dennys.com/ for more on this insane promotion! As always, you can email us recommendations, questions or comments to fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com, follow us on twitter at @Fatguyfoodblog, or give us a LIKE on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fatguyfoodblog ! 

Wendys Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger!

Recently we began hearing rumors of Wendys launching a burger that strayed from the norm. It was said that it would come on a pretzel bun...and immediately our inbox's starting filling with requests from our readers that we try this thing as soon as humanly possible. Before this I have only ever seen a burger with a pretzel bun and that's at Paddys in Newington, NH. Theirs is tremendous so it had us all wondering how this fast food version would live up.  Then Wendys debuted their Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, and we knew that it was our destiny to face this beast in the arena. Especially after we got messages like the one from our pal, @freaksoda on twitter who deemed this, "the best fast food burger I have ever had." With praise that high we knew there was only one thing to do, hop in the Fatguyfoodblog mobile and head to our nearest Wendys to try...

The Wendys Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger! 

Since Mike was off adventuring, we needed to call upon our old pal Heath, who from time to time joins the crew to write reviews. You may remember him from his review of the Birthday Cake Oreos. He's always up for a challenge so he jumped at the chance to face this burger head on and live to tell about it.

Sweet and Smoky Honey Mustard, Applewood smoked bacon, melted cheddar cheese and two slabs of beef on a soft pretzel bun. So how did it measure up?

RICH: I have to say, I loved this burger. The pretzel bun was soft and chewy, the bacon was perfectly cooked, the burgers were huge and the sweet and smoky honey mustard was out of this world. It mixed with the melted cheddar cheese and was just a really interesting sweet flavor. I was pretty blown away with every bite.

JOSH: I can't argue with you there Rich. I also thought that the flavors crescendo'd into an elegant ballet of flavors upon the tongue! That Sweet and Smokey Mustard should be available on every burger.

HEATH: As a man who prefers his food with a limited amount of flavor, I enjoyed this beast buck naked! I went with a double patty, with only cheese and bacon and none of the other stuff on there. It's called a Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger goddammit and that's all I wanted! I ordered a double, got a single instead. When I asked them about the missing patty, they gave me another one in a separate tray to take back and assemble the burger myself! 

JOSH: How do you not like taste?! You make me sick and I'm glad they messed up your order.

RICH: You should have demanded a completely new burger. Or money back. With a line like, "If I'm gonna build the damn thing myself, I best be gettin' paid, ya hear?"

JOSH: The one and only problem I had with this burger, which may in fact be the king of fast food restaurant burgers, was how the pretzel bun acted as a giant grease trap. With the new "Hot 'n' Juicy burgers being insanely greasy, and now this pretzel bun addition, I think Wendy's has officially went into Full On F*ck It Mode™ and stopped caring about the amount of grease that pours out of their burgers. Now, the question is, do I care? Do I join Wendy's new attitude and dump em out going 90 on the back of a Harley? YUP. This Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger is outstanding and if this is how it needs to be, then hey, I'm all in.

HEATH: I think it had the perfect balance of grease to meat. Nothing wrong with getting a little dribbled on your chin! If you stripped it down you might have not had that problem!

JOSH:  That makes no sense!

RICH: I really didn't notice any grease problem with mine at all. My problem was that I ordered it a DOUBLE with two patties and by the end of it I had all I could do to finish. Now don't get me wrong, I did finish it, because I wouldn't want some FGFB fan to see us out in the wild and then think I'm some sort of fake for not finishing a burger. But damn. It really was tough! Maybe I'll try it single next time. But there will definitely be a next time.

Josh: you could grease a bikers hair for a week with this!

In the end we all agreed that this burger was really, really good. Perhaps even the greatest fast food burger ever. Despite that, there were a few small complaints, Josh thought it might be a little too greasy, Rich got wimpy and thinks it might be better with a single patty rather than double, and Heath liked it stripped down. They all agreed that the bun was fantastic and that restaurants should do away with all other buns and switch to pretzel buns from now on. Together they give the Wendys Pretzel Cheeseburger a CFR(Combined Fatguyfoodblog Rating) of A-!


As always, feel free to drop us a line at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or ideas for reviews! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for mini reviews & junk food news, and LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all our crazy antics!

The girl working the counter at the local Wendys asked if she could get a picture of us. Then we had to do autographs. But we gladly do it for our adoring fans!