The Texas Two-Step, or Double-Double

We've been moving kinda slow here at Burger Central lately.  Perhaps it's all the grilled beef we've been eating.  Maybe it's the fries.  Consider this posting a mea culpa, for today, we cover not one but two burger joints: Pappa's Burgers in Houston, and Tookie's, in Seabrook.

Pappa's Burgers was the August stop on our burger journey.  The restaurant is part of the incredibly popular chain, founded by brothers Pete and Jim Pappas in 1967.  The Pappas brand includes high end steak houses, barbecue joints, seafood restaurants, and Mexican, Cajun and Greek outlets.  The Pappas boys follow a simple strategy: good food in large quantities, peppy waitstaffs, and lots of old license plates on the walls.  Chris and Harris Pappas, who currently head the company, share and estimated net worth of $200 million, so it's clear the Pappas family knows what it's doing.

The burger place is typical Pappa's.  It's clean, and crowded, and staffed by energetic young people, dressed in colorful t-shirts and baseball caps.  The food is dependably tasty.  We've learned over the last year that not all burgers are created equal.  Pappa's Burger is on the plus side of the ledger, juicy, flavorful, and accompanied by satisfying sides.  All in all, a fine experience, indeed.

 

In September, we made the long drive to Seabrook, to sample the burgers at Tookie's, a bayside institution since 1975.  Tookie's is best known for The Squealer, a half-pound patty of Angus beef and chopped bacon, and The Bean Burger, featuring crushed Doritos and Pace Picante Sauce, topped with a layer of refried beans.  They also offer Pelican Eggs, a mix of smoked beef and cheese, tucked into a breaded jalapeno and deep fried.  Tookie's is also known for having come back from the disaster of 2008's Hurricane Ike, when the Galveston Bay storm surge pushed four feet of water into the restaurant, destroying everything.  After four years of renovations, Tookie's reopened in 2012, and has been going strong ever since.

Tookie's is the neighborhood joint equivalent of Pappa's Burgers.  The place is lousy with old street signs and gas station memorabilia, just like Pappa's.  The dining area is packed with customers, just like Pappa's.  The waitstaff is energetic and young and peppy, just like Pappa's (although the Tookie's  girls are squeezed into uniforms that are a little more, um, just like Hooter's).  

The food?  It was a bacchanal of beef, an orgy of onion rings, a frenzy of french fries.  So much food.  Sooooo muuuuch foooood.  And it was all delicious, oozy and enormous burgers, hand formed and perfectly seared, onion rings as big as Cleopatra's bracelets, and skin-on, hand cut fries.  We've eaten a lot of fine burgers this year, and Tookie's is right up there with the best of them.

 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...There's A Really Good Burger

Our most recent Burger Journey stops have included a place that looked like a classic Texas roadhouse, but served Sysco-style industrial burgers, a local chain that combined McDonald's atmosphere with a superior burger, and a charming little shop that was long on ambiance, and just a little short on taste.

Would we ever discover a place that combines the quirks and eccentricities of pure Mom and Popdom with a burger that makes you understand why the God of the Old Testament listed char-broiled beef as His sacrifice of choice?

This month, we may have found it.

Tornado Burger is a Local Joint.  Plopped in the middle of an abandoned strip mall parking lot on FM 1092 in Missouri City, a stretch noteworthy for both its ridiculously heavy traffic and its Urban Wasteland ugliness, there is nothing about Tornado Burger that makes you think "this must be part of a chain."

The building is a mess of condiments, French's Mustard yellow walls with ketchup trim and a roof the color of sliced dill pickles.  Signage abounds, much of it really wordy, and hard to read (one sign, touting Tornado's Philly Style Cheese Steak, featured the phrase "gettouttaheah!" in a weird, cursive script that looked at first glance like "gonorrhea!") 

I must admit, I was worried.

We didn't get a good look at the interior; The Brain Trust had decided that for this visit, we'd order take-out and eat at home.

The menu is fairly sraightforward.  There are some wrinkles -- the aforementioned cheese steak, a veggie burger, something (if I remember right) with lamb in it -- but for the most part, it's burgers, fries, and drinks:

 
Service was fast, and friendly.  The brown take-out bags, telltale spots of grease seeping through the sacks, smelled delicious on the drive home.  Things looked promising.

And they were.

The Spicy Triple -- three slices of cheese and three patties of fresh ground Angus, spiked with liberal amounts of Worcestershire, pepper, fresh onions, garlic and jalapenos, was piquant and oozy and altogether fantastic.  The fries, fresh cut and liberally salted, were a worthy partner to the burger.  This is one Triple that is clearly a Home Run! (That last line brought to you by the Amalgamated Union of Cheesy Review Comments, Southwest Houston Division.)

Don't take my word for it -- read on:

 Debbie concurs:

This place has the BEST burger so far for me.  It has that factor that the others have been missing.....the OOZE factor.  I loved it!  Juicy meat, grilled onions (I opted for those) and the cheese just came together so perfectly.  I don't normally get a double meat cheeseburger, but I did this time.  It was terrific.  When the juices drop down your fingers after you take a bite, you know it's a keeper.  I loved it and will definitely go back!  

Sarah, who's liked 'em all, liked this one best of all:

Am I Will Rogers or who???  I have loved all of the burgers, but this Tornado burger was the best...so far.  My idea would be to change out the fries (too soggy) with fresh fries from McDonalds.  I've judged the six burgers so far.  Tornado Burger is número uno.

Lynda begs to differ:

I like Tornado Burger's burger, but given that the place is known for their cheeseburgers and I got a regular 3 oz plain burger, I must say that I like the onion strings better than the burger.  I also think they are generous with their fries.  I will try a cheeseburger some day, but for this comparison, I always order a regular burger, and theirs is skimpy.

Erin took a walk on the spicy side:
 
The Tornado burger was truly delicious!  I was brave and got the double spicy burger and loved it!  It was juicy, tasty, and quite satisfying.  The spice gave it a nice kick.  The fries?  Not so much.  Again, am not a fan of limp fries.  I think I will stick with onion rings next time.  

Another Burger, In Another Time

We are a busy family.  It seems like every time we try to get together, one branch or another of our tree is going madly off in all directions: this weekend alone, we had people driving cross-country; people attending a Church conference; and people moving into a brand-new home.  Summertime, and the living is busy.

With our numbers depleted, and all of us feeling a little overwhelmed by the perpetual churn of activities, we decided to take a small step back, into a simpler era.  This month, we followed old Highway 90 south, to Rosenberg, where we sampled the charms of Another Time Soda Fountain and Cafe.

Another Time is an old-fashioned, small-town restaurant, in what used to be the central business district of Rosenberg.  There's not much business left in the business district: the storefronts closest to Another Time are all occupied by antique shops and gift emporiums, and further down the street, it's Little Mexico, nothing but yerberias and shops selling religious curios.  The once-bustling Rosenberg railroad station, right across F Street from Another Time, is now a museum.  These days, the freight trains rumble through without stopping, and the business gets done on US 90, an endless string of charmless, mostly vacant strip malls, fast food joints and tumbledown resale shops.

Another Time is an oasis.  The main dining area, with its long, hardwood counter and pressed tin ceiling, is straight out of "It's A Wonderful Life".  The wait staff is unfailingly friendly and energetic, and completely comfortable accommodating a large group.

Now THIS is Old-Timey!

 The walls are decorated with all sorts of mementos, from vintage photos of bygone Rosenberg to train memorabilia to old movie posters to framed newspapers declaring "Victory In Europe" to old advertising signs.  The place fairly drips with nostalgia.

Did you know that in the 1920s, Babe Ruth starred in three feature length films?  That's the same number as Shaquille O'Neal!

 

It's a safe bet that Cream O' Wheat won't be bringing back this ad campaign anytime soon.  Sheesh!

It's all very nice, but as the man said, you can't eat scenery. 

"Enough yappin', man -- get to the burgers!"

First the positives: those who ordered shakes from the soda fountain were very, very pleased: 

The burgers were 1/2 pound patties on a perfectly toasted bun (the buns appeared to come from the bakery next door).  The fixin's -- tomato, HUGE wedge of dill pickle, onion and lettuce -- were all very fresh and very tasty.  The fries were crispy, hot, and well-salted.

The burger, you ask?  It was fine.  A tad dry, but good enough.  The toasted bun and the generous helping of pickle compensated for the overcooked meat.  That's not really the point.  

"Whaddaya mean, 'that's not the point'?  I came to EAT!"

This wasn't the best burger we've sampled.  It was far from the worst (I'm talking to you, Live Oak Grill).  And it was so nice. We had a good meal, in a lovely setting, and for a little while, we enjoyed a time and place when everything wasn't so pressured, so demanding, so busy.  

The Clean Plate Ranger strikes again!

Another Time was exactly what we needed.

Lynda offers her thoughts:

I enjoyed our visit to Another Time in Rosenberg.  The atmosphere was quaint and comfortable, the wait stuff was attentive but not intrusive, and the burger had a lot of flavor, as did the onion rings.  My only complaint was that the diet limeade was very watery and not super cold, and for $3, it was not money well spent.  I would like to go back to this place as it is relaxed and peaceful and friendly.

Sarah, a small town girl at heart, felt right at home: 

Enjoyed our journey to Rosenberg.  Loved the 1940-1950 atmosphere.  The burger was big and a little dry, but good.  The fries were good.  I wished that I had ordered a shake.  Oh well! All in all it was fun and good. 

Erin loved the whole Wayback Machine feel of it all:

I wanted to add my thoughts of our last burger excursion.  Sorry for the delay.  I simply forgot!  

I loved the orange dreamsicle shake and became quite giddy over the ambiance.  The old timey look and feel sang to me and put a genuine smile on my face.  The burger, however, did not.  It was okay and if I was really hungry and tired from a long drive, it would have been satisfying.  After enjoying some of our previous burgers, this one was a bit dry and lacked flavor.  It is a good large size yet disappointing in the actual tasting.  The fries were also weak.  I like crisp and salty fries not limp ones.

But, there are other food items I am willing to try.  Why? Because I love the place, the vintage pictures, the soda fountain, and the small town it is located in.  No one to impress, just a good time to be had, enjoying a simpler time at " Another Time".