I was meeting with Rick Kidder at the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce last week when a magazine cover caught my eye! It was the most beautiful photo of a burger I have ever seen! As my fellow foodies know, any really good food photos can be a sensory overload. The bun, the cheese, the pickle on top. My mouth started watering immediately

I grabbed the magazine “Where” and shoved it in my bag for further gawking purposes. After my meeting, I raced to the car to call my business partner, J.

            “Dude. What do you know about this Bourbon Steak place and have you SEEN what his burgers look like,” I said.

            “ I have not been there yet Suz, but does Scottsdale really need another steakhouse?” He quipped.

I was sold. I love steak. I love meat of any kind really. But I especially love it when famous chefs try their hand at pedestrian food like burgers.

I quickly convinced J that our next meeting w/ our PR team needed (NEEDED!) to be held at the Scottsdale Princess and more importantly at Bourbon Steak so I could behold Michael Mina’s signature beef burger goodness.

We arrived at 4:30 (thinking the lounge would surely be open) and were dismayed to discover they open at 5. So we headed out to Stone Rose (the swanky bar in the courtyard outside of the lobby). Stone Rose had the front doors open but informed us they weren’t open until 5:30. Luckily for them (we are quite cranky when told “no”) they let us stay and served us with a smile!

We had a productive meeting with Beth Cochran, our super fantastic PR friend, and by 6 PM I was starving and craving meat. You would think I had an iron deficiency or something??

 Anyhow, we headed into Bourbon. (I might have scampered a bit…) The first part of the restaurant is very dark and wine bottles, shelves, candles and bamboo plants seem to be the décor of choice. The hostess seated us in the main dining area which was much lighter and surrounded by windows overlooking the front drive of the Princess.

At 6:15 we were the only patrons in the entire place. A server brought us the menu. I scoured it for the burger of my life. Hmm…nothing. $150 Kobe Steak, $43 Filet…no BURGER??? I summoned the waiter.

            “Um, how do I get one of those burgers?” I asked.

            “You have to sit in the lounge for that…” he replied with a bit of fear in his eyes. (perhaps he could see the glint in my eye and the drool on my lips?)

The nice man relocated us to the lounge. We sipped on some summer cocktails and filled out the clip boards we were given with our burger specifications.

Clipboard you fill out with your burger specs. Make sure to get up and hand it to the bartender...

            We waited. We ordered some drinks. We waited some more. Finally, I asked the bartender if he was also our server. He said yes, and continued to make drinks. *Sigh*

            J decided to design his own lamb burger. I went with the house beef burger. It has sharp chedder sauce, sautéed red onion, shredded lettuce and a “special” sauce. We tapped on the table. They brought us some fries. A trio of paprika, truffle and green onion w/ dipping sauces. Pretty tasty. Compliments of the chef.

3 types of fries--delicious and free. Good combo.

            The manager with the faux hawk came around a few times and asked if we were ok. We asked for his card (in case we wanted to do a burger tasting there at a later date). He brought us water. We tapped the table some more.

            Finally, our burgers arrived. I cut my burger in half (after we did some food paparazzi) and sunk my teeth in. It looked like a reasonable facsimile of the magazine cover. It tasted, good. Not amazing. Not like the picture looked. It was a bit sloppy and messy for my taste. I felt like I was on a Carl’s Junior commercial. The onions were stringy and over cooked. The special sauce was indeterminable, but good. The cheese was more of a sauce than a piece of melted goodness. Hmm….The best part was the sesame seed bun. It was nicely buttered, crunchy and toasted to perfection.

Bourbon Steak's Signature Beef Burger--That bun was AMAZING!

J ordered his lamb burger sans bun (I know, I don’t really understand that either) with a cucumber, yogurt and dill sauce, onion and tomato. I took a bite of J’s lamb burger and it was good.

Bunless Lamb Burger--oh the horror!

Quite heavy on the cumin (which is interesting I would criticize considering my obsession with cumin) but the spice took away from the taste of the lamb.

            We wrapped up the meal and headed to our homes. On my way back to my house, I started thinking that $14 for a burger that came with slow service was really not that amazing. I also realized that food photos don’t define the actual taste of said food. I also realized that I have high service and quality expectations and yet again, this recession has caused restaurants to under staff so much, that those expectations are not being met.

            The moral of this burger story is famous chefs can cook and create some truly fantastic food. However, if the service is not up to par, it can flavor the entire experience.