Boogie's Burgers

I guess I'll dive right into this first post by reviewing a restaurant. I was going to write an opening statement declaring my intentions and apologizing for the rough draftmanship of this newborn project of mine. Instead I will just say - I don't really know what I'm doing but I will learn as I go.

I am in an ironic predicament where I find myself to be a vegetarian with a fascination for hamburgers. Not just burgers either, but a compulsive desire to investigate all sorts of food stuffs whether or not they contain previously animate organisms. So for the love of science, I do eat meat from time to time. I get criticized often for being a hypocrite, and maybe I am. Most people are omnivores, eating both meat and vegetables. Then you have your hippies vegans and vegetarians who are partial to the herbivore lifestyle. You even have your Baconators... your "meat-atarians" who believe there is nothing wrong with the carnivore lifestyle. I once saw a guy in a campus cafeteria force down a piece of iceburg lettuce in order to postpone a bout of scurvy. Just as hilarious are the Atkins folk who will douse themselves with saturated fats but nary a whole grain.

I am more like a bi-sexual of food. I oscillate between the meat and vegetable lifestyle, though I do have a preference for the organic, local, vegetarian lifestyle, which inclines me to label myself vegetarian. Then when I stray, the people say: "Oh, I thought you were a vegetarian .... just couldn't stay away from the meat could you!" Now insert the word "lesbian" for "vegetarian", and you will see the analogy.

So anyways. I slept in today. Had my bran flakes. Contemplated life. My friend Kevin calls me up since he figured I needed some cheering up. So we drive around and run some errands, and whilst on Edmonton Trail, I see the sign for Boogie's Burgers. Since I am embedded with this strange goal to discover the best burger in Calgary, and had done my research, I had heard of Boogie's Burgers and it was on my list. So we turned the car around and went for it. We each ordered the basic single burger.

Impressive! The burger was big and wide but not sloppy. The bun was fresh and had some character. I opted for my onions fried; the lettuce was crunchy and tidy.... I think there was tomato. But I'm not one for a major tomato explosion anyway. There was some sort of sauce, which played its part alright. The patty itself was thin but it had a presence. It wasn't meat heaven, but it was decent. I'm not sure if the patties get frozen or not, but my guess would be .... no?

I ordered the spicy fries for my side and Kevin had the regular fries. Interestingly, they are not the same cut of fry with one basket spiced up. The spicy fries are a thicker cut and the regular fries are more of a shoe string. Yam fries are also available, as are many varieties of burger featuring everything from mushroom sauce, to pizza sauce, from bacon to wieners. There are a few chicken burgers, as well as a veggie burger and a salmon burger to appease my vegetarian side. They also do one of those hotdogs wrapped with bacon and deep fried. Oh, and there is a bacon maple milkshake. We just weren't up to it. Despite quite a variety of milkshake flavours, we opted for soda today. I should also say the atmosphere was nice.... colorful, seating options, friendly staff, and some good rock tunes. Not a bad choice for a foodie burger fiend.

Boogie's Burgers
908 Edmonton Trail NE
Calgary, AB
403-230-7070
http://www.boogiesburgers.com