Contribution: Alabama, Part 2: Flip Burger Boutique

This next place cannot be classified as a purveyor of Southern Food.  Despite this, I’m including a review of the restaurant as part of the Alabama series because, well, I went here three times.  Three times, three entrees, three drinks- my, my, my.

Flip Burger Boutique.  Sounds fascinating, does it?  The first Flip was opened in Atlanta (http://www.flipburgerboutique.com).  From what I understand, the one in Birmingham, AL was opened late last year.  Flip is definitely a trendy place, with smooth shiny surfaces, a sleek wooden and reflective bar, and chrome-accented lighting.  Nearly the entire ceiling is covered by a curvy, urban mural that screams, “Check me out, I’m curvy and urban.”  I know nothing about art or interior design, but the restaurant looks pretty cool.

The first time we sat in a booth that had the chrome lighting fixture, that I mentioned earlier, hanging from the ceiling.  The booths weren’t very big, but we fit five of us in there.

On the first visit I ordered the ossobuco burger, with tempura sweet potato fries, and a pistachio and white truffle milkshake.  The sandwich was sublime.  A thick, juicy veal patty topped with braised veal, some gourmet mayonnaise, braised ketchup, and fried onion in between two buns of flaky, crumbly bread.  I was in heaven.  Now, I know a lot of people out there have an aversion to veal, so I apologize to those of you, but me, I am definitely a veal guy, and I felt like someone asked me, ‘Hey, do you want some veal with your veal?”  To that I answered, heck freaking yes.  Wow.  That’s the best way I can describe this burger.

The tempura sweet potato fries were tasty, but there was a lot more tempura than there was sweet potato.  I thought it could have used a little more.  The ace up their sleeve was the chocolate salt.  No, you did not imagine that, and no, it’s not a typo.  Two parts finely ground dark chocolate to one part salt.  Very interesting.  The chocolate salt was sprinkled onto those fries lightly, just enough to add a little flair of flavor at the end of the bite.
The shake.  I like pistachio-based desserts, mostly ice cream and shake-type drinks, and this was a doozy.  The pistachio was not over-the-top, but light and refreshing.  The white truffle was a good touch and added flakes of sweetness into the concoction.  It was really quite good.  I also had the chance to try one of my friend’s nutella and burnt marshmallow shakes.  That was also good, the burnt marshmallow adding an accent to the chocolate and nutella.  Very good.

The second visit, I had a gyro burger and a crème brulée shake with regular fries.  Oh my, I love gyro.  A lamb patty with, yes, you guessed it, braised lamb, shank this time, over the top.  Also tzatziki sauce, a tomato, lettuce, and red onion were fit between the buns.  Juicy patty, and fantastic braised lamb were, oh so fun to devour.  The onion was really strong, perhaps too strong, but they didn’t detract from the sandwich.  The shake was alright, but I didn’t really detect much of a crème brulée flavor other than the really thick caramelized sugar broken over the top.  It wasn’t bad, but I was expecting more.  The fries here are amazing.  They are hand cut, and I don’t know if it’s the smoked mayo and ketchup, or the cilantro they use when preparing them, but they really are something else.

Finally, I get to the mu-shu burger.  The mu-shu was the burger of today, an ever-changing assortment of burgers that they make one day and maybe never again.  This burger had a pork patty with an ‘asian omelet’ over the top along with caramelized onions.  The meat was great, and the omelet and caramelized onions worked well in combining with the tangy sauce and the patty.  I had regular fries again, because they’re that good.  For this meal, however, I had a beer.

I asked the bartender for a suggestion, and she listed a number of high-density beers that the restaurant deals with. I opted for the one she said was a best seller, and truly, while I was sitting at the bar, maybe 20 of those went out.  Orange Blossom Pilsner is an 11% by volume beer with orange blossom honey used as the yeast-food.  The flavor was much like a wheat beer, but the subtle hint of orange was definitely a nice touch.  Definitely try it if you can find it (http://www.uniquebeers.com/obp).  It went down great with the meal.

If you ever find yourself in Atlanta or Birmingham, or if Flip expands out to where you are, check it out.  Huge patties on your burger, great shakes (oh, I forgot to mention they use liquid nitrogen to chill and pull out some moisture from the ice cream in the shakes….pretty darned cool).  You will not be disappointed.  My only regret is that I only got to this place three times in my time out here.

Barbeque in Alabama??? A contribution from my little bro...part 1

Anthony put the idea in my head to be a contributing writer on this blog. Truth is, I thought it’d be a fun challenge. Anthony seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I figured why not. Being out of town on business, I’ve had several opportunities to check out a lot of restaurants, many offering some sort of Southern specialty cuisine. So here you are. This is the first part of a multi-part series on the food in Birmingham, Alabama. Enjoy. I know I did.


Alabama, Part 1: Full Moon Bar-B-Que

I went to this place on a suggestion from my coworker, David, who said that the place had been rated top ten barbecue in the country according to MSN. It was a Saturday, my first one out in ‘Bama and I figured, why not give it a try?

Walking into the place, the first thing that I noticed was that it wasn’t a sit-down restaurant and appeared to be more of a fast-food place. This worried me. I did like that there were television screens all over the place all tuned to sports channels of one sort or another. The walls were decorated with all sorts of sports paraphernalia from Auburn gear, to Crimson Tide photos, to NASCAR mementos. My first visit, there were actually all sorts of Indy Race crews eating there, as there was a big Indy event in town that weekend. Way cool. I must also point out some of the t-shirts worn by female employees; the shirts read on the back, ‘The Best Butts in town,” and I’m afraid my gaze was drawn unconsciously down. Seeing as how I’m currently engaged, I think I will withhold judgment on whether or not they’re the best in town. Ambiance was definitely southern.

Onto the food. I have been trying to be a little healthier with my food choices (with mixed success, as you will see with some of my other food choices down the line), so I decided on a barbecue plate of a ¼ chicken with collard greens, corn on the cob, and a piece of cornbread.

First, the chicken: tender, juicy, full of flavor. The meat disintegrated off the bones. The barbecue sauce was sweet and tangy, and not too much of one or the other for an excellent sauce. I ripped through that chicken much like the Tasmanian Devil rips through trees in the classic Looney Toons show. As for the sides, the corn was sweet and buttery, probably not the healthiest dish, but what do you expect from a BBQ place in the Deep South? I’ve never really had collard greens. My mom probably doesn’t even know what they are, so I’ve gone most of my life without trying them. Now that I have, I compare the taste to having steamed spinach, and I happen to love spinach! Now, I’m in no way an expert on these vegetables, so I apologize if my first experience with them does not match up to your collective expertise. This brings us to the cornbread. Yum. That’s pretty much all that needs to be said. The cornbread here is not overly sweet and it was perfect for mopping up the barbeque sauce that was left on the plate.

I came here a second time and ordered a barbeque chicken sandwich. I probably could have been a little more adventurous with the choice of meat, but, I was still trying to preserve some farce of eating healthier. Excellent sandwich! The chicken was just as good as it was when I had it in quarter-chicken form. This is probably because the chicken had recently been pulled off the bones to be placed in my sandwich. Additionally, there was a lot of it. After only a few bites, chicken was falling out of my sandwich! Typically, I also had fries. The fries were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They were a little on the salty side, but not too bad.

I recommend this place for anyone that loves barbecue. Not sure if I agree with a nationwide top ten, but the barbecue is delicious, the chicken is great, the price is not offensive, and you can’t go wrong with the local sports theme. Check this place out online (www.fullmoonbbq.com); you can also check out their MSN/Gayot review (http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/best-us-top10-barbecuerestaurants_7_01us.html). Oh, and they serve alcohol, like most of the places do here in Alabama, which is to say they have bottled beer.