Van Zandt

Burger #5: Van Zandt – VZ Pounder – $18???

Yet again my camera was broken,
so I had to borrow pics from Urbanspoon

I am at work on Thursday, December 22, 2011 and since Christmas is three days away no one is here and I have no work that I can get done so here goes another review you all won’t see for a while.  I figure if I stockpile reviews this next week or two, I’ll be caught up on reviews and can shoot them out whenever I get busy during the week.  Everyone else I talk to is fretting to get their work in before the end of the year, but since my company is German owned, about 1/3 of the employees are not around.  This significantly limits anything I can get done since I am still new here.  The company is on a week and a half mandatory shut down starting tomorrow, so I will be driving back to Wisconsin tomorrow to see family and friends.  It’s funny how the more friends I make here, and I do make a LOT of friends now, I look forward to going home less and less and I see the 7 to 10 hour drive as a hassle, especially in Chicago holiday traffic!  Also, the snow and I don’t work well together anymore, but why is a longgg story we don’t have time for.

This is review #27 in the order of which I had the burgers, VanZandt Restaurant and Tavern, and it was #5 on Cincinnati.com ‘s top 40 burger list.  VZ is in college Hill, which it turns out I may have never been to.  I never know where I’ve been in this city because there are so many small little ecosystems that never meet and too many names for an outsider like me to remember.  One thing about Cincy is I never stop getting lost in this city, even with google maps on my phone!  I got there just later than I wanted.  My friend was already there for a bit when I finally showed up.  It was Friday, August 9^th 2011 at dinner time and it was a nice night and the place was busy, so we decided to sit at the bar.  VZ is an upscale pub/comfort food restaurant with an older crowd, but most of them cater to the older crowd.  The bar area was very nice and well lit and the beer and wine selection were pretty good.  If I was going on a date in that area, I’d probably take here there since I don’t know anything else in the area.  

The menu includes everything you’d expect at a pub, just a lot more palatable.  App’s include a smoked bacon crab cake, soft pretzels made fresh daily, and a sun dried tomato quesadilla.  Sandwiches are on house made buns and include: grilled cheese on house made onion foccaccia, locally made german mett on house made pretzel bun, and panko breaded cod.  VZ also makes their own pizza with homemade dough which looked really good when someone else ordered it.  The margherita has garlic oil & basil pesto plus a few others have smoked gouda, which is one of my favorites.  Meatloaf, blackened salmon and panko breaded catfish finish off the entrée list. 

The burgers are locally grown beef, and limited to size and composition.  There is the 8 oz. VZ classic, the 16 oz. VZ Pounder and the Turkey burger.  From there you make the burger your own with the many, many awesome burger toppings…no silly name needed!  I had the VZ pounder (I know, I know…this sounds soooo dirty, and if you and I are friends you probably laughed the first time you read the name in the title up top) with bacon and artichoke.  I sound like a glutton, but at the time I was preparing for a half marathon, which makes me eat twice to three times as much as a normal man. When the burger came it was gigantic!  I ended up only eating half and taking it home for breakfast/lunch Saturday morning.  This was 2 half pound normal burgers stacked on each other.  The meat wasn’t seasoned too much, but it was pink (medium) and perfectly greasy.  The bacon was average, not great but there was a fair amount of it. I really liked the artichokes on top which isn’t something you find in a lot of restaurants.  Here is where they get bonus points: they toasted their fresh home made potato chive bun!  When you toast the bun and have a slightly greasy burger it soaks up all those awesome flavors and makes for really f-ing good taste.  30 seconds people, that’s all it takes!   I think the price on mine was like 18$ but I can’t find a menu with a price online.  What can I say I’m an expensive date...Haha!  The fries that came with it were your normal fries, but they were crispy, which was a huge difference from the worst fries at the Gas Light Café I had a week earlier.  The service here was pretty good since we were at the bar, but it was because there was a wait for a table at the time so get there early.  My friend ended up having the 8 oz. burger with artichoke hearts, kalmata olives and feta cheese, which sounds like a pretty good Mediterranean burger to me.  She was pleasantly pleased with the burger, but still sticks by Gordo’s peanut butter cream cheese, jelly and bacon as her favorite. 

This was a very good experience overall.  I’d recommend hitting Van Zandt sometime even if not for a burger.  It was a bit pricey and out of the way for me since I am near downtown, so it’ll be a while before I get back out there.