Anytime someone mentions a new restaurant in town and then mentions we should have a lunch date there, I feel compelled to try the burger. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t try it and report back to all the fellow burger lovers out there?

Bar Louie is a chain, so I am kind of breaking my own rules. But I made an exception, and I made the rules anyway, so I can break them when I want to. Anyway. Bar Louie (the chain), just opened in The Gulch and that is one of my favorite places for lunch because it is easy to get to from my office and most places have free valet. As is the case with Bar Louie.

Bar Louie is very appropriately named, because the minute you sit down, you want something from the bar. Seeing that this was a week day and I had to go back to the office and drinking is generally frowned upon at the office, I got a diet coke. My friend, who will remain unnamed, but who works for herself and can do whatever the hell she wants to, got a Jack and Diet. Call me jealous.

So, I was also going to be good and eat a salad but when I opened the menu and saw that the second burger on the list of many, was topped with spicy giardiniera (pickled veggies), I changed my mind. A girl can change her mind, especially due to the word spicy.

Wait, I forgot to tell you that Bar Louie has their own hot sauce waiting on the table for you. So this was another deciding factor in ordering the burger. And that was quite a wise decision, if I do say so myself!

The waitress didn’t flinch one bit when I ordered my burger medium rare and the kitchen wasn’t messing around when they cooked it perfectly. Like, as in the bun was red. Yes, I like my burgers to moo at times.

The spicy pickled veggies on top were a superb addition and the provolone cheese was the exact right choice of cheese to balance those bold flavors. A nice dose of hot sauce and a touch of mayo takes this burger to the top 3 of my list.

My favorite is still Fido, followed by Bar Louie and then Tavern, in case you were wondering. And I know you were.