Max's Wine Dive

Week 10
Matchup Flattop Burger Shop VS Max's WIne Dive



Brian:

Dre:

Zach:  Wow, Max's Wine Dive, you just lost a burger battle by 20 freaking points.  Maybe that Texas monthly list went to your head or maybe people at Texas Monthly don't know what a good burger is.  Maybe both.  I have no idea but you got your ass handed to you in a bun.  Does that even work - what I just said?  I don't know.  Obviously, Max's was to some degree a victim of economics.  Most people don't mind paying a premium price for a premium product. But a premium price for a so-so product -no, they don't.  It's almost like your mind is going to adjust how it tastes the food knowing what the burger costs.  In this case, it cost $15.  I was also a little dismayed that I thought I was ordering a $6 beer on draft but it was just a $6 bottle of beer.  To the actual burger.

    We all ordered approximately the same burger with blue cheese and bacon.  They had other fancy varieties of cheese but I had a sudden moment of doubt whether it was "grue-yare" cheese or "grue-yay" cheese so I panicked and said just give me what he had.  We also all asked for medium rare since they asked how we wanted it cooked.  The burgers came out decidedly un-rare, honestly bordering on well done - at least in the realm of gourmet burgers - cooked until gray and chewy is basically well done even if not charred on the outside.  The bread had a good enough taste to it and the toppings seemed fresh enough, but all together it was just not working out.  Mainly because of the overcooked meat.  The blue cheese was actually adding a quite funky taste as well.  This was not typical crumbly blue cheese, but something with the consistency more like brie.  Any bite with this creamy paste was not a good bite.  The construction of this burger was all off also.  At one point I had three bites of just bread, tomato, and bacon, and I noted somewhat bemusedly that it was a pretty tasty sandwich when the hamburger patty and cheese wasn't involved.  The fries were good, bordering on great.  Hot and fresh with the right amount of salt and a bit of garlic in the mix.
    Service was good and friendly. Atmosphere is somewhat d-baggy like many downtown places.  I mean, we did go to a place called Max's Wine Dive so I guess I should have expected as much but the thought process was which place had the best shot at competing since Mike's Pub had closed down and we needed a replacement burger.  No place we went could probably compete with Flat Top head to head, but we could have at least saved some money at a cheaper place that would have been better.  I think lesson has finally been learned - expensive, gourmet style burgers are usually bad.  

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	8	7.5	7.25
Meat	6.5	6.5	6.5
Toppings	8.5	6.5	7
Construction	7	6	6
Overall	7.5	6	6.25
Total Burger	56.25	48.125	49.06
Sides	8.5	6.5	7
Atmosphere	7.5	8	6.5
Value	2.5	3	4
Non Burger	17.25	16	15.5
Totals	73.5	64.13	64.6
Combined		67

Burger Tex (Guadalupe) 

Matchup: Cover 3 vs Burger Tex


Brian:

Dre:

Zach:


  Gotta keep it brief.  As we sort of expected, Burger Tex pulled an upset over Cover 3.  Maybe it really wasn't that much of an upset really - the time we ate at Cover 3 previously the burger was good but it didn't make time stop so you could dodge bullets or anything.  Burger Tex was solid.  I obviously did not like it as much as my burger compatriots but it was solid.  After Cover 3 I have become more aware of a burger's temperature and the burger was served fresh and hot.  Even after getting sides and some water everything was still hot.  My main complaint with the burger here is the bun is a bit thick and chewy relative to the size of the patty which is thin and cooked pretty done.  A two patty burger here would probably be pretty killer.  They do build-your-own burger which in my opinion is a double edged sword.  That is, if the burger sucks, you only have yourself to blame to some degree.  I left with some feelings of doubt that maybe I put too much mayo on my burger.  Or maybe not enough pickles.  I'd rather leave this sort of decision making to an expert and just leaving the eating (and judging)  to me.  Fries are pretty good here as well.  Served hot at least.  Onion Rings were pretty tasty although a little bit 'wet' inside.  When the breading makes a perfect seal it locks in moisture and makes rings too moist.  The ones that are not sealed are typically better.  By the way, there are between 2 and 4 Burger Tex locations in Austin. We aren't really sure.  2 claimed to be 'the original' but the Guadalupe location has the award from Texas Monthly where their "Bulgogi Burger" placed on the list.  This location was in my opinion a good bit better than the Airport location.

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	7	7.5	6.5
Meat	8	8	7
Toppings	8.5	8.5	7
Construction	9	9	7
Overall	8.25	8	7
Total Burger	61.25	61.25	51.875
Sides	6.75	7	8
Atmosphere	7	6.5	7
Value	8	8	6.5
Non Burger	17.75	17.5	18.25
Totals	79	78.8	70.13
Combined		76

Cover 3

PICS

Week X
Matchup X
A VS B


Brian:

Dre:

Zach:

So you're a burger spot that scored on Texas Monthly list and now you want to get upset by a once great but somewhat washed up burger spot.  What do you do?  That's easy, serve a cold burger and fries.  Yeah, Cover 3 has good ingredients but serve them cold and it ain't too great.  We really weren't blown away by Cover 3 the first time we had burgers here to watch a game but this was worse.  I plan to judge fairly but I am sort of pulling for Burger Tex to pull an upset here.

Box Score:  

Cover 3		2/29/12
	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	7	7	6.5
Meat	7	6	6.5
Toppings	7.5	8	7
Construction	8	8	7
Overall	7	6.5	6.5
Total Burger	54.38	52.5	50
Sides	7.5	8	6
Atmosphere	7.75	9	7.75
Value	6.75	5.5	6
Non Burger	18.63	19.75	16.75
Totals	73	72.25	66.8
Combined		71