Your Mom's Burger Bar

Brian:

Dre:

Zach:  Ahh yes, got to love the second round of Burger Wars.  For the most part we don't really expect any mediocre burgers at this point, it's just a matter of who is the best of the best.  The Burger Club had been to Your Mom's before prior to starting the bracket and reviews were mixed.  Personally I have always had a good burger here, especially the Buffalo Bill burger.  That is what I had this time and I believe everyone else did also.  Everything on this burger works together.  Most buffalo burgers seem to mainly just go for meat, buffalo sauce and bleu cheese - and that's pretty good.  But here there is an addition of a pepper, tomato, bacon, and onions, a large pepper, and some Ranch Dressing.  Sounds like a lot but it's incredibly flavorful.  Some burgers are just begging to be dipped in ketchup, but not this one - it would just be wrong to disturb the complex flavor it already has going on.  I did note a small difference from the East location and that was they used to use small grape tomatoes split in half and here they just used regular sliced tomatoes.  I really like the flavor of those grape tomatoes and maybe it was a temporary substitution so I'm not going to picket them or anything over this.  I also really like the bun on this burger even though from the outside it looks like it's going to be a tough somewhat hard bun.  It's definitely unique I haven't noticed any buns like this in our burger journeys.  One last point about this burger which I hope applies to the rest of their crazy burgers here, and that is it tastes to me like someone actually tasted these burgers when making them up.  Some places have crazy burgers that just don't work.  You have to wonder if the restaurant even has an idea what they taste like or if they don't care, they just figure having a burger with a lot of different stuff mixed in will sell well.
     Moving past the burger, the fries were a bit different than a remembered before.  Heavily seasoned with who knows what - perhaps a mix of salt, paprika, fajita seasoning, pepper, and maybe sugar.  They were a tiny bit overcooked, but the seasoning carried them through anyways and they were pretty good.  Had some rings that were decent, but not spectacular. The onions are too thick mainly and the frying not light golden and delicious but a little bit more dark golden and on the greasy side.  I was somewhat surprised that even starting from scratch with a new building, they managed to create an atmosphere that was actually worse than the other location.  I'm not an interior designer myself, but there are just many things wrong with their space from the layout of tables to the colors to the odd choice of wall hangings.  We puzzled over a painting that may have been Butch Vig, Leonard Coen, Bruce Springsteen, or Frank Zappa for some time.  Then there are about 10 paintings of Madonna as a comic book character in various phases of her career. Ordering is slightly awkward too as you stand and make your order by a long bar.  Part of the awkwardness was perhaps due to how stoned the cashier was.  Prices are really reasonable considering how good everything is here.  Definitely see Your Moms as a rising star in the bracket.

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	8	7	8.25
Meat	8.5	8.25	8.5
Toppings	8.5	8.5	8.5
Construction	8.25	7.5	8
Overall	8.75	7.75	8.5
Total Burger	63.438	58.438	62.81
Sides	7.5	7	7
Atmosphere	6.5	6.5	7.25
Value	8	8	8.5
Non Burger	18	17.5	18.5
Totals	81.44	75.94	81.3
Combined		80

The Frisco

Brian:

Dre:

Zach:

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	6.5	7	7
Meat	6.75	7	7
Toppings	5	6	7.5
Construction	6	7	7
Overall	6	6.75	7
Total Burger	45.313	50.625	53.13
Sides	7	8.25	8.5
Atmosphere	4	3	6.5
Value	5	6	6.75
Non Burger	13.5	14.25	18.38
Totals	58.81	64.875	71.5
Combined		65

Phil's Icehouse

Phil's Icehouse



Brian:

Dre:

Zach:

Another solid burger from Phil's.  My burger was a bit more cooked than I would like so next time I think I will tell them medium.  It's usually fine without telling them but this time was a little bit done.  Dre said Medium and he said he was great.  The bacon was not quite perfect either, a bit on the chewy side and not too crunchy nor completely flavorful but Phil's bread and meat combo is so good it's hard to go wrong.  Sides were good as usual.  A solid showing for sure.

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	8.5	8.25	8.25
Meat	8.5	8	7.75
Toppings	8.5	8	7
Construction	7.5	8	7
Overall	8.25	8	8
Total Burger	61.875	60.313	57.5
Sides	7.5	6.5	7
Atmosphere	7	6.5	7.25
Value	8.5	8.5	8.5
Non Burger	18.75	17.25	18.5
Totals	80.63	77.56	76
Combined		78

Casino el Camino

Casino El Camino

Brian:

There is not a lot to be said again about Casino.  You will note my score is much lower this time.  My burger was poorly constructed and that was a big problem.  It was falling apart all over the place and there was a lot of bread left at the end.  Now to counter this, there were some really meaty bites that were awesome.  Still, I think we all crave a burger that sticks together like a good family.  Another good thing was the cheese was tasty and they didn't skimp.  Or maybe I just had a couple of bites that were heavy on the cheese and I am remembering those.  This is a meal that was sabotaged by the dreaded cheap ketchup botle.  The ketchup tasted sweet and cheap.  Or maybe it had fermented and was turning into a heady brew.  I couldn't mess with it though and that is no good when you are eating a burger and fries.  Big point deduction.  Got Zach talking about bringing his own ketchup in a holster.  God I want to see that.  Will take a picture if it happens.  The meat was really tasty.  Overall this tasted very much like a burger I could make at home, which isn't all that bad but then when you think I had to go to Sixth Street it gets less enjoyable.  I'm not drinking beer or whatever right now so the usefulness of eating at a bar did nothing for me tonight.  All in all this is an Austin institution, they make a solid burger and you can have a good time here.   But the time has come to say good night to Casino in this year's Burger Bracket.

Dre:

Zach:  

Getting in to the second round match-ups we already have a battle between two of Austin's best known and loved burger spots Hutts and Casino El Camino.  Honestly they both fell way short for me of past burgers I have had but both were good.  My burger in the first round at Casino was pretty bad, they had obviously messed it up in more ways than one.  This time the three burgers looked all about the same.  Strangely the buns were quite different than in the past and not at all toasted like in the past.  They were very soft with the consistency of a regular hamburger or hotdog bun you would get at HEB except for thicker.  So thick actually that everyone had bread left over at the end which is a big no-no for burger wars.  The meat was good but it did not at all feel like 3/4 of a pound as advertised.  I had the buffalo burger and it was juicy and had a great flavor with the buffalo sauce and blue cheese but unfortunately it was just not balancing well with the bread and it didn't feel like a substantial burger at all like it should.  The fries were overcooked and chalk-y and hollow inside.  As Brian mentions the ketchup was weird in the same way it was at Sputnik burger.  It had a faint twang as if it was slightly fermented or maybe it is just super cheap ketchup.  All in all not a good showing and not enough to knock of Hutt's in the second round.

Box Score:  

	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	7	6.5	6
Meat	8	8	7.5
Toppings	7	7.25	7.5
Construction	5	5.5	6
Overall	6.5	7	7
Total Burger	50	51.563	51.25
Sides	6.5	6.5	5.5
Atmosphere	8	8	6.5
Value	6.5	7	6.5
Non Burger	17.75	18	15.25
Totals	67.75	69.56	66.5
Combined		68

Hutt's

Brian:
Dre:

Zach: 

Should have stuck with the regular burger at Hutt's, but I had been on a streak lately hitting paydirt with some double patty action. But at Hutt's, the two patties threw off the good ratio I had come to enjoy from them.  BUT, it wasn't all my fault here, the meat was a lot drier than usual and the bread wasn't very good either.  Fries seemed slightly off from past trips as well.  Overall, it scored pretty low this time.  Sorry Hutt's, you'll still probably advance.

Box Score:  

Hutt's		5/17/12
	Andre	Brian	Zach
Bread	9	8	6.5
Meat	9	9	6.5
Toppings	8.5	8	8
Construction	8	8.5	7
Overall	9	8.5	7
Total Burger	65.625	63.125	52.5
Sides	8	9	7
Atmosphere	7.5	7	7
Value	8.5	8	7
Non Burger	19.75	20	17.5
Totals	85.38	83.125	70
Combined		80