Obviously, I had to compensate for this at the earliest available opportunity. Which proved to be Tuesday afternoon - which coincidentally happened to be the first of the month. And the first of the month means a new burger of the month over at the Beer Engine! Maybe that's what Clevo rappers BONE were referring to in their song "First of the Month"?
We're gonna need five burgers - FAST!
I didn't know what the special was yet since I headed over there pretty early. But figured if it didn't sound appealing I could always fall back on their Westside Burger. Turns out June's special is the DELI BURGER. Like all their burgers, it features their half-pound beef patty - and this one is topped with pastrami, cole slaw, Russian dressing, and Swiss cheese. A real international affair!
I don't eat pastrami especially often - I'll usually choose corned beef for my deli sandwich fix - but it's certainly a tasty meat, so I decided to take the plunge on this special burger. My stomach was growling! Maybe a bit of burger withdrawal. So I decided to go all-out and take advantage of their "Double It Up" special - where you get an extra burger patty for $3. That's one whole pound of beef with some pastrami on top!
Unfortunately - my phone has a pretty lousy camera - and it was hard to use with the sun glaring at me - so these pictures aren't the best. But it's surprising I even remembered to snap a couple pictures at all with a starving stomach and a beast-sized burger in front of me!
So how was this mammoth burger you're asking. Pretty damn good! It's tough to really critique the special toppings of the month - cuz with the extra burger patty, the beef flavor definitely took over! The toppings gave the burger sort of a reuben-esque flavor at times. Definitely refreshing on a hot summer day. An interesting decision to go with pastrami/Russian dressing instead of the more typical corned beef/thousand island found on a standard reuben. It was tasty and I wouldn't mind trying a sandwich with just these deli toppings sometime.
A scandalous look BEHIND THE BUN
The bottom bun had a tough time holding up to all the meat and dressing - it was pretty much eaten and/or disintegrated by the time I was halfway done with the burger. I'd guess this had a lot to do with the extra patty, which was definitely overkill. But I like overkill!
I've never had bad beef at the Beer Engine - so I'd give all their burgers a recommendation if the toppings sound appealing to you. There's a ton to choose from. All their burgers come your choice of homemade chips or fries (Extra 50 cents for fries) and a deep-fried pickle. Their fries have a great rosemary flavor - but I'm personally not a big fan of shoestring fries which is what they serve. Fries are the ultimate burger side, so I still get them every time. This time I dipped them in some of the Russian dressing that was dripping out of the burger. I'm also not a fan of pickles, but am a fan of deep-frying - so I ate that too!
Total cost of meal - $10.50 (Deli Burger W/ Extra Patty & fries & pickle). Beer Engine is located at 15315 Madison Ave in Lakewood, OH.
