Yes, I’m one of many that have visited Local Three Kitchen & Bar in the short time they’ve been open in the former JOEL space on Northside Drive. It’s seems an odd space (office complex, barely-navigable multi-level parking deck, weird entrance that I thought may be the bathroom door), but the large and accommodating space with a killer kitchen, chock full of folks on their lunch break, appears to be working out for them.
I was by myself so I sauntered past the immense amount of wall strung kitsch and ordered a burger and a beer. A local Wild Heaven “Ode to Mercy” and the “McDowell”, so named for the Big Mac impersonator from Coming to America. Per the famous movie, this burger has no sesame seeds, and like a McDonald’s classic, this burger features shredded lettuce, American cheese, two thin beef patties, and deeply colored thin pickles that are eerily similar to those from the fast food giant.
I appreciate the effort to remain true to the idea, though the shredded lettuce isn’t doing much for me. Other than that, it’s a very solid burger in the H&F, Bocado burger genre. To me, that style is defined by a burger that is a greasy, salty, cheesy guilty pleasure, featuring good ingredients such as above average beef and a quality bun. The beef focuses on a good sear and seasoning, playing just a part of the full experience of the burger, rather than a thick patty cooked to medium-rare/medium meant to promote the quality of the beef. Which is interesting, because I consider their sister restaurant Muss & Turner to have a burger that I would define as the latter.
But Local Three’s is satisfying, juicy, though a tad over-seasoned, and still slightly pink despite its thin nature. The bread is very good, reminiscent of Yeah! Burger’s bread, which is made by the venerable H&F Bread.
Fries were well seasoned, crispy, though again, different from the famous fries of Muss & Turner’s. I appreciate that they are trying different styles of the same product, when they could easily try to replicate those of their successful counterpart.
Sorry to add to the burger hype, but hey, it’s what I wanted. If you want a little variety, the currently-missing Foodie Buddha tweeted about a crab and uni carbonara he had there last night. That sounds awesome.
I’m actually cooking a fresh pasta dish with dijon creme, crab, and melted lardo tonight, we’ll see how that goes. I’m sure you’ll see some pictures soon, because I’m a huge food nerd. Obviously.
