For lunch today I had the Canoe burger, which on a value/taste matrix, may be the best burger and fry in town. It’s what I call a hotel burger. It’s an over-sized hockey puck of in-house ground beef, properly cooked to temp, served with all the fixings – charred onion, pickles, tomato, lettuce, and little ramekins of mayo, mustard, and ketchup. It comes with a big pile of completely acceptable fries and gratis bread and butter for $11. That’s at lunch only, mind you. The dinner version is $16 and is made with a mixture of duck and beef.
I am confident that any man (or woman) will walk away from this burger more than satisfied. It may be the most pure beef flavored burger in town. And the way burger prices are creeping up, it got me thinking, I think it’s one of the best values in the city too. Many places no longer include fries either, so if you want to stuff your face with the most typical of burger sides in the solar system, it often runs you an additional $2-3. With tax and tip there are some places where I’m spending $20 for a burger and fries. That, in the business world, is what you would call a killer gross margin. Though, I think Antico will always be the margin leader of Atlanta food. A $22 pizza that uses about $4 in ingredients. Mangia!
I digress.
So what does the burger pricing landscape look like in the ATL? Check it out below. These are the restaurants I could think of with burgers I enjoy, which also offer fries either with the burger or as a side. I realize burger sizes are not always consistent, but I tried to select the basic burger with cheese for each. I also realize that some of the fry sides are 2-3 times as large as those that accompany most burgers automatically, but if that’s the only option, then it’s included on this chart.
