The Fiveten Burger truck produces one of my favorite classic burgers ($6.75), with a well toasted bun, a darkly seared patty, lettuce, tomato and both mayo and ketchup.
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Jasper's Corner Tap, formerly Ponzu, has a stellar miniburger ($3/$6/$8) with blue cheese and a soft pretzel bun strewn with sesame seeds and flakes of salt. It sandwiches a juicy beef patty, ladled with a smoked gouda and Cheddar fondue.
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The hamburger ($13.95) at Kitchen Door in Napa features a half-pound of Kobe beef layered into a soft bun with wine-marinated onions,Swiss cheese and a "secret sauce" similar to Thousand Island dressing. The fries alongside do the burger proud, too -- thin and crisp, with a fresh potato taste.
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Locavore features a cheeseburger ($15), with caramelized onions and aioli, and crisscrossed with crisp bacon. The accompanying fries have so much flavor they taste as if they are cooked in duck fat.
If you want to call yourself a restaurant these days, you have to have a hamburger on the menu. Many of the places that have opened recently — Chambers, Jasper’s, Bluestem, Bottle Cap and Park Tavern, to name a few — all serve burgers. When the neighborhood Thai, Chinese and Japanese places decided to join the crowd, I’ll know we’ve gone too far.
What you see in the gallery above are four of the places worth considering if you’re a burger connoisseur. Let me make one thing clear: This isn’t a piece about the best hamburgers in the Bay Area; this is only a survey of what’s best of my recent finds.
The mile-high Chambers burger
As a bonus, no clicking necessary, I’d like to show you my candidate for the Tallest Burger Award. It goes to Chambers Eat+Drink. It’s a good burger, but I found it impossible to pick up and eat like a sandwich. Some people questioned my description of it being too tall to eat so I thought I’d offer up the photo I took during one of my visits and let you decide. Maybe I just don’t have a big enough mouth.
And if you have found other stellar hamburgers recently, I’d love to know about them.
If you want to call yourself a restaurant these days, you have to have a hamburger on the menu. Many of the places that have opened recently — Chambers, Jasper’s, Bluestem, Bottle Cap and Park Tavern, to name a few — all serve burgers. When the neighborhood Thai, Chinese and Japanese places decided to join [...]