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[jdmessner]

I was running around yesterday and decided to try a new restaurant for lunch. They only serve hamburgers. There were four different beef hamburgers to choose from, along with a turkey or veggie burger option. The only side was fries. They went to great lengths to point out that they were smash burgers, using "craft beef" served on locally made artisan buns.

Craft beef was not a term I was familiar with. When I looked it up this is what I found: Michigan Craft Beef™ was created to fill the gap between grass-fed beef and commodity beef. It is antibiotic and hormone free. Michigan Craft Beef™ are fed a healthy balance of grasses and legumes (alfalfa/clover) that you would expect cattle to eat when grazing pastures, but they are also fed a special blend of natural supplements such as brewers grains (barley), flax, apples, and cherries that give Michigan Craft Beef™ its unique flavor profile and tenderness.

Give me a break. I am sorry, I might be wrong for saying this, but it is just beef. You can get a few brownie points for being local or for the special diet, but craft beef? The term "craft beer" is one thing and even that is over used. This seems way over the line. I feel like they are catering to wanna be food snobs.

To make matters worse the only way their burgers are cooked is, "all the way through". When I asked if I could get one medium rare, I was told they do it just one way because that was their "style". I bit my tongue really hard, I wanted to tell them I never realized over cooked was a style.   

I have never had a drier more miserable overpriced hamburger in my life. Thanks for letting me vent. Also, let me know if I am looking at this the wrong way. I don't want to be the grumpy old, get off my porch guy.

[Conumdrum]

Agreed.  I suppose next time you'll be eating in a poorer section of town where food is mean to be eaten, and no facebook/pinterist/xxxxxxxx done.  Just eat the food kinda place. 

[pmillen]

I agree 100% JD.  I recall a bagel place that refused to toast bagels and played annoying music too loud.  I emailed the management and asked if they might consider their customers' bagel and music tastes and slightly modify their positions.  Their reply was, essentially, "Nope.  Our style is our style."  They went out of business in less than a year.

IDK how long that Craft Beef Burger restaurant has been in business but I'd be surprised if it lasts.

[Bentley]

Yeah, I am not a fan of hormones in meats, but the antibiotics never bothered me.  They are not the same as what humans would ingest, so no problem with building up tolerances.  And I will take healthy beef over sick beef.  Never really got the whole smash burger thing, I like a very thin patty, so I can appreciate that, but smashing it on the griddle seems a little goofy.  I personally think grass fed beef has a metallic flavor, can't describe it any other way.  The other feed they were given sounded really interesting, but it sounds like it did not really enhance the flavor of the beef?

I will take that 70/30 store bought beef for my burger any day!  Some mayo, onion and American cheese and you have one fine meal!

[BigDave83]

Never heard of craft beef either.

I am always amazed when you order something at a place and ask for it a certain way and get told the same thing as you for the most part. I can ask but not sure if they can do that. Well then they probably should not be cooking people's food. I can understand if it is of the wall but to cook something to a slightly different doneness or toasting a bagel? Makes no sense.

 We have a little bar or pub, not sure what they call it, but everyone just raved about how they had the greatest burgers in town. I finally went one evening, it is a small place there were maybe 9 people there including 2 employees that I saw. I ordered a Yuengling nd said I am told you have great burgers, he said we sure do. I told him Pickles, onions and mustard on my cheeseburger. Can I get that mediumish? No our cook only cooks them one way, I ask how that was he said well done. I had hope though, I mean everyone and their brother was telling me how awesome they are. I am not sure it wasn't a frozen patty, it was  not hand formed, far to perfectly round and even thickness. It was now a died out piece of leather but not far off. Maybe because of the hype I had higher expectations than i should have. I left disappointed in the burger but I never recall being disappointed in a nice Yuengling.  I may go back and give it one more try, but honestly Wendy's double or triple is a better burger to me.

[ylr]

Only cooking burgers well done may be due to liability fears by the owners. When I worked at Wendy's in the early 90s, we used to cook them however the customer wanted them, until the e.coli issues cropped up at Jack-in-the-Box, causing Wendy's Corporate to say "no more". Most full service restaurants will cook them however you want them, though, but they put the disclaimer on the menu.

[Hank D Thoreau]

I guess with the brewers grain they could have called them craft beer beef. If you go to a country where they like beets on their burgers, it could have been craft beer beef with beets.

So do you also have a beef with craft beer beef with beets?

[Free Mr. Tony]

There is always a fine line between trendy/unique and pretentious/annoying. The people who get it right usually are walking that line. Far too many fail to see the difference.

[urnmor]

IMO it is more of a marketing technique to give them an edge over their competitors.  Just like Angus beef.  If it works and of course if they meet their customers expectations more power to them. 

[Kristin Meredith]

I think that the reality is that an awful lot of people don't really cook and they are use to either fast food or the chain, "family style" places that serve so much premade stuff that it is all alike.  So a place comes along, does an "Emperor's new clothes" spiel, and people fall for it and convince themselves it is great.  The folks on this forum really know how to cook, know good product and so, I think, have a higher bar for establishments to jump over to impress us.