Grazie @ The Taste

The next time of life when the Taste changes, is in high school when you go without adults. It’s a great place to meet friends, flirt and act obnoxious with your friends because your parents aren’t around and you don’t care what the other adults around you say. (And I mean other people, Mom, not me) The teens will never disappoint in this respect. You can always count on them to come in numbers, dress to impress, and act like, well, themselves.

This is the time of life when you’ll make an entire day of going to the Taste. Not that you’re going to be there all day, but you’ll prepare all day. “Going to the Taste” will be the single focus. You’ll meet at someone’s house to get ready and then all go in a big teen mob. Pile on the El or put 15 people in a car and head down. Good times.

As an adult, it’s not fair to complain about these obnoxious “know it alls” that wander Grant Park in packs. Just try to avoid them and know that they and the 20-somethings own the night.

The next stop on “Chris and Eren do the Taste” was right across from Vermillion at Grazie.

Yea, I’d never heard of it either. They’re up in Des Plaines.

We had the BBQ Buffalo Burger for 6 tickets or in Taste price about $4. Not a bad price for not a very interesting burger. Now of course, this burger suffered from having to follow an awesome burger, but it would have trouble holding its own anyway.

Just look at it.

Nothing exciting. A pre-formed patty with some nice grill marks and no cheese. Cheese would have given it some of the additional flavor it needed. It was a bit dry and had very little resistance while chewing. It just gave up. I had to add more sauce to beef up (no pun intended) the flavor. The bun, however, was fresh and soft. They could not have done a much better job selecting it. It seems big for the burger, but considering that you need to drench it with sauce, it becomes an acceptable size.

Overall it was not that great, but like the Vermillion burger, it is only available at the Taste. So, you and I never have to repeat this experience again. In fact there is not even a burger on the menu at the restaurant. There is good and bad in that statement. This burger has potential. While I don’t eat a lot of buffalo, I think it’s worth a try to make this burger great, and it could be done. If they made it a double and drenched it in sauce it would be a good start. Then add some cheese and it would be even better. Also keeping with the whole healthy thing, add a veggie or two. Basically make is a real burger and put some effort into it. Don’t just put meat on a bun and call it a day.

So blah, blah, blah…. not a destination burger. Not even a burger that will be served again. And in its present form, without some major revisions, that’s not a bad thing.