Eddy's Place: 3.8/5

Bacon Cheese Burger

$7.25

Score: 3.9

I love the look and feel of Eddy’s. The front facade is unassuming, but there are beautiful murals on either side of the building. Once through the doors you see an open kitchen with orange laminate counter tops and stools to watch the cook at work. As you venture further back into the long building, you find yourself in a double row of cozy booths – with the same orange tops. To the left are two magnificent 6 x 12 billiard tables – and they’re always in use. The bottom half of the walls are covered with the same basement carpeting your parents had in their rec-room in the 60s. As you reach the back, the walls turns to dark brown wood and brick paneling. Geoff remarked "The old fashioned décor is a nice touch, as is the eclectic collection of wall decorations, from moose antlers to a beer can fishing rod, to a picture of dogs playing pool."

I let them know we were coming and someone was nice enough to reserve four booths for us. I thought my booth was snug, but Dani said hers was roomy and Geoff's had a bar across the middle which made getting a second person in and out quite tricky. Bendy Bess had no problem though. Choose your booth carefully! Our server was quick and friendly. Cary ordered a float and our comedic waitress veered into the corny when she brought it out and said "Don’t let it float away!" Nelson noticed they serve "both Coke and Pepsi products. Bonus. No cups. Classy! Love a good restaurant that has soda floats."

I've been to Eddy’s a few times and came last week to case it out for Burger Club. The restaurant was packed and for whatever reason our burgers took quite a while. When the waitress scampered out with our meals she said, "I hope these are the most delicious burgers ever after waiting so long!" They were really good and when I asked "what happened at the grill?" She replied, "we’re really busy today – I guess we’re out of practice. We need to train more."

Fast forward a week and they must have practiced lots because our burgers came out fast. The patties were handmade and had great variability in size and shape. Dani noted “Hand formed patty a little bigger than the bun.” The flavour of the plentiful and perfectly cooked bacon came through; so did the generous portion of great tasting real cheddar cheese. Nelson observed “Tasted the bacon more than the burger.” Bess reminisced: “The burger reminded me of my father-in-law's burgers. "Kenny" burgers are the standard by which I judge all others. Too much mustard though.” I don't know if it was the waitress’s power of suggestion, or I was so hungry by the time the burger came out, but I thought last week’s burger tasted a bit better. I think this week’s patty was thinner and may have got lost in the mustard. The burger came with lots of fried onions which were really good, but they also contributed to a soggy bottom. Nelson described it as a "A 6-napkin burger!!" and was equally excited about the fried onions. Russ was enthused about the cheese: "I spy with my little eye: real cheddar!" The greens were fresh and there was lots of tomato. The soft sesame seed bun was tasty and a good size for the patty.

Geoff liked his burger: "Burger itself was solid, nice crispy portions of bacon. Definitely not a "cookie cutter" burger, the patty was obviously hand crafted, and done to my liking. I will come back for more." Mike wrote "Patty wasn't flavourful but the toppings made up for it. Bacon was great, and fries were good too." Eddy’s is inexpensive and Cary commented "Platter is a pretty good deal AND you can get BEER (or wine) with it!"

Esther tried the Poutine and said "The fries were really good. Gravy in the poutine really good as well." Dani said "the onion rings are awesome!"

When I was doing my research I came across Marion Warhaft’s nice review from 2012 where she mentioned that Eddy’s is known for its corned beef sandwich. The article has a great picture of the long time grill queen - Annette. On examining the menu, Geoff was "intrigued by the non-burger portion and may have to come back for the $9 Kuby + Perogies."

Heard Around the Booth

It’s been a while since we've been educated on the obscure by Cary. Today we learned he used to work at McDonald's where they used caulking guns loaded with Special Sauce, Tartar Sauce, and Mayonnaise to "Shoot the Goo" onto McBurgers.

It Takes a Community to Order a Burger

April was late arriving so texted in her order en-route. Geoff was placing the pre-order, but he doesn't pack a cell phone so I got the text: "Please order me a mushroom Swiss burger with bacon no pickles or onions no relish." I passed this info on to Geoff. The problem is, Eddy’s only lists one burger on the menu and it’s not a mushroom Swiss.

Geoff is a scientist and he was now faced with an unsolvable equation. He asked Esther to take a picture of the menu for April so she could see there was no mushroom Swiss burger and modify her order. Esther did, and April texted back: "I want a mushroom Swiss burger" and added "Order a second one for Bess." Geoff writhed and squirmed, took his hat off, put it on again and realized to make matters worse, the discussion of fries hadn't even come up. He was forced to make a compromise.

April and Bess arrived, and shortly after our waitress brought out their meals: two bacon-cheese burgers, one with fries. The punch line here is there's a menu next to the till, and when it came time to settle up with Annette – head cook and cashier - there it was: "Mushroom Swiss Burger" written on the wall.