awesome burger is awesome. will burn tongue though.. grill bar isn't a place i would've gone to had i not been intrigued by the few reviews there were of this place. even upon stepping inside, i was even more hesitant as to why i was there. then the menu was sat in front of me with a few very bare-bones options to choose from. hell, the kitchen is directly behind the counter and includes a commercial-grade stove. but i promised myself that i was going to let the food do the talking and not judge this book by the cover.
i'm glad i did.
first, i have to get past the ice tea i ordered. i haven't had an ice tea this bad since i ate at arthur's roto grill. it tastes like the powdered version they put in mre's that you get in the army. either that or it was over a day old and developed that "funk" that turns the taste.
but i went for the gusto and ordered their cheeseburger with everything on it (bacon, sauteed onions, toasted bun) along with onion rings on the side. the waitress asked me if i wanted a white or wheat bun. i told her wheat. little did i know that when you order "wheat," that it's not a bun, but instead, toast.
that actually wasn't a bad thing! in fact, it gave this burger a hybrid-like taste between a blt and a burger. the toast was perfectly done so that nothing soaked through and the lettuce and tomato were perfectly sized so as not to spill out the sides. there was also the perfect amount of mayonnaise on the burger and the beef was cooked perfectly and was actually very juicy. oh, and about that juicy-ness, i did the dumb mistake of biting into it almost the moment it was sat in front of me (well what would you do?!) and since it was literally taken right off the grill, the hot grease shot on my lip and roof of my mouth, burning it instantly. it really hurt actually. maybe if somebody is reading this that works there, they might give the customer a little warning because there are obviously dumb people out there who aren't paying attention, like me.
but the burger was pretty much perfect in every way, leading me to actually regret not getting two. the onion rings were your standard from-a-bag-frozen kind, so there isn't too much to write home about there. if you don't order fries or onion rings, your burger/sandwich will come with potato chips (ruffles?).
in the end, an anonymous person in the restaurant picked up the tab for me because i was in my uniform and probably looked like a lonely dude seeing as how my coworkers all ditched me for lunch that day. dumb. but that does go to show that the kind of clientele this place gets during the lunch hour are honest, good people who are also very kind.
i would recommend this place to anybody who doesn't want to wait in the long lines of aunt judy's or wants something faster than ann's. a hidden gem in downtown franklin.