As a man who loves to take down burgers, I was a pretty excited man when Short Order rolled into town at The Farmers Market next to The Grove. But then the mixed reviews came in and I pushed Short Order down in my burger eating priority list. It didn’t help that it wasn’t exactly in a part of town that I find myself in too often. My chance came when meeting some friends from the East Side and I was ready to see how it would stack up to those mixed reviews.
First, I noticed that the burger menu itself was not exactly what you would call unvegan-friendly. Pretty much ever burger came with a share of vegetables that weren’t your basic, easily-removable lettuce or whatnot. Plus, the menu said there were no changes allowed. This left me with no choice but to order the basic Commando Burger, which is quite literally grass-fed burger and bun. It had the option to add Hook’s aged cheddar for a buck and I figured I would take a risk by asking for bacon as well. The bacon was accepted (but for an absurd $2.50 charge).
The burger itself was definitely good. It had been cooked to medium rare, which was great, and the patty was perfectly juicy. The cheese was perfectly melted and the bacon was perfectly crisped. Yet, this burger was definitely not an $11.50 burger. No way. There was nothing really special about it, and part of that is my fault for putting together my own burger, but also I have to blame Short Order for not really giving me any other unvegan options.
As a side, I went for the Short Order Spuds instead of regular fries. The waitress had pushed me in this direction and it was definitely a good call. I didn’t exactly have fries to compare them to, but these were a nice twist on the fried potato. They were actually cubed up potato chunks and most of them were fried to a nice crisp on the outside and a soft delicious inside. A few of them hadn’t quite been fried enough to soften the inside, but I figured that was acceptable when frying up a bunch of these things. After all, restaurants regularly make mistakes with fries also.
Ultimately, Short Order made a pretty good, overpriced burger and some unique spuds. I can see why it has such mixed reviews, because it is quite simply not a place for everyone and unvegans are one of those groups of people that Short Order cannot satisfy with its current menu.
