On the way to the Palace of Auburn Hills there wis very little good food to be had. I can usually count on the Moose Preserve, which is at least relatively close. On my last visit, however, a snowstorm ruined any chance we had of taking the time to get to that lovely restaurant. Instead, we ended up at The Lodge in Keego Harbor. It had been at least a decade since my last appearance at The Lodge and pool tables seemed to have been exchanged for regular eating tables, making it easy to find one.
The menu was pretty much what you might expect from a bar and grill and I was unsure about whether I should go with a burger or wings. The waiter gave me just about as noncommittal an answer as you might expect from someone asking to choose between things as different as wings and burgers. But at the very least it told me that neither stood far above the other. So I got a burger. The one I ordered was the Stuffed Burger, which was stuffed with bacon and swiss, then topped with fried onion strings and a BBQ mayo, along with lettuce and tomato that I had no need for. I ordered without these, asked for the burger medium-rare and stuck with the side of fries.
First off, I should say that I was immediately surprised to find that they had followed my medium-rare instructions, because the red juices could be seen on the bun. You usually don’t find this with stuffed burgers because it is hard to cook the insides, but The Lodge made it work. And in fact, this turned out to be a better burger than I expected. The cheese was decently melty and the bacon was nice and crisp. A little more of that BBQ mayo would have been welcome, as would more cheese a la a Jucy Lucy, but still I had very little to complain about.
For a backup plan, The Lodge treated us pretty well. And not just on the burger front, I heard pretty good things from around the table. I wouldn’t say it’s the kind of place you’d need to go out of your way for, but if it’s on the way you could do a whole lot worse.
