The Unvegan

EDIT: Sadly, this location is extinct, but there are still other Elephant Bars living elsewhere.

As a child of 13, I went to the Elephant Bar in Palm Desert and loved the perpetually moving straw fans on the ceiling. Of course, that was all it took for me to like a restaurant at the age of 13. Now things are a little different. Those fans still cater to my easily distracted mind, but my taste buds require something more. A quick look at the menu made me feel like the Elephant Bar was suffering from mild schizophrenia. While most of the menu was filled with American fare, for some reason a whole page was devoted to Asian stir-fry-esque meals. This threw me off and made me feel like this place wasn’t made for Asian food. I flipped back to the American comfort zone and found what I wanted.

This was their Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger. It came with the usual unsightly veggies I have come to expect from a burger, so I ordered it without. I noticed that another burger on the menu came with a spicy ketchup, so I asked if they could put that on the burger and they said they could. The waiter also informed me that although this ketchup was good, it did not belong with fries. I listened, but it did pique my curiosity.

When the burger was ready, the spicy ketchup came on the side. My curiosity got the best of me and I tried a fry in it. He was right, it was no good. The combination wasn’t exactly bad, but the fries were simply better in regular ketchup. This was cool with me, so I tested out the burger with it. It was pretty good and basic. It had come cooked medium well, which I usually wouldn’t have gotten. The burger was a little overdone and lost out on some flavor because of it. The bun was actually quite good and well-toasted, which made me think about all the fancy burger buns that restaurants try to toss at you, while a bun like Elephant Bar’s does a great job.

Ultimately, the Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger did a pretty good job. I didn’t expect the burger to be very good, but the spicy ketchup certainly helped the thing out. I wouldn’t call this burger ultimate, but it was certainly adequate and helped me realize that the Elephant Bar isn’t just some gimmicky restaurant with fans on the ceiling.