Some people really like lobster rolls. I don’t get it. What’s the fun of chowing down on cold, slimy lobster loaded up with mayo? But then there’s lobster grilled cheese. See, that’s the good stuff, doing everything right with the lobsters. So, upon arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, we made our way to a divey spot called Longboards that allegedly knew what to do with lobster.

Thus, I ordered the lobster grilled cheese, along with a cup of clam chowder. The grilled cheese was everything it should have been. No attempt to make it fancy, just perfectly melty cheddar, lightly browned grill marks and the right about of lobster so as to maintain balance. Plus, the lemon for squeezing upon the sandwich was a nice touch.

The chowder was good as well, but not really anything special aside from a good way to warm up in the rainy winter weather.

As far as divey lobster sandwiches go in the cradle of witches, Longboards certainly delivered, setting the stage for more lobster to come.

Burgers and brews go together like Forrest and Jenny, which is why my eyes generally shoot to the burger menu when I check out a brewery. It’s also why they always have burgers on the menu or, well, I question judgment. I did not have to question any judgment about burgers when I paid a visit to Four Peaks in Tempe, at least not at first.

I ordered the Popper, which is attempt at a jalapeno popper-style burger. It has the cream cheese and the jalapenos, but also fried onion strings. And unbeknownst to me until arriving in front of me, it also had the dreaded lettuce and tomato.

Fortunately, it was easy to remove the veggies, but it would take a lot more effort to restore my trust. The burger didn’t exactly do that. It’s not that it was bad by any means, it was actually fine. Just not much more than that. Fries were good, beer was good, and the burger went well with the beer.

The thing is, though, I wouldn’t go to Four Peaks for the burger. I would probably go for beer, and let the burger take the backseat. There are worse things than that, but there are a lot better as well.

The Super Bowl is set! And while everyone is pumped to see the Patriots again, and the Eagles again (but not nearly as again), it is important to realize that for most people the Super Bowl is about food and commercials. So, food, right? Lil’ smokies might sound good for another year, but sometimes it’s smart to just hit up a bar. I was just given an opportunity to check out the goods* at B2 Burgers and Brews, which is looking forward to hosting a bunch of people with some pretty exciting specials.

And the goods were good. The burgers ranged from the Aloha (pineapple, ham, teriyaki mayo and provolone) to the Breakfast (over easy egg, sausage patty, bacon, ham and hash browns). And then there was the one that I ate – Spicy PBJ & Bacon – topped with its namesakes, as well as pepper jack cheese. It’s also maybe important to note that the jelly is pepper jelly.

It was another great take on what seems to be a growing trend of merging the American classics of bacon, burger, and peanut butter and jelly. And perhaps even more important than the execution of the toppings was the perfect medium rare that the burger was cooked to.

The burgers can be ordered with a variety of buns and also with some delicious fries or sweet potato tots. I’m generally not a sweet potato man, but if you’re into that I’m sure you’ll be into these.

Oh and there were the wings as well. Because no self-respecting sports bar can go without wings, right? Unlike some places that resort to an all-out blitz of flavor options, B2 only has buffalo, honey BBQ, and teriyaki. I tested out the buffalo and BBQ, which both tasted like your standard buffalo and BBQ. Most importantly, though, they were meaty, juicy and fried just right. Which, of course, brings me to the point of all of this.

For the Super Bowl, B2 has specials up the wazoo:

• 75 cent wings all day (boneless or the good ones)
• $1 domestic beers from kickoff until the first score
• $5 bloody mary bar
• All day happy hours (think cheap drinks and lots of $5 apps)
• Raffles at the end of each quarter, including a 55 inch TV at the end of it all (must be present to win)
• 10% off pre-ordered takeout and $15 growler fills

Those are some pretty sweet deals if you ask me, at the very least good enough to get you out and about instead of sitting on your couch alone watching the Patriots and Eagles play for it all.’

*Which is code for free, but those specials are really close to free so there’s that.

In the past few years, airports have made some real attempts to up their food games. Some have brought in popular local restaurants, while others have commissioned celebrity chefs to bring new restaurants into the airports. Gone are the days of Chili’s 2 Go being the only option, which meant that with a whole lot of spare time at San Francisco International Airport, I was able to make my way to Union Street Gastropub to grab a beer and a sandwich.

That sandwich wasn’t just some pre-made cold cuts with limp lettuce, it was the Korean Chicken Sandwich. This sandwich was filled with deep fried chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce and topped with garlic aioli. For my side I went with the garlic parmesan tots because regular fries and sweet potato fries just didn’t sound like they could compare.

As for the sandwich itself, I was pretty happy with it. I couldn’t figure out what was exactly Korean about it, but I like the combination of sweet and spicy, which the sauce did pretty well. The chicken was plenty juicy and had a decent crisp to the outside, but there just didn’t seem to be enough of it for me. Like, I get that it’s an airport and I’m going to pay a lot of money, but the dish was just begging for more chicken, and so was I.

Yet, Union Street Gastropub is a huge improvement on your typical airport food and for that I was pleased, even if it’s far from being the best sweet and spicy fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever had.

It’s hard to go wrong with bar food, but it’s usually pretty heavy stuff. So, when I entered East Park Tavern in Charlevoix, Michigan with a stomach that knew it needed to eat something for dinner, but wasn’t especially hungry, I hoped there would be something I could find. Instead of making my way to the full on entree menu, I went for the appetizers and the wings caught my attention.

They came tossed in either a maple sriracha sauce or house BBQ. As much as I love BBQ, I have a hard time turning down a mix of sweet and spicy flavors like maple and sriracha (while recognizing that, of course, there are BBQ sauces that are both sweet and spicy, sheesh). Like a good human, I went with the blue cheese dip instead of ranch and even though I saw there was celery, I let it fly because I thought someone I was eating with might enjoy it. Plus, celery on the side of a dish is never nearly as harmful as several other veggies.

The wings had a glisten to them that intimated that they were a lot more maple than sriracha, but I let my mouth be the judge of that. It turned out that while there was plenty of sweetness to the wings, this was balanced out by the spiciness of the sriracha, while the blue cheese dressing added a sour taste that melded well with the wings. The wings themselves had a nice crispiness on the outer edge to go along with the tender, juicy meat inside. All I really could have asked for was more meat on the bones, and perhaps just a classic wing sauce. Regardless, these wings delivered, continuing to prove that it is still tough to go wrong with bar food.

It seems like just yesterday that I packed up my bags in Michigan to move to Los Angeles, but alas it was nearly 10 years ago. A lot has changed in those 10 years, and aside from housing prices and traffic much of it has been for the better. Take, for example, breweries. Michigan was littered with them and I found LA barely had one (San Diego was strong, though). Now, they are much easier to find and have even come around to serving brewery food instead of fancy stuff (I’m looking at you, Golden Road, but glad that you have also fixed yourself up!) Highland Park Brewery is one of the new entrants and I set out to test both its food and booze.

The booze passed the test, plus Highland Park Brewery had a great selection of local guest taps. But I know all you really care about is food and so I should say that I ordered the Meatloaf Burger. It was made from beef and bacon blend, then topped with a fried egg, avocado and pimento cheese. Thinking that a meatloaf is essentially a giant burger, I kind of thought this would simply be a burger with a hipster name. It turned out I was wrong, as this literally looked like a slice of meatloaf. More than that, it tasted like a slice meatloaf as opposed to a burger, which is all at once a very clear and very ambiguous description. Just know that from a texture and density standpoint, this was meatloaf.

And that’s all good and well, but call it what it is – a meatloaf sandwich. I love a good slice of meatloaf as much as the next guy/gal, but it is important to set my expectations correctly. Because of these expectations, I couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit disappointed by the sandwich, which is sad because it was really an ideal mix of ingredients for an unvegan.

Nonetheless, the menu at Highland Park Brewery, just like the beers, is ever-changing. I am all but certain that the meatloaf burger is gone from the menu and has been replaced by something that may be described better. Whether that is the case or not, I certainly enjoyed the beers and can only mildly complain about the naming of my meal, which meant I was a happy man and would happily return.

Sometimes when I go to a restaurant I get pretty torn on what to order. In times like these I lean on the professionals (aka waitstaff) to help me out. Such was the case at the Olde Blind Dog Irish Pub in Brookhaven, a suburb of Atlanta. The pub serves much of what you would expect from pub food, and I love that stuff so much that I’m inclined to eat it all up.

When the waiter recommended the spicy fried chicken I was all about it. It came with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, but I subbed the veggies out for onion strings and the result was something beautiful.

As for the actual taste, I found the whole getup to be just okay. Certainly they did not mess up the onion strings or mashed potatoes, but the fried chicken just wasn’t anything special. There was nothing bad about it, but there wasn’t anything that screamed “good” either.

Alas, perhaps it is not always best to trust the experts. I’d go back again, but would hope for something more than just okay.

$25. In the real world that can get you a lot of things. You know, like 25 items from the McDonald’s Dollar Menu or a tank of gas (Prius FTW). But at The Spotted Pig in New York’s West Village it will get you a single burger (with fries though!) And that is the sole reason I set off for The Spotted Pig. As a meat blogger and burger connoisseur, I had been eying the burger for years, waiting for the chance to strike.

I sidled up to the bar and didn’t even need to look at the menu, except to check if any vegetables normally came on the burger. In fact, there were none and the burger was only topped with roquefort cheese. The menu did call out that the burger is chargrilled and comes with shoestring fries, though, so at least there is a bit of explanation. I ordered mine medium-rare and waited.

To say this burger is basic is to underscore the amount of preparation that must have gone into conceiving it. The blend of beef, for example is allegedly some mix of brisket, sirloin and chuck – and it was prepared to perfection with my burger, as there was a visible line of pink around the whole burger, with the innards done just right. The bun had spent some time on the grill as well, giving this burger an odd sensation of backyard barbecues. Apparently the buns are made just for this burger, and do an impressive job of maintaining a whole lot of juiciness without falling apart or distracting from the main event. The roquefort cheese adds some tanginess to pair with the savoriness of the meat. It’s unquestionably a well-crafter burger and worth trying out.

Oh and then there are the shoestring fries, which are prepared with rosemary and delicious little fried slivers of garlic. They are a great companion to the burger, but even though the mountain of them towers over the entire burger (bun and all), they are a distant second fiddle on a plate where the burger reigns supreme.

So is The Spotted Pig’s burger the best in the world? In the category of turning something seemingly simple into a work of art, perhaps. Compared to all other burgers, perhaps not. But I can happily report that it is unquestionably worth every penny of its hefty price tag.

In Santa Barbara there’s a spot called the Public Market. It’s kind of like an upscale food court, but most importantly there is a bar that attracts Michigan fans called The Garden. It’s not your typical sports bar, and is a sort of attempt to be a beer or wine garden. Whatever the case, I was eager for some beer and a burger.

What I found was The Market Burger. It came topped with a whole bunch of stuff I had no interest in, like lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles. But it also came with provolone and Russian dressing, which I felt were acceptable.

It took a surprisingly long time for my burger to come out, and at one point I saw a very un-unvegan (with all the toppings) burger come around that no one was willing to claim. It was sliced in half and I could see it had been cooked to medium-rare, but alas it wasn’t mine.

Shortly after, my burger arrived and was in a strange state. The patty was cut in half and the bun was still complete. It didn’t take a fool to realize that this was the original unclaimed burger that had been thrown back on the griddle with a fresh set of cheese. It tasted like it too. There were bits of the previous toppings on the burger, and the burger was overcooked. Moreover, being weirdly cut this way made it a real pain to eat.

In all, you can probably guess that this was not one of my favorite meals. In fact, probably the only thing that would bring me back would be a Michigan game timed somewhere outside the realm of normal meal time.

Vail, Colorado may be a beautiful place, but it is certainly not a place to go if you’re on a budget. Lift tickets are crazy expensive and the food isn’t much cheaper. But there are a couple more reasonable places in town and The Red Lion is one of them. As you might expect, The Red Lion is a British Pub and has your classic pub fare. When it came to my meal, I only really had eyes for the burgers.

My burger of choice was the Bleu Sky Burger, presumably named for how blue the skies are when there isn’t a snowstorm blowing through Vail. This burger was topped with bleu cheese and bacon, plus some lettuce, tomato and onion that I was quick to order without. I ordered mine medium-rare and was very happy to find it prepared that way. Hey, you never know when you’re in a touristy spot.

In fact, beyond the color of the meat, I was impressed by the pile of bacon and bleu cheese on top of the burger. They made for a nice blend of smokey, salty and cheesy. The burger even had a nice sear that I could appreciate. There were some fries on the side that didn’t stick out as anything special, but were at least a good partner to the meat and cheese.

By the time I was nearly finished, the juiciness of the burger had rendered the bun into a gooey mess. If I had any complaint it would be that the bun simply couldn’t hold up. Nonetheless, this was a solid burger that fulfilled my burgerly desires.