Duluth Grill is a restaurant that may as well have been created for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s off the beaten path not just in the fact that it is in Duluth, but because of the part of Duluth it is in. Plus, while it is clearly a diner, it is more than just a diner, serving unique, local and organic fare with an eye for people with food allergies. Guy seems to love that kind of stuff, which is why he paid Duluth Grill a visit and why, despite all of my nostalgic connection to Duluth, I felt good about going there as well.

Despite being early for lunch, we found Duluth Grill to be devoid of any seats, but within 20 minutes we found ourselves seated at an odd little counter, mouths watering from what we had been witnessing. After giving my meal a lot of thought, I picked the Big and Bold Bison Burger.

It came with BBQ sauce, caramelized onions, cherrywood smoked bacon and bib lettuce. I forewent the veggies and chose their deconstructed smashed potatoes as my side. To be honest it turned out a little underwhelming. The burger was good, but not great. The meat hovered close to the dry end of the spectrum and the combination of BBQ sauce and bacon didn’t quite hit me with as much flavor as I had been hoping for. Perhaps this was the wrong burger choice, but the waitress had recommended it when I asked her. The deconstructed smashed potatoes, though, were quite amazing. They were smaller potatoes that had been sufficiently smashed before being cooked to a crisp and sprinkled with parmesan cheese and were even better than they sound.

So, I do see a lot of potential in Duluth Grill’s menu, and I don’t mean to treat the place as though it just opened up, but more in the sense that I would go back, just not for the Big and Bold Bison Burger.

Buffalo is still considered an exotic meat in the USA. Never mind the fact that bison are native to these lands and the cattle we chow on come from Europe and Asia. And because it is “exotic” it often fetches a high price at restaurants and is given the gourmet treatment. This is not the case at Billy’s Grill, a tiny diner-style joint in Sherman Oaks.

At Billy’s you can get lamb, buffalo, ostrich and venison burgers all for under eight bucks. They fall under the exotic section of the menu, but aren’t given any special treatment beyond that. They are served up in classic California fashion with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions and thousand island. As you can probably guess from above, I opted for the buffalo and without any of those normal ingredients. Instead I went with bacon and American cheese. I upped it to a combo with fries and a drink, then watched as my buffalo was cooked on the griddle and served.

It came in a fast food-style sesame seed bun and looked the fast food part. I went to work on it and found that for better or worse it tasted a whole lot like a regular burger. I’m going to go ahead and say that this was for the better. After all, the biggest issue I’ve ever had with buffalo is that it often comes out much drier than regular beef. This is because it is less fatty, but this really wasn’t noticeable at Billy’s. In fact, my biggest gripe was with the bun, which was far too thick for a burger such as this. Perhaps with something juicier it would have been necessary, but that is never a problem for buffalo.

The fries made for a nice buffalo partner. They had been nicely seasoned and fried up to a near well-done state, which is how I like my fries.

Billy’s Grill is a refreshing burger place that manages to combine exotic burgers with the feel of old timey fast food. It’s nice to see such a place and to also be reminded just how similar buffalo is to regular beef. There’s really no need to dress it up any differently.

After an awesome Michigan Football game, I was a happy and hungry unvegan. Fortunately I had dinner plans outside of normal Ann Arbor at a restaurant called Carson’s American Bistro. Although it was still in Ann Arbor, it was far enough from the Big House that it wasn’t hard to get a table. The name, Carson’s, evoked thoughts of some sort of a cowboy steakhouse, but when I walked in, I found it was anything but. Also, there is no such thing as a cowboy steakhouse in southeastern Michigan. It was actually a pretty upscale place with a nice selection of food. I wasn’t exactly ready for something huge (having partaken in some cheap pizza while leaving the stadium), so I looked to the burgers.

The best looking burger to me was the Bison Burger. It came with lettuce, tomato and choice of cheese. The phrasing was a little bit ambiguous regarding the involvement of caramelized onions, so I brought them up while ordering to ensure they would not be a part of my burger. Then I chose their Vermont cheddar as my cheese. It also came with fries. PLAZA-ESCORTS

Soon enough, it arrived, but apparently the ambiguous phrasing had failed me. I found onions of the caramelized sort hanging on top of my burger and had to send it back. It came back a little too quickly, but at least there were no onions. Yet, I found something that had escaped my vision in the first place: a pickle. Gross, but at least it wasn’t on the burger. I brushed the vegetable aside and dug in to the burger. Biting in, I found that this wasn’t the best bison burger I’d ever had. In fact it was far from it. It was quite dry and definitely not the medium I had ordered. It actually kind of tasted like they had scraped off the original cheese and onions, tossed on a new slice and thrown it back on the grill long enough to re-melt the cheese. So the cheese was delicious, as was the bun, but the patty itself left a lot to be desired.

It was disappointing, and although everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal, I felt like mine could have turned out much better. The bison burger is a very difficult burger to cook, and Carson’s was not the right place to keep that burger moist.

Making its way into the custom burger scene in Arizona is a place called the BluBurger Grille. Similar to places like the Counter in California, BluBurger gives you a list of burger styles and loads of toppings available for them. BluBurger, however, takes customization to a new level.

Rather than restricting itself to one beef burger option, BluBurger has pulled out the stops by offering Kobe Beef (which I can only assume is actually Kobe-style beef) and Bison. Since I typically love me some buffalo, I ordered that with sharp cheddar and BBQ sauce. Adding anything else would have masked the flavor of the buffalo, so I kept my burger pretty simple. There were less options for toppings than at the Counter, but I think offering more meat more than made up for it. Also, the burger came with a side, which the Counter doesn’t include. For my side, I chose the skinny fries.

Having recently had a bad bison burger experience at the Library in Santa Monica, I was eager to replace that memory with a better one. When my burger arrived, I knew this burger would not be comparable to my bad experience. The patty was big and juicy, with just enough cheese and BBQ sauce. I bit in and was very happy with the taste. This place really knew how to cook up some bison. The fries were pretty decent, albeit small and a bit on the salty side. Luckily, the burger captured my attention for the meal and I didn’t really need to worry about the fries.

I was very happy to be reacquainted with my neglected bison friend. BluBurger is definitely a place worth seeking out in Arizona for some good ground meat on a bun.

For a nice night out on the town, I went to the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. After about twenty minutes of waiting, we were finally shown to our table, in an outdoor patio area. I always love eating outside, so this was a definite plus for the restaurant.

Although the menu had a bunch of good-looking options, the buffalo burger really stuck out to me. I always enjoy a good bison, so I hoped the Library would continue that trend. Plus, I try to eat like Native Americans as much as possible, and we all know how much they loved their buffalo. Luckily, I was able to add a twist that wasn’t exactly available to Native Americans: cheddar cheese and bacon, and of course without any veggies. It also came with a side of fries. While waiting, I searched their extensive beer list and decided on the delicious Allagash White Ale.

Eventually my burger arrived, cooked to my specifications and without a vegetable in sight. Since bars typically have great burgers and buffalo makes burgers better, I bit into my buffalo burger with high expectations. This ultimately led to disappointment. The burger was really quite dry, which was too bad. I always think of buffalo meat as pretty delicate and since it’s usually leaner it’s easy to dry it out in the cooking. Sadly, this is what happened. The burger was so dry that even my Allagash couldn’t keep my mouth wet enough to finish the burger.

Unless I hear that they’ve learned how to cook buffalo better, I’ll have to get my bison fix elsewhere.