Tag: Sudwerk

Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Sudwerk

Sudwerk
Sudwerk’s Gourmet Cheeseburger

Welcome to the inaugural cheeseburger review in my pursuit of the best cheeseburger in Davis, CA. We’re starting with Sudwerk’s Gourmet Cheeseburger ($10.75) for our inaugural review. First, a quick apology for the silence on the blog front I have been busy organizing an event at the state Capitol. (It went very well. Thank you for asking.) That’s over now though and I hope to return to a regular posting schedule.

Being the first comes with both positives and negatives. The first to be judged is able to set expectations but they’re also examined in a vacuum without any context. I didn’t know where to begin on my list of burger joints. I couldn’t simply start from the beginning and go down as some of these restaurants have odd hours. Instead of trying to randomly select a place or dither on which I wanted to try I kicked the responsibility to picking a place to my friends on Facebook. The “winner” was Sudwerk, a combined craft brewery and restaurant that has been in Davis since 1989.

If you need help recalling how I rate cheeseburgers you will find the criteria here. And without further ado let’s dig in:

Sudwerk
Sudwerk’s string fries

The Review

Patty (10/35) – I ordered a medium rare patty. The one I got was medium well to well done. The patty was heavily seasoned. Lots of pepper and salt. It was difficult to taste anything but the spice. Salty, greasy.

Cheese (8/25) – A thing single slice on the patty. Actual cheddar as I requested. Tasteless. Probably mild or medium cheddar.

Bun (10/15) – The bun was grilled. The top was too dry and the bottom was soaked in grease from the patty and/or water from the lettuce.

Toppings (5/15) – Lettuce was iceberg and pre-shredded. Unable to tell if fresh but I suspect not. Three pickle slices, two tomato slices, and a single slice of red onion. The pickles were bland as was the onion

Condiments (0/10) – No condiments on the burger. No condiments on the table.

Ambiance (2/*) – The space is fine. It did not detract from the meal but nor did it add to the meal. The servers and waiters were hustling and working hard.

Total (35/100) – Not a good start to the project… I am hopeful that it is all up from here! This burger was so bad that I did not finish eating it. Continue reading “Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Sudwerk”

Cocktail of the Week: Shandy

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Seems the Shandy gets a bad rap.  Before making them I thought this might have something to do with the low regard in which people hold mainstream American beer. Also, the low regard mainstream beer has of itself… The cocktail has a long history in the UK and Germany (where it is known as the Radler). But, on this side of the Atlantic I’ve never heard anyone order it or seen anyone drink it.The most common recipe for the cocktail is really simple: equal parts beer and soda, usually a ginger ale or lemon/lime soda. That’s fine but I wanted to class the drink up a little and I didn’t have any Sprite or 7Up. I did some looking around the internet and found a few alternative recipes and using them as a guide and a little experimentation I came up with this.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Shandy

  • 8 oz. blonde beer (I used a lager from the local brewery)
  • 4 oz. ginger ale (I had ginger beer so I used that)
  • 2 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • lemon slices for garnish

Pour into glass and stir.

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Turns out, It looks as tastes as good as it look…

These were a disappointment. D couldn’t finish her’s; she said it tasted too much like beer. I thought mine tasted like ginger beer with lemon in it. Perhaps I could have used more beer? Perhaps I should have just gone with the traditional recipe and used ginger ale or Sprite? Or maybe I needed a different beer? I don’t know… I like to have my cocktails be a little escape from the day and the Shandy didn’t offer that. It’s a mediocre beer or a mediocre soda. Why drink that when you can have a superb beer or a superb soda? Or better, a superb cocktail?

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