Gardenburger mania

It's still miserable and raining here. I hate endless stretches of rain like we're currently experiencing. My jeans are wet, I'm cold, and the curl in my hair is falling out. You'd think I live in Seattle with this kind of weather. Still, Jim braved the conditions and came to my office to take me out to lunch. He had in mind Grubbing Mexican (our nickname for Los Reyes), but it's a drive and I didn't want to take a long lunch today. Plus the plan is for Chevy's tonight. So we ended up going to Red Robin instead.

Being habitual creatures at these chain restaurants, we ordered our usual: I get The Garden Burger and he gets the Monster burger. Now, the weird thing about Red Robin is that I don't actually get a gardenburger. I get a Boca Burger. But I can't ask for a Boca Burger because the servers all get confused. See, on the menu, the veggie burger is listed as The Garden Burger and it's a name brand Gardenburger. However, it comes with an option to substitute a Boca patty for the Gardenburger. It's all rather ridiculous, but I have confused enough servers that I have learned to simply ask for a Garden Burger and then request a change. I also get it without the Bistro sauce and pickles. Jim's Monster burger truly is a monster. We're talking two patties and two pieces of cheese, plus tomatoes, lettuce, onion, and relish (Jim holds the mayo). In Jim's earlier, pickier years he would hold the tomatoes, which is, in fact, exactly the way his cousin C does, something the two of them discovered several years ago. I thought it was pretty interesting to see how similar they are, despite the lack of time spent together and eight-ish year age gap.

The best part of Red Robin is the bottomless steak fries. In my own younger, faster metabolism days, I took full advantage and always got seconds. Now I'm relegated to a single serving, which I make sure to blot. I like the fries best when they're crispy, not soft, and today the majority of mine were, so I scored! We always get our fries unseasoned because we prefer them without and the bonus is that they're always fresh that way. Even if we liked the seasoning, I think we would still order them the way we do for the freshness factor. After all, they keep the seasoning right on the table.