Conductivity

Burger Maestro

by Drew Lazor

Any eatery that replaces a Flamers Grill deserves a nod of appreciation, if only because Flamers is the seriously worst possible name for a charbroiled-meat place ever and does nothing but foment homophobia in preteens. ("Hey bro, you wanna eat at FLAMERS? You do? Oh man, that means you're GAY!") That's one of two reasons we decided to crew up and check out Burger Maestro, the few-month-old stand at the Bellevue from Jeff Jolles (Bain's Deli) and his son, Michael. The other? Any locally owned spot touting fresh-ground beef burgers, Chicago-style hot dogs and hand-cut fries has automatically got our lunch-hour attention.

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The music-themed Maestro boasts a taut selection of prime burgers, chicken breast sandwiches and all-beef frankfurters split down the middle and dressed up with whatever you can imagine. The food comes up quickly, even if the team's juggling lots of orders, as they were during our drop-by.

The "New Orleans Jazz," featuring onions, lettuce and pickle and a patty seasoned with mysterious "Cajun dust" (it's what Louisiana-based fairies sprinkle on sleeping children!), had a hell of a cayenne kick. Couldn't say the same about the bell pepper- and onion-topped "Reggae," whose promised Caribbean jerk sauce was inaudible. Same went for the barbecue sauce on the "Country and Western," but it was nothing that the cheddar/bacon/sautéed onion backing band couldn't overcome. That same combo also graced the top of an incredibly juicy and flavorful chicken breast, but the bacon on that sandwich came out a little limp. The delicious "Philadelphia" dog, with heaped-on sauerkraut, onion, yellow mustard and relish, was the biggest hit at our table. (Yes, there's also a wiener topped with "Cajun dust"!)

Jeff Jolles said that medium is the rarest they'll cook their patties, a call that inevitably led to a few of our burgers arriving overdone. But the biggest disappointment here were the French fries. You could definitely tell the taters were sliced in-house, but the two orders we dug into were over-fried almost to a potato chip crunch. Crispy jalapenos and ribbons of charred-up onion couldn't mask this fact in the spicy Spanish rendition, either. The Maestro turns out serviceable sandwiches, but with consistent competitors like Five Guys just up the street, a burger's best friend needs to be on key.

(drew.lazor@citypaper.net)

Burger Maestro | Food Court at the Bellevue, 200 S. Broad St. (lower level), 215-545-1770. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m .-5 p.m.; closed Sun. Burgers, $4.99-$5.99; chicken sandwiches, $4.99-$5.99; hot dogs, $2.99-$3.99; fries, $2.59-$4.99.