Carl's Jr.
Web: Carl's Jr.
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"Contrasting with the big chains is The Counter, a relatively young, small chain of restaurants specializing in completely customized, gourmet 'build your own burgers.'"

Are hamburgers worthy of attention - even obsession? Why would anyone care too deeply about something that can sells for as little as $1 here, and can be found anywhere in the world from chains such as McDonald's and Burger King? If you're reading Buffalo Chow, you already know the answers: burgers are ubiquitous, but some are better - much better - than others. Yet what constitutes the ideal burger is a topic of considerable debate, and there's no larger battlefield than Southern California, where burger chains - great ones - are so numerous that virtually any* variation on the theme can be found. Western New Yorkers raised on McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's burgers might not know just how numerous and great the options are out there, so we revisited a number of noteworthy options during our time in Southern California. Here are the biggies.

Carl's Jr.: It's the favorite of one Buffalo Chow editors, and the fourth-biggest burger chain in the United States. Known in most of the country as Hardee's, Carl's Jr. was memorably featured in the movie Idiocracy because of its aggressive, edgy marketing, which is just one of the ways in which the chain tries a lot harder than its larger competitors. With the introduction of the "Six Dollar Burger," sold for $4 as a jab at the nearly identical large burgers sold at sit-down restaurants such as T.G.I. Friday's, the chain positioned itself as a unique player in the burger market: one that was more concerned about quality and mid-priced offerings than its race-to-the-bottom competitors, yet also capable of focusing on value for the dollar. Like Burger King, it grills its burgers rather than frying them, and consequently, both of our editors agree that the meat tastes better at Carl's than at most other burger chains.

The Six Dollar Burger, shown to the left of our photo, packs roughly 5.5 ounces of Black Angus beef, plus lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, pickles, cheese, mustard, mayo and ketchup; its meat patty actually tastes better than what's used in the chain's smaller burgers, such as the Famous Star, shown on the right. Its only flavor misfire is its inclusion of sweet rather than sour pickles, which are prominent enough in the sandwich to be tasted under the patty. By comparison, Carl's Famous Star is roughly equivalent to a Whopper Jr. in size and toppings, swapping the red onions for white ones, and the sweet pickles for dill ones; a newer offering, the Big Carl, is a direct challenge to McDonald's Big Mac with twice the meat and cheese at a lower price. We're fans of pretty much all of its sandwiches, as well as its chicken items, which include nicely peppered and breaded chicken strips, served even early in the morning. Western New Yorkers would love Carl's Jr.; it's the only chain that actively takes on its bigger competitors on quality and pricing, and succeeds.

In-N-Out Burger: As much as we like Carl's, there's a chain that's more popular in Southern California and the few other places where it operates. In-N-Out Burger is the top pick of one Buffalo Chow editor, and the most common answer in Los Angeles and Orange Counties to the question "who serves your favorite hamburger?" The lines at its drive-throughs are legendarily long, forcing employees to walk out from the restaurants and take orders using wireless clipboards before people have even arrived at the deliberately simple, billboard-style menus. Most people don't need to see the menus before ordering: they know their choices, including those on the now famous "secret menu" - a list of amusingly-named burger customizations, available by request. Like Duff's, In-N-Out has developed a reputation as a place that people visit first after arriving in town.

In-N-Out's success is largely attributable to the well-marketed freshness of its ingredients. Rather than offering dozens of different types of food, the retro-styled In-N-Out focuses very squarely on burgers, fries, and milkshakes, making each to order. There aren't six different sizes of burger patty; instead, the chain offers a "double meat" - one bun with two meat patties - and a "double double" with two meat patties and two cheese slices; 3x3 and 4x4 versions are also available, with an infamously photographed, custom-ordered 100x100 forcing the chain to cap the number of patties it will cook at once. As you wait in line inside or outside, you can watch as the potatoes are sliced for the fries; once you have your meal, you can taste the quality of the "never frozen" beef patties and enjoy the thick, rich milkshakes, which have spurred competitors to upgrade from their powdered, thinner versions. There's no question that the burgers are good; the debate between our editors focuses solely on whether they're great.

Buffalo Chow's hard-core In-N-Out fan says yes, pointing to the secret menu's "Animal Style" Double Double, which cooks the beef patty in mustard, then adds grilled onions and extra spread - basically thousand island dressing. On this visit, like her last, she went straight for In-N-Out after arriving from Buffalo, and had no reservations about making a second visit later in our trip. But the other of us, the less-than-total fan, notes that the burgers are fried, like McDonald's, and taste so, diminishing the flavor of the better quality meat. On our most recent visits, we both agreed that the burgers' other toppings - lettuce, tomato, those onions, and optional sliced hot peppers - were the real stars of the sandwiches, with the buns and meat coming in second. The lesson other restauranteurs should take away from In-N-Out is this: a small, focused, fresh menu with some ill-kept secret options can really hook customers, even if they don't all agree on what the best items are.

Jack in the Box: Based in San Diego and boasting 2,100 locations - mostly on the West Coast - Jack in the Box is the country's fifth-largest burger chain, and has tried to distinguish itself from the pack by diversifying its offerings. Though burgers are a major part of the menu, and some good-tasting Sirloin burgers have been added to compete against the Angus offerings at other chains, Jack also offers ethnic items in an effort to draw in customers. It's the rare burger joint where you can also pick up a taco, pita, egg roll, and a Teriyaki Bowl - rice, teriyaki-flavored chicken or steak, and vegetables - along with your burger, chicken, or fish sandwich, making it an easier stop for a car full of customers with different tastes. The only issue with Jack in the Box is that its burgers are nothing special; there's little way to differentiate the sirloin offerings from other decent burgers, save for their size, which is comparable to the Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burgers. This is an interesting chain because of its variety, but we'd be fine if it never came to Buffalo.

The Counter: Representing the other extreme relative to mass-manufactured burgers is The Counter, a relatively young, small chain of restaurants specializing in completely customized, gourmet "build your own burgers." They start at $8.50 (1/3 lb.) and climb to $13.75 (1 lb.) in 1/3 pound increments, and the non-bun items can also be had "in a bowl" with salad lettuce or greens for a $1 premium. Every patron is handed a clipboard with a five-step customization sheet, starting with the choice of just-ground Angus beef or other meats, and moving through 10 different cheeses, 28 different toppings, 18 sauces, and three buns. Like Gruyere and sprouts on a turkey burger? You can get it here. The fixed price includes your choice of one cheese, four standard toppings, one sauce, and a bun, while additional items can be added for 50 cents or $1 each. Freshly made ice cream milkshakes, including the green Apple Pie one shown here, are also available; this one was so thick with ice cream and chunks of apple pie filling that it was served and initially consumed with a spoon - a better dessert than a drink.

So what's it like to make a burger with whatever toppings you want? At The Counter, it's somewhat surprisingly not that incredible. From the meat to the sauces and the toppings, we found the burgers to be only fair to good - quite a statement given that they sell for twice the price of comparably sized and equipped Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burgers - and nothing had quite as strong a taste as we were expecting. The Peppercorn Steak Sauce was surprisingly light, and the "Spicy" Pepperoncinis all but absent in flavor; another sandwich ordered with different onions was similarly cooked to the point where the tastes were obscured. The concept of a dedicated, high-end burger place with all sorts of options is a great one, but it really needs more distinctive and better flavors to merit more than a single visit.

Yet what The Counter offers, at least through its $1 each Premium Toppings section, is an opportunity to make a burger similar to something we tried in Asia - the Burger Ramly, the reason for the asterisk (*) at the top of this article. In Malaysia and Singapore, a small burger company decided to compete with larger international competitors such as McDonald's by offering a substantially different alternative, an "Asian Taste" burger wrapped in a fried egg, served with a freshly butter-fried bun and red chili sauce, then garnished with fresh, locally popular ingredients such as cucumber. Rather than buying up storefronts, Burger Ramly supplied its specially flavored meat patties and recipes to streetcart vendors and let them hawk its wares across Malaysia. Unhealthy as they may sound, Ramly burgers have tons of fans thanks to their local twists, and speak to the wisdom of taking a staple item such as the hamburger and offer it in a completely outside-the-box fashion. Of the places we've visited from Southern California, The Counter provides the best opportunity to make a burger that's truly different from the pack, but it - and its competitors - could go even further with flavored meats and different toppings.

Do you have a favorite out-of-town burger joint? Have you tried any or all of the places mentioned above? Is there one or another that you'd particularly like to see in Western New York? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.