Not quite the heat I was expecting...

To celebrate a friend's birthday, I decided to grab lunch at Smokey Bones BBQ, which I now realize is something of chain. The main reason I didn't realize that at first was simply because I've only seen the one I went to, which is just outside of my apartment, so that worked out for me. I'd been here before with a friend because I had heard that the food was pretty good and he had a coupon. I also picked this place subsequently for this particular outing because I too had a coupon available. We started with an order of fried pickles, which were quite tasty, but you're here about the burgers, so let's jump into that.

Okay, so as per usual I enjoy burgers with a kick, because I feel that the "spicy" burgers often are more interesting in how they blend the various flavors of the burger components together with the spicy condiments and fixings. In short, I like how it tastes, and it gives me a good baseline on how I can evaluate the burger. On this occasion I opted for the Southwest Scorcher, which included salsa, jalapenos, and pepperjack cheese for good measure.

I'll be honest, most of these places I go don't really make a burger with a significant kick, which, while sometimes disappointing to me is understandable as it's not necessarily for everyone, and I've conceded, as strange as it seems to me, that I probably have a higher spiciness tolerance than the average person frequenting a burger shop. The interesting thing about Smokey Bones is that they also give you a selection of a type of bun, and I, deciding that I would be adventurous, opted for the pretzel bun, that may have been a mistake on my part.

I don't know if it was the greasiness/juiciness of the meat or that they perhaps grilled the bun or put the bun on the grill or something, but simply put, the burger itself was nigh impossible to handle, which forced me to, perhaps only for the second time in my life, approach this burger with flatware. All in all the flavors were pretty good, I was pretty pleasantly surprised at the quality of the burger and how well it was made, simply because from my previous experiences, BBQ places generally tend to focus more on smoking meats and such. While they utilize a grill, they rely more on the smoking process to get them flavor and thus sometimes can neglect the actual cooking process, something burger relies on entirely. The ingredients were fresh and the burger well cooked, but the inability to enjoy it as a burger definitely was a knock against it.

The fries were well done, they were crisp on the outside and fluffy within, which is really what you're looking for in french fries. Ultimately, I don't know that I'd specifically go to Smokey Bones for a burger, but maybe it deserves another go. This is not to say that I would never go to Smokey Bones again, I would just reconsider the pretzel bun.