Quinton's Bar & Deli

Five years ago, or so, I wrote a review about Quinton's for the Washburn Review when I was an undergraduate at Washburn University. My experience there wasn't the best, but I did return on occasion for drinks and lunch. It was only recently that I realized I didn't have slot on my blog for Quinton's and I kept seeing their ads on Facebook for their specials, so I decided to give them another shot.

As I said before, Facebook kept running the ads and the one about their Olympic Burger really caught my attention. The burger has beer-candied bacon, Granny Smith apple slices, caramelized red onions, sharp cheddar and maple mayo. I was a little hesitant about the maple mayo because I'm not a fan of maple flavored things, but I figured with the bacon it couldn't be too bad. I've had a few sandwiches in the past with Granny Smith apples and for the most part I've always enjoyed them. Also, it's worth mentioning that I went on a Tuesday and after 5 p.m. their burgers are half price.

Since that's what kept catching my eye on the newsfeed, I ordered the Olympian. I went ahead and got it the way it comes since people build sandwiches a certain way for a reason. I figure I can at least try the sandwich the way it's supposed to be and if I don't like it, after that I can remove items. In this case it was the caramelized red onions. I'm just not a fan of onions on burgers so I ripped those off after my first couple bites.

Another ingredient I wasn't sure about was this maple mayo, which would have been pretty difficult to remove. Luckily I didn't hate it. The mayo had a maple flavor but it also wasn't like maple syrup like I had in my mind for some reason. Glad I tried it because I actually liked it -- on the burger, I don't think I could just spoon it into my mouth like peanut butter, but it added a nice flavor to the burger. My only complaint is my own fault -- I should've ordered the burger medium because I'm not a fan of well done burgers, but this one was still juicy so no biggie. I'll try to remember that next time.

What I did like was the Granny Smith apples. They were crispy and tart and added a nice contrast to smoky bacon and maple. It was a nice touch. And bacon. Bacon is always good and this bacon was thick and crispy.

The burger comes with French fries and as I've said in the past, fries are fries. They were nice and crispy, though.

I've seen where Quinton's is now going to start having bands play so I might check that out sometime. I enjoyed the burger, but it's only there until the end of this week so go get it now if you want to try it.

Capital City Food Truck Festival -- Day 2

I returned for Day 2 and wasn't disappointed.

First, Visit Topeka fixed some of the initial problems by moving the food trucks apart and spacing

Pulled pork, Mr. Nice Guy's

everything out a bit more. There were also better markers indicating where the lines should go and end, so there was less confusion today. There were just as many people, though.

Topeka definitely turned out for this event, and organizers were not expecting the turnout. I heard over 4,000 people attended on Friday alone, and even more are coming out today, (Saturday). Some food trucks were running out of food, but that happens with food trucks. They only have a limited amount of space, so that happens.

Philly Cheesesteak, Mr. Nice Guy's

When Ryan and I first got there today, we jumped into Mr. Nice Guy's line, which didn't seem too long. We only waited about 30 minutes to order and a few more for our food which was acceptable. We got a pulled pork sandwich and a Philly cheesesteak. The pork sandwich was good, but nothing special. I think they roast the meat as opposed to smoking it, which is fine with me, it was still tender, juicy and good. My favorite barbecue sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's was available for smothering so that was a plus.

The Philly cheesesteak is what I'd write home about, though. I've heard people talk about how Mr. Nice Guy's, located in Oakland, has the best cheesesteak in town, and now I know they weren't lying. I don't even like green peppers but I could eat this sandwich without complaint. I tried a couple bites of Ryan's and couldn't get over the fact that the green peppers didn't bother me. The meat is tender, steaming hot and the melted cheese sauce makes it that much better. I would order it again, never mind the pulled pork.

Chocolate avocado smoothie,
photo courtesy of Bailey Mushok

Next, we tried the Purple Carrot Co-Op, where you can find vegan cuisine. Their line wasn't long but they always seemed to have one. We had to try one of their avocado chocolate smoothies because we kept hearing good things from other people. The smoothie was  definitely different, but still good. It was bright green with chunks of dark chocolate floating around in it. At first I wasn't sure about it, but after a few swigs I quickly realized I really liked it. I The chocolate chunks melted in your mouth and blended well with the strong avocado flavor and I thought the two flavors worked together.

As we were waiting for our shake, X-Marks the Spot showed up so I jumped in line to wait for them to open. We waited for about an hour because they were being inspected, (Blue Moose had the same thing before they could open), but then only waited about 10 minutes for our food to be cooked. I got a grilled chicken wrap and Ryan got the Wrigley Dog, which seemed like a Chicago dog just with a different name. It was a little different, but pretty much a Chicago dog.

I appreciated the chicken wrap because it featured salad greens instead of iceberg lettuce, which most

Grilled chicken wrap, X-Marks the Spot

places use. The chicken was juicy and hot, the mustard didn't overwhelm me and I liked the tomato bacon jam. It was sweet and smokey thanks to the bacon. The tortilla didn't rip and everything stayed together until the very end. I would order this wrap again, but I may try the veggie wrap next time.

X-Marks the Spot was not serving their pickle fries, (my favorite) but with good reason. The pickles were messing up the fryer and causing longer wait times I'm sure, because when you batter and fry things, much of the batter separates off and leaves little floating pieces of overcooked batter which sticks to other fried items, wreaking havoc on your fryer. I don't blame them for taking the pickles off the menu. Hopefully that is only for the festival and the pickle fries will be back on their regular, daily menu. I didn't ask.

The Wrigley Dog, X-Marks the Spot

The Wrigley Dog looked pretty amazing, probably about like an authentic Chicago dog. The only thing that stood out to me as way different was the bun. It seemed like they weren't as soft and yeasty as the buns I remember in Chicago, they were a little more dense, but that's not to say it was bad. It's not from Chicago, so of course it will be a little different.

Overall, I feel like the Capital City Food Truck Festival was a hit. New events always have kinks to be worked out, and as long as the event coordinators are open to suggestions, things will be better next year. Even this year I thought was a great turnout, good, tasty food and Topekans showed up to support the event.

Annie's Place

I felt like some good pie so I went to Annie's Place for lunch.  I know I've been before, but for some reason I never wrote a review for my blog. I did, however, write one for the Washburn Review in 2011, and you can read it HERE.

When I walked inside it was nice and cool and the hostess sat me immediately. It wasn't very busy so my waitress was right over.

I ordered iced tea to drink. I must say, it's some good stuff. The waitress said it's brewed daily, and it's strong, too. I don't usually add sugar to weak tea, but this stuff was strong enough to hold up to some sweetness, so I added a pink one. I even got a to-go cup to take it with me because I didn't want to waste it.

The menu offers a nice variety of items including, salads, appetizers, soups, sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, dinner entrees and specialty items. Can't forget the bakery that churns out various pies, brownies and desserts. There's also a breakfast menu, which I've never tried. I hope to try it sometime soon.

I went for the Guacamole Burger and asked to add lettuce, tomato and pickle. I got chips because I didn't feel like fries. The chips were just crinkle-cut potato chips that are probably from a bag. The burger was good, but after putting my "salad" on my burger I took a huge bite and got a bad surprise. The pickle chips were not dill pickle chips, they were sweet pickle chips. Bleh. Not what I was expecting on a guacamole burger. It was pretty awful, (which one can argue would still be awful with dill pickles). I pulled the rest of them off of the burger and continued.

The guacamole was creamy, with no real chunks of avocado in it. It wasn't spicy and I kind of wish it had just a little more jalapeño flavor to it. Spiciness aside, I like guac on my burger and I would order it again. Although, next time I may eat it a little differently starting out. No pickles and I should try to plan out how I'm going to eat it so it's less messy. I ended up with guacamole all over me, the table and my plate. The guac shot out both sides of the burger the first time I sank my teeth in, covering my cheeks in avocado and dripping all over the plate and table. Awesome. I was lucky it wasn't busy and nobody saw me.

The bun was one item that stood out to me, mostly because they are made in-house. It was fluffy, a little dry (as opposed to chewy), but in a good way, and it held up to my messy burger. The guacamole just slid all over the place and would have caused most buns to become soggy or rip. This one did neither and I was able to eat my burger sans fork all the way to the end. Plus, the bun tasted good and that's what really matters. It durability was an added bonus.

I wasn't done with lunch, I wanted dessert.

This time, I ordered the Mile-High Apple Pie, which is essentially apple pie a'la mode. Oh yum. In
my last article I only ordered the apple pie but this time I added ice cream. The crust was my favorite part, because it's sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar it seems crunchy, but in a good way. At first I thought the ice cream was made in-house, but after asking I found out it wasn't. The scoop they give is a pretty generous one, and I like lots of ice cream on my pie. The apples were tender and sweet, with just enough cinnamon for me. I felt like there was a good texture combination in this dish -- soft apples, crunchy crust, doughy bottom crust, creamy ice cream and rough sugar-crust. Yum.

I think my only complaint for the menu would be the pricing. I spent $18 on my meal, dessert and a drink. For lunch, that seems a little pricey. I did get the pie a'la mode, but that was $6 of my meal. Subtract that completely and I'm still paying around $12 for lunch. I think they have the same prices for dinner, so there's that. I don't mind spending a little bit more money for good food, which it was, and most of it's made right there, in the restaurant every day -- such as the homemade hamburger buns. I would recommend trying Annie's Place for lunch some time or just dessert. (They even sell whole pies.)

Food Truck #3: X-Marks The Spot

I was fortunate enough to make it to X-Marks the Spot, a food truck in downtown Topeka. It's usually
at the south west 10th and Topeka Blvd. from 11 a.m. until about 2 p.m.

I got to the truck around 12:15 p.m. on a Monday and there were a few people in front of me, and two or three who showed up after me. The wait was only about 8-10 minutes, which wasn't bad, considering I ordered a Black Angus cheeseburger, and they're a pretty good size. So, if you're in downtown Topeka for lunch, it doesn't take long to grab a bite to eat and make it back in time for that after-lunch meeting.

I ordered the regular cheeseburger and I asked them to add lettuce and tomato. It comes with thick-sliced Swiss cheese and garlic herb mayo on a pretzel bun. If you don't like pretzel buns they also have plain ol' regular ones, too. I liked the pretzel bun because it was soft, but it held up well to the burger and didn't mush up and tear apart like most buns. It looks like it would be hard, but it's just firm, but still fluffy inside. I asked for a medium-well cooked burger and that's what I got. If you don't specify, they will cook it to medium, so make sure you say if you want it otherwise.

The burger was juicy, thick and flavorful. It was cooked medium-well just like I like it, and just like I requested it. The garlic herb mayo was definitely garlicky, so be careful if you don't want garlic breath. It was creamy and good, and definitely worth it. I was glad I asked for tomato and lettuce because it added that texture I wanted.

Instead of getting French fries, I ordered the Fried Pickle Fries. I had never had them this way -- thin

sliced, julienne style -- and I enjoyed them. The pickle fries were thin and crispy, but there was enough of the pickle inside to know you were eating pickles. The batter reminded me of a tempura or beer batter, and it held up well to the pickles, so they didn't slide out of the fried case, like sometimes happens with the spears. I was scared the pickle taste would be lost in the fried batter, but the ratio was pleasing to the palate and they were salted well, too. The pickle fries were paired with what I think was chipotle-mango ranch sauce. It was sweet with a kick, and much better than just regular old ranch. I would recommend getting this and sharing it between a couple friends because there are a lot in this order.

I look forward to trying out some other menu items, such as one of the hotdogs, some onion rings and maybe another burger.

X-Marks the Spot is another food truck in Topeka I'd recommend checking out.

Burger Stand - Fish Sandwich

I've recently re-visited Burger Stand and I have to say, I wasn't impressed.

With it being Lent, I decided to go for the fish option to see what they had to offer.  I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, mostly because it's a burger joint, not a seafood restaurant. That being said, I was expecting it to be good. And that's all it really was, was good.



I ordered their regular French fries and the hubs ordered some onion rings with his burger so we could share. The fries were tasty as usual -- crispy, salty and not too greasy. The onion rings are probably frozen and fried on site, but they were good.

Now on to the fish sandwich.

The fish sandwich comes with a spicy remoulade sauce -- which I didn't find to be very hot -- tartar sauce, pickle relish, tomatoes and lettuce. It's served on one of their normal buns, which is soft and chewy, but crispy on the bottom where it was obviously grilled.

My problem with the fish sandwich is that the fish was two thin pieces of fish stacked on top of each other. It seems to me that there was more breading than fish. By the time I was halfway finished with my sandwich, the breading was mushy from the sauce and I felt like I was eating mushy-bread-tartar sauce. By the end of it, I could hardly find any fish, it was all breading and bun and sauce. Plus, it just didn't stay together well. It was a sliding mess.

My idea of a good fish sandwich is one that has lots of fish in it, and yeah, it can be breaded but I would hope there's less breading than actual meat. Maybe these fish planks would have been good, just not in a sandwich. The fish itself was good, I just don't think it was good for a sandwich.

Burger Stand is a great place to eat, I just wasn't happy with this particular sandwich. Every Monday is half price for Washburn Students and Wednesdays is half price for teachers. They have all kinds of events going on there throughout the week, especially during the Washburn semesters.

I plan to return, I just don't plan to ever get the fish sandwich again.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries Comes to Topeka

Another restaurant opens on Wanamaker. This time it's a burger joint, popular all around the country that's made its way to Topeka, finally. I remember hearing about a Five Guys Burger and Fries in Lawrence for the past couple years, and I've always heard good things. Now that it's in Topeka, I went and checked it out. It seems, so did a lot of other people that day.

Bags of potatoes stacked around the restaurant.

When I got there, it was packed. All the tables were full and the line was all the way to the door. That being said, it really didn't take that long to order and maybe 10 minutes after that to get the food. Also, it's the first week that it's open and it's sure to slow down in the future -- at least a little.

While waiting in line, though, you can eat shell-in peanuts that are free for all. That way your wait isn't too unbearable if you're impatient like me.

The menu, at first glance, doesn't have much to it. Burgers, bacon cheeseburgers, fries, shakes and hot dogs. Simple. There's nothing special about the menu, either. What I mean, is usually when you go to a burger joint, there are burgers with special toppings and sauces, or a burger named after the place. Not at Five Guys. The menu was simple and straightforward.

There were more in the bag, too

Each burger comes with free toppings: lettuce, tomato, pickle, grilled onion, raw onion, grilled mushrooms, etc. The French fries are freshly cut on site, not those frozen, processed fries at typical fast food places -- there are even bags of fresh potatoes laying around like decorations.

When looking at the prices, keep in mind that the burgers are double cheeseburgers, which I didn't realize until I opened mine up. Also, the large French fry is definitely a large portion. I would recommend sharing with at least three people, or two extremely hungry ones. It comes in a large cup with even more on the bottom of the bag.

The fries were my favorite part. They reminded me of a place I worked when I lived in Arizona called Z's Chicago Dogs. There, we would cut our own fries from Russet potatoes, then fry them at a low temperature, like 275 F. Then, we'd cool them down, maybe even refrigerate them overnight. The next day, we'd fry them at a higher heat, like 350 F or 375 F. This ensures the fry is cooked thoroughly and that it's crispy and golden like fries should be. I'm not sure if that's exactly what they do at Five Guys, but they were close enough. I enjoyed the freshness, and they were still crispy, not limp. Yum.

The burger was juicy and tasty. Two patties topped with American cheese, a sesame seed bun and your choice of toppings. The burgers are put together nicely and seem to hold up well while eating. Sometimes when you get a burger it's smashed and messy, but this one seemed to stay together well and wasn't too messy. I guess that could depend what toppings you get on your burger. I ordered mine with tomato, pickle, ketchup, mayo and lettuce. There seemed to be too much cheese for me, (but I'm sure not everyone would agree) and I scraped some off of mine, but that's just personal preference.

I enjoyed Five Guys and will most likely return in the future, but I don't think I will drive across town just to eat it. Hopefully, next time it won't be so busy and my visit can be a little shorter, but, it is new to town. So if you're in a hurry, I'd wait until you have more time or it's newness has worn off a bit.

Tasting Lawrence - Dempseys Burger Pub

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 The other day I tried a new, (to me), burger place in Lawrence. I was pretty impressed and would have to say I enjoyed it more than The Burger Stand.

Their menu wasn't a typical burger menu because they like to add fried eggs and other ingredients like shallot marmalade and foie gras mousse. I can't think of any other place that offers those ingredients, and I like it.

When I went, I ordered the Egg Burger, which comes with a fried over-easy egg, Gruyere cheese and bacon all on top of a burger cooked to order. I loved it. The egg was runny and flowed over the burger and melting with the Gruyere cheese, which is like Swiss cheese but better - and the crispiness of the bacon was perfectly contrast with the softness of the egg. The bottom bun was only a little soggy, which made it a little difficult to eat as I got halfway through the burger, but because it was soggy with the runny yolk from the egg, I didn't mind that much. It was pretty messy, though.

The fries were crispy and seemed to be house-cut, but who knows, they could've been frozen. I don't really care, they were good. What I liked was that they serve different dipping sauces with each burger, for the fries. Served with the Egg Burger was the Old Bay and Tomato Coulis Aioli which was a little sweet with a hint of spice. An aioli that I enjoyed, but it wasn't served with my burger, was the Sriracha aioli -- just spicy enough but you could still taste the Sriracha without it being overpowering. I liked dipping my fries in that one.

The atmosphere is that of a sports bar. I went on a Friday night so there were a lot of college students hanging out, having a beer or two. It was loud from people talking and the music was turned up a bit, so don't plan to go if you're on a first date. The service was good, although I tried to pay the bill and she ignored me so that my brother-in-law could pay, but that's not a huge problem.

Prices were about what you would expect, $7 to $9 for a burger with the fries coming separate for as little as 99 cents. Wings, sliders and fish and chips are also offered, so if you don't want a burger, they have you covered.

Check out their MENU to see what other sauces and items they offer at Dempseys.