The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Burgers 2 Beer goes east, and it’s a beast
Clever creations delight in Concord — and, if you visit, don’t hold the peanut butter
When Burgers 2 Beer opened about a year ago in Concord Township, I kept hearing from people: “They have a burger with peanut butter.”
While it’s always sounded gimmicky — and kind of gross — the Nut Butter burger shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s visited a Burgers 2 Beer location before. It, along with several other interesting signature burgers, has long been a staple on the menu. But Concord is the farthest east founder Elie Chamoun’s successful chain has ventured in its seven years, so it’s perhaps still a novelty to those in the area.
Burgers 2 Beer is one of several new dining establishments in Crile Crossing, the retail development along Route 44 that seems to grow by the week. It’s the only establishment there with a liquor license, joining a somewhat crowded bar-and-grill scene in the immediate vicinity.
The spot is just around the corner from my in-laws, so on a recent family Saturday dinner night, we visited as much out of convenience as curiosity. I couldn’t believe it has been open since November of last year, yet we’d never met up there.
There were eight of us, but we were seated right away. We were on the early side, arriving a little before 6 p.m., and it filled up rather quickly. Inside, the space seems larger than it appears from the outside. There are a lot of tables, but we didn’t feel as though we were on top of other guests.
The décor is sort of industrial chic. A vaulted, unfinished black ceiling, contemporary pendant lighting, hardwood floors and butcher-block tables give it the feel of a higher-end sports bar. The front of the building is taken up almost entirely by two garagetype doors full of windows, and there’s an outdoor area with a separate bar, enclosed under a canopy with what appear to be removable sides. There is a lot of beer signage, which is probably to be expected from a place with “beer” in its name.
And the beer list is quite impressive, a wide range of craft, domestic and imported brews. A lot of them are on tap, including a nice selection from local breweries, and the bottle list is huge. If there’s a particular beer you enjoy, you’re likely to find it here. And even on Saturdays, there are happy-hour drink specials before 6 p.m. as well as some discounted appetizers.
We started with the sloppy tots ($8.99) and the mozzarella sticks ($7.99) from an appetizer menu heavy with fried foods, including three different french fry dishes. The mozzarella sticks were pretty standard fare but were piping-hot and came across as more homemade than manufactured.
The tots, on the other hand, stood out. They’re regular old tater tots topped with a sloppy joe mix and nacho cheese. The sloppy joe was really good — flavorful but not overly spicy — and it was surprising how well the tots stood up to all the gooey-ness covering them. One order could easily serve a party of four.
The menu has more sandwiches on it than I remember, but the last time I was at a B2B was a few years ago at least. Burgers, of course, dominate the menu.
There are a whopping 23 signature burgers, as well as a buildyour-own option that starts at $7.99 with a la carte toppings priced separately. The signature burgers have creative names, such as the Eiffel Toast, which has French toast rather than a bun, and the Oh, Cheesus, which substitutes grilled cheese sandwiches for the bun. The Luther features donuts instead of the bun.
They range from $8.99 to $14.99, with most in the $10-to$11 range, which for a gourmettype burger made from grass-fed beef is a good value. Honestly, a few of them were really appealing except for a topping or two. For example, the breakfast burger — bacon, over-easy egg, corned beef hash — sounded great until the hollandaise sauce. It seemed as though each had one ingredient that made it a deal-breaker for me.
So, naturally, I got the Nut Butter, which, going in, I thought would be the biggest deal-breaker ingredient of all.
Hollandaise on a burger? No way. Peanut butter? Bring it on, turns out.
The Nut Butter ($10.49) has cheddar and provolone cheeses, bacon, lettuce, tomato and red onion atop the patty. Underneath the beef is the peanut butter, about which I had been completely wrong. It’s neither gross, nor gimmicky. You don’t really taste it when you bite into the burger. It’s more a finish — a sweet and salty combo of an aftertaste that makes you question why you haven’t ever had it before.
You can order any burger pink or no-pink. I got mine pink, and it was cooked to a perfect medium, as was everybody else’s at the table.
My wife’s parents both got the Vampire Hunter ($10.99) — gouda, pepperoni, garlic aioli, caramelized onions and tomato — and loved it. My wife went with the breakfast burger ($10.99) despite the hollandaise. My sister-inlaw took on the Good, Bad & Ugly ($10.99), which has bacon, onion straws and barbecue sauce. They both raved, too.
My younger son got chicken tenders from the kids menu and didn’t complain. My 10-year-old asked if he could have one of the specials, a foot-long chili dog, minus the chili, ($10), and he thought it was amazing, though heavy on the bread. The “bun” was basically a loaf of split French bread.
My brother-in-law strayed from the burger menu, too, ordering an Italian Stallion sandwich ($12.99), which is basically a hot Italian sub served on Rosemary-seasoned flatbread. His approval of it made it the rare clean sweep — all eight of us really enjoyed our meal.
It’s difficult to find fault with much at B2B. There were some contradictions between the beers listed on the wall and those on the printed beer list at tables, including some unavailability, but that’s a minor complaint. I’d say that even though our server was awesome, we saw less of her as the place got busier, to the point that it felt the staff was stretched a bit thin. I thought it odd that onion rings are an appetizer, but they’re not listed on the menu as a substitution for the fries that come with every entrée.
For a while, it still might be known mainly as the place with the peanut butter burger, but Burgers 2 Beer’s easternmost venture has plenty of other things going for it.