Houston Chronicle

WHITE ELM’S THREE MAGICAL WORDS: BONE MARROW BUTTER

- BY ALISON COOK| STAFF WRITER

The phrase jumped out from the burger descriptio­n on White Elm Cafe’s website as if it had been written in large red type: “bone marrow butter.”

Shortly thereafter — OK, very shortly thereafter — I sat in the bakery-café’s parking lot on the corner of Memorial and Kirkwood with said bone marrow butter dripping down my chin.

I had just planted a whopping bite into a house cheeseburg­er that immediatel­y leaped into my Houston pantheon. Beside me in the passenger seat, I had duck-fat fries and a flock of Francophil­ia takeout items to get me through the weekend.

The sun was shining, making the cheddar cheese glisten gold from the burger’s perch on my dashboard, and I could see the straight-cut sides of the beef patty glisten with juice.

Life, for the moment, was good. Come with me, to this goodlookin­g bakery-café run by Chez Nous chef-owners Scott and Stacy Simonson and their chef de cuisine, Jesus Salinas, and find out why.

PRICE: $14 for the half-pound NMH burger with cheddar and duck-fat fries; $3 for an add-on of caramelize­d onions, for a total of $17.

ORDERING: White Elm has an efficient online ordering system, with which I ordered, paid and specified a later pickup time. It’s detailed enough to ask you to specify how you want your burger cooked, and I felt daring enough (the prospect bone marrow butter made me brave) to ask for medium rare.

Pickup was not quite so seamless. They don’t offer curbside, and I paused outside the doors to gauge the floor plan, wondering how best to limit my time indoors, where numerous guests were brunching up a storm, mimosa glasses clinking.

A server spotted me quickly as I made my way toward the back counter, where I could see my shopping bag waiting for me, right on time. I couldn’t have spent more than 30 masked-up seconds inside, for which I was grateful.

ARCHITECTU­RE: Salad stuff on top. On a lightly toasted housemade brioche bun goes a healthy swipe of roasted garlic aioli, followed by a half-pound beef patty that looks like it was formed with a straight-sided mold or cutter. Then comes a gleaming splash of bone-marrow butter, a melty drape of cheddar, a tangle of deeply caramelize­d onion, a tomato

slice and … what’s this? … bacon slices I did not ask for! Leaves of butter lettuce and another swipe of that garlic aioli finished things off, with a bamboo skewer pinning the whole burger together

QUALITY: Impeccable parts came together into an even more compelling whole. A conservati­vely handled medium-rare patty, flushed pink inside, yielded an expansive beef flavor gigged by the bone-marrow butter into full carnivorou­s bloom. I wore the drippage on my chin, sitting there in the car for a few glorious initial bites, as a badge of honor.

I had a 25-minute drive home, where I was pleased to find the burger still in good condition. Everything clicked, from the mellowed garlic of the aioli to the gentle lettuce and tomato crown. I didn’t mind the unexpected bacon so much as I found it irrelevant, and I ended up plucking it out and giving it to my dogs as a treat.

The good cheddar, the sweet hum of dark-glazed onion and the house-made brioche bun, with its soft yellow crumb and dark, shiny and delightful­ly chewy top crust — all came together into a blissful package.

OOZE RATING:

Excellent, even without the bone-marrow butter factored in.

LETTER GRADE:

Solid A.

VALUE: OK, given the quality of the ingredient­s and the addition of fries to the package, although the price of the add-ons (that bacon goes for 5 bucks, the onions $3) did give me pause.

BONUS POINTS: Quick, cheerful service and skillful takeout packaging both impressed.

MINUS POINTS: Alas, those tempting duck-fat fries turned out to have cottony interiors that reminded me a little too closely of the frozen kind.

STUFF FOR LATER:

What a haul! I came during Sunday’s brunch service, so I was able to obtain a trio of pretty, colorful and agreeable tartines, the French styling of the “toasts” so popular in recent years. The avocado version sported a vervy cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto; soft citrusrubb­ed salmon sat on cream cheese with fronds of fresh dill; and a crimson herd of strawberri­es strode a field of whipped ricotta.

For next day, I scored a well-made curried chicken salad on one of the house croissants, which, with careful wrapping and reheating, retained most of its texture.

But the crown jewel was a scone-based strawberry shortcake with drifts of Chantilly cream. I’ve been dessert-deprived during the pandemic, and this shortcake acted as sweet balm for the soul. I meant to eat just half and save the rest for later; that did not work out.

LOCAL COLOR: It’s a very Memorial scene inside White Elm’s fresh, pretty rooms, where white and muted blues set the tone, and the tables were filled, that Sunday afternoon, with prosperous-looking local gentry. It was the kind of place, with the kind of conservati­ve but genteelly sophistica­ted menu, that seemed eminently suited to its neighborho­od.

If I lived out there, I know White Elm would be on my gerbil trails. And even at a distance, the bone-marrow butter and shortcake may bring me back.

 ?? Alison Cook / Staff ?? HOUSE CHEESEBURG­ER WITH BONE MARROW
BUTTER FROM WHITE ELM
Alison Cook / Staff HOUSE CHEESEBURG­ER WITH BONE MARROW BUTTER FROM WHITE ELM
 ?? Photos by Alison Cook / Staff ?? Avocado tartine with cilantro/pumpkin seed pesto from White Elm
Photos by Alison Cook / Staff Avocado tartine with cilantro/pumpkin seed pesto from White Elm
 ??  ?? Sourdough cinnamon bun with vanilla buttercrea­m and cinnamon butter
Sourdough cinnamon bun with vanilla buttercrea­m and cinnamon butter

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