{"id":4561,"date":"2011-12-03T10:50:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T15:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=4561"},"modified":"2011-12-03T10:50:52","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T15:50:52","slug":"biting-into-a-korean-burger-joint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/03\/biting-into-a-korean-burger-joint\/","title":{"rendered":"Biting into a Korean burger joint"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had a 10:30 appointment yesterday over in Maryland to meet with\u2014well, never you mind\u2014and unfortunately, a rock slide prevented me from getting there in time. Oh, don&#8217;t worry, no Harpers Ferry boulders got me! But a tractor trailer wasn&#8217;t so lucky. It apparently swerved to avoid a rock slide and went through a guardrail on Route 340 near Harpers Ferry between the Potomac River bridge and the Shenandoah River bridge\u2014cutting me off from getting over to Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>I was at a dead stop for more than 90 minutes. When the rubble was cleared, traffic finally started moving again, and I caught up with the scene of the crash, here&#8217;s what I saw.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JYaBPwKwb_M\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d have slowed for better video, but I had an idea that neither the police nor the frustrated drivers behind me would have been happy about that!<\/p>\n<p>I arrived in Maryland MUCH later than I should have &#8230; but that&#8217;s a whole &#8216;nother story.<\/p>\n<p>After taking care of business (or rather, learning that I&#8217;d arrived much too late to properly take care of business), I decided to try out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kraze.co.kr\/\">Kraze Burgers<\/a>,  a Korean hamburger chain which had just opened its first location in the U.S., a fact I&#8217;d learned from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/11\/29\/korean-burger-kraze-us-location_n_1118670.html\">a recent article in the <em>Huffington Post<\/em><\/a>. I was wondering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/2011\/08\/27\/so-who-makes-the-awfullest-awful-awful-of-them-all\/\">how it would compare<\/a> to Reno&#8217;s Awful Awful burgers or my all-time favorite, the Thurman burger.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>So I headed over to the branch, which had only been opened since last Tuesday, at the intersection of Woodmont Avenue and Elm Street in Bethesda.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerStorefront.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4564\" title=\"KrazeBurgerStorefront\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerStorefront-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerStorefront-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerStorefront-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once inside, I found the menu on a video screen above the cash registers &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeMenuBoard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4565\" title=\"KrazeMenuBoard\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeMenuBoard-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeMenuBoard-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeMenuBoard-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; as well as on this handout.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerMenuFront.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4566\" title=\"KrazeBurgerMenuFront\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerMenuFront-97x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"97\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerMenuBack.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4567\" title=\"KrazeBurgerMenuBack\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeBurgerMenuBack-96x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"96\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I decided not to get fancy and simply ordered the KB Original, the better to judge the basic burger. Here&#8217;s what I got, once my beeper beeped. (And yes, since you&#8217;re not being handed a pre-made burger, you&#8217;re given beeper and told to take a seat, though for all I know that might only occur during the lunch rush.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeKBBurger.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4569\" title=\"KrazeKBBurger\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeKBBurger-e1322925244433-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeKBBurger-e1322925244433-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeKBBurger-e1322925244433-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/KrazeKBBurger-e1322925244433.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the verdict? It was decent burger, but not a great burger. It had the definite feel of a chain burger, lacking the personality of either of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/2011\/08\/27\/so-who-makes-the-awfullest-awful-awful-of-them-all\/\">those two Reno Awful Awfuls<\/a>.  The bun was above average, but the burger itself seemed to get lost in the midst of toppings, so I at times didn&#8217;t feel as if I was eating a hamburger, but more like a salad between a bun. (A basic Five Guys burger, for example, feels like a much meatier experience.) Maybe I should have ordered one of the more exotic burger concoctions, but I feel a burger joint has to stand or fall on its signature burger.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d say Kraze Burgers is worth a visit mainly for the curiosity factor (since it is, after all, the first branch outside of Asia) than for a regular visit. But then, that might just be me.  I expect more than just a burger each time I bite into a new restaurant&#8217;s offering\u2014I expect to hear angels sing.<\/p>\n<p>And when it comes to that, the winner and still champion is\u2014the Thurman Burger at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thethurmancafe.com\/menus\/\">the Thurman Cafe <\/a>in Columbus, Ohio!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a 10:30 appointment yesterday over in Maryland to meet with\u2014well, never you mind\u2014and unfortunately, a rock slide prevented me from getting there in time. Oh, don&#8217;t worry, no Harpers Ferry boulders got me! But a tractor trailer wasn&#8217;t so lucky. It apparently swerved to avoid a rock slide and went through a guardrail [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-4561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}