I became somewhat obsessed with West50 Pourhouse's "Elvis Burger" ever since I laid eyes on the beauty. I kept thinking about it, over and over again.
I was INFATUATED.
The last time I was at West50 was less than a month ago for their new menu tasting and while I was pigging out on all that awesomeness, I managed to notice from the corner of my eye a burger that was being served several tables over (I'm naturally drawn to burgers) and damn, did that burger look GOOD. I was then informed by chef Brendan Prong (@chef_prong) that it was the "Elvis Burger" that I had my eyes on, which has of course:
PEANUT BUTTER
+
BACON
Not gonna lie, my heart skipped a beat. PB & B?! In a burger?! HIT ME UP! I actually contemplated ordering the burger in addition to everything else that I was already having but thank goodness, I still had a drop of self-control left in me *whew* so I made the wise decision to go back to West50 next time specifically for the Elvis Burger and guess what? "Next time" turned out to be last Saturday night :) I brought along my two friends, Ray and Rian, so obviously there was no way I was just gonna have the burger lol.
With beer pairings for each course, the three of us had the following at West50 (Twitter: @West50Pourhouse, Facebook: West50 Pourhouse & Grille):
ONION RING TOWER ($12.75)
Beer batter, parmesan, chipotle ranch, stout tomato marinara
POLENTA FRIES ($9)
Chipotle ranch, marinara, parmesan
CRISPY FISH TACOS ($3.25)
Catfish, avocado, fresco, sour cream, cilantro
Just some of the beers we had...
LAMB SHOULDER GNOCCHI ($18.5)
Tomato, morel mushroom, buffalo mozzarella, grana padano, basil, fried polenta
BIER WURST & MASH ($21)
House sausage, mashed yukons, fried egg, smoked cheddar, gravy
THE FREE RUN BURGER ($14) + ELVIS ($2.50)
Turkey, dill mayo, pickles, onion, lettuce, hand cut fries + peanut butter & bacon
THE FREE RUN BURGER ($14) + CANADIAN ($3)
Turkey, dill mayo, pickles, onion, lettuce, hand cut fries + pulled pork & onions
Let me start off by saying that I love onion rings!!! And if you do too you need to get the onion ring tower at West50; thin and crispy beer-battered onion rings stacked sky-high...what's not to love? I pretty much demolished the whole tower myself (I'm all for sharing but Rian doesn't eat onions, and as for Ray? Hmmm...okay..maybe I did hog the onion rings :S) I had the polenta fries, the lamb gnocchi, and the bier wurst & mash at the tasting last time so you can read what I thought of those dishes here (sorry I'm lazy)!
Now onto the BURGERS. Wow. All three of us really liked the Elvis Burger because peanut butter + bacon totally works! It may seem kinda odd at first but the amalgamation of "creamy + nutty" from the peanut butter and "crispy + savoury" from the bacon is at an entirely different level when it comes to "texture + flavour" combinations. All I have to say is "Thank you, Elvis!" (by the way chef Prong is seriously thinking about adding in sliced bananas to the burger to make it a true "Elvis"!) I also really enjoyed the Canadian burger, dare I say even more so than the Elvis Burger? Yes! There's just something about really good pulled pork that gets me 'cause you know it, and I know it - a lot of pulled pork is served dry and/or flavourless and/or drenched with sauce! It's true! And the pulled pork in this Canadian burger is just perfect and that's why it's so incredibly tasty (and messy). We finished our meal with a heavenly chocolate lava cake with toasted marshmallow ice cream.
I also need to point out that chef Prong's beer pairings were outstanding. Although I'm no expert in beer nor admittedly, a huge fan of it, I still enjoyed all the pairings because each beer complemented the different flavours in each course extremely well (this is made apparent when I started to enjoy the strong and dark beers too!)
