This Incredible Journey

Now that the Holidays are finally over, I decided to get off my fat and happy ass and actually produce some content.  Square 1 Burgers recently opened in my town and I decided to give it a shot without any prior research whatsoever.  I like to live dangerously.  I’ll admit I wasn’t too impressed with the place right off the bat – As a digital art and design major, I found the logo to be utterly amateurish and ugly.  However if my favorite sushi restaurants are any indication, the less impressive the outside of the establishment the better the food is on the inside.  The location where Square 1 is built has quite the notorious history in the past few years.  There’s been multiple business ventures that have failed in that particular spot, but after my dining experience I hope and expect Square 1 to last a long time there.

Going in blind, I was unaware that Square 1 was a national chain.  I had assumed it was another independent venture like many of the failures that occupied the building in the past.  After talking to the waitress I discovered that there’s numerous locations around the country.  I found the interior design of the place much more aesthetically pleasing than the bland outside and was surprised to discover that the interior layout was very similar to the last place, an overpriced and pretentious organic spot than lasted a few months.  I’d describe it as “redneck chic” as ambient lighting is combined with gaudy decorations like pink chandeliers and red leather.  As I’ve elaborated before, the look of a restaurant ranks very low on my list of priorities, but I have to mention I dug the feel of the place.  It didn’t hurt that there were plenty of TVs playing ESPN as well.  Upon skimming the menu I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the variety of meats available.  I settled on the Green Chili Cheese Burger, which features your choice of meat (Angus, Kobe, Ostrich, Buffalo, or Turkey), fire-roasted poblano chili sauce, provolone cheese, pickled jalapeños, curly leaf
lettuce and beefsteak tomato on a sesame seed bun.  I decided to go with buffalo as my meat of choice as it is not only my preferred wild game meat but my favorite animal flesh period.  As my side I decided to go with the sweet potato fries, an option that I wish I had more often.

The burger was fantastic.  I made it a point to get it medium rare as buffalo is very easy to overcook due to it’s leanness.  The chili sauce itself is very mild and there was plenty of bite supplied by the jalapenos.  The provolone complimented the other tastes well even though I regretted not substituting it with something else like Pepper Jack.   The sweet potato fries were sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar instead of salt and I have to say it was a very tasty variation.  I have a limited experience with the restaurant produced variety but these were easily the best I’ve ever had.

I left immensely satisfied with my dining experience overall as were my parents.  Hopefully word of mouth spreads about the place and it prospers because I’d hate to see such a great spot fail as others have done so in that location.

Atmosphere: Unique.  TVs are always a plus in my book. 7/10
Service: Satisfactory. 7/10
Price: Not bad at all.  8/10
Final Rating: The best burger place in my town by a large margin. 8/10

I’m no rookie when it comes to fast food.  After all, one does not get to 310lbs without becoming well versed in drive-thru ordering.  In high school I was a big fan of McDonalds and Taco Bell, often visiting them at least once per week.  Even after changing my lifestyle and becoming more health conscious, I still had a penchant for the greasy stuff and would get my trans-fat on every once in awhile.  Nowadays you’ll never catch me eating fast food and it’s not because of some high and mighty fitness stance.  I feel most fast food is crap not necessarily because of the nutritional content (or lack therof) but because there’s so many better options out there.  If I want a burger, I’m not going to waste money and calories on some freeze-dried crap wedged between two heavily processed pieces of cardboard.  The same can be said for ethnic cuisine like Mexican, since good look on Yelp will reveal places that would make you forget that Taco Bell even exists.  Yet, there’s always been one item on the Taco Bell menu that continually makes me run for the border – The Grilled Stuffed Chicken Burrito.  So when I heard of the newly released Enchilada variation( I’ve read that this is actually a re-release, but either it was a regional thing or I just flat out missed it. ), I felt I had to at least give it a shot.
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She was beautiful.  A great body, great in bed, and a fun personality – Everything a guy could ask for and she was all mine.  Except there was only one problem:

I was absolutely miserable.

We had started dating in late Fall a month or so after my last breakup.  Some would say the eventual downfall of this relationship was because it was never meant to last.  They’d call it a “rebound” or a “fling”, but the truth is that the real reason was a whole let less fun.

I hadn’t binged in over a month and had lost ten pounds via a  low carb/high protein diet and diligent cardio.  I had more clients than ever at Bally’s and even though I was still overworked I was proud to say that I had quickly become a mainstay at the gym.  Wrestling was still going good as well as I was staying busy with four to six bookings per month.  On top of all that it was my favorite time of the year as Thanksgiving and Christmas were right around the corner.  But there was one problem…

“The Big D” was back.
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I have no shame in admitting it – I love cereal.  Along with nut butters, it’s one of those foods that I have a near obsessive compulsion towards buying.  I’m on a perpetual quest to track down and try anything that sounds intriguing to my taste buds, even if I have a near Hoarders level of cereal stock.  As a matter of fact I currently have…  One, two…  Eleven different cereals stored in 1 gallon baggies in my cupboard, including three types shipped from Germany…  Hey, I told you I liked cereal.  With that being said the subject of my inaugural review should come as absolutely no surprise.
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