Lonnieburger Baskets: Roxy's

Bit by bit, I'm digging myself out of the hole...

Two more cheeseburger reviews to catch up on.  Today it's Roxy's.  I'll promise you Oakley Bar & Grill by the end of the week.  You know, because otherwise I'll be late...r...

Let's do this thing!

Roxy's used to be Hamburger Mary's.  Actually it used to be something (Hollywood bar & Grill or something) which used to be Hamburger Mary's.  The Girl and I had been to Mary's a few times and dug the food and the atmosphere.  We'd been to the restaurant once during its time under that other name and hadn't been nearly as impressed.  Roxy's isn't exactly Hamburger Mary's, but it's pretty close.  The kitsch has been toned down a little bit, but the menu and bar offerings look largely the same to me - admittedly, though, it had been a few years since Mary's had been around.

The Girl wasn't with me on this visit, but I did have plenty of good company after seeing Princeton's A Capella choir perform on Fountain Square (photos here, check 'em).  Calen joined me as did another PHS teacher and his boyfriend.  Good times had by all - probably gonna influence my review, in fact.  The times were that good.

Burger

• I like the Roxy burger well enough.  Good heft without being obscenely over-sized.  Nice chew, good flavor.  Well marked up with grill marks, and it kind of tastes grilled rather than griddled.  It's a good burger.  (I really should write these descriptions more quickly so I could be more descriptive of the burgers themselves.  Stupid delay...) Burger - 7

Toppings

• Look at that cheese - melted!  Like solidly melted and oozing into the burger.  That's how things are supposed to be, man.  And the bacon, big, long slices of bacon that are crisp enough to break in half an cover the burger (rather than how they're shown there hanging all over the place, wasted outside of the burger surface).  The lettuce wasn't much to speak of - chopped and hidden under the bun (The photo up top was of the burger inverted.)  The red onions were nice and sharp - appreciated by me but probably not by everyone around.  Weak pickles - but what else can you expect according to Calen.  Toppings - 7

Fries

• I have to be honest with you, good readers.  I cheated this time.
  
  I went for the onion rings.  They sounded good that night, and they certainly lived up to my hopes.  They weren't perfect - underseasoned for perfection - but they were darn tasty.  Good, slightly heavy breading that stood up well to the large onion rings nicely.  Not greasy at all.
  
  But that's not what we're rating. 
  
  We're rating the fries, and the fries were tasty, too.  Nice, light batter with just a little spice.  Hot, crisp, well fried.  Perfection needs to be a little darker, but this is a solid eight.  Fries - 8
  
  Man, sometimes there's just something to be said for the draw of big, steakhouse onion rings

Ambiance

• I preferred the older Hamburger Mary's with the higher level of kitsch.  Roxy's has toned that down greatly.  Check out the above photo from Cincinnati magazine's year-old review - and the one below from Roxy's facebook page.  There's more elegance, less garish Wizard covers covering the wall, and I kind of miss the Wizard covers.  It's still a decent restaurant feel, but it's a little less distinct to me.  I didn't do much checking on the bar side of the place, but the restaurant is a decent, clean, somewhat stylish thing but nothing too terrific. Ambiance - 6

Cost

• It seems to be a pretty standard thing at this point.  The burger and fries were $8.49.  My diet coke was another two bucks, pretty much all together right in the middle of the price range.  Price - 5 

Other stuff

• The fact that Roxy's (in all its iterations) has been a staple of the gay community in Cincinnati - a remarkably conservative town for so long is worth a point to me. +1
• The sauce shown above - called simply Roxy's sauce and highlighting Calen's nails, not mine - was outstanding.  I assumed that any house sauce would just be a vaguely Thousand Island dressing, and the base might have been that, but the spices added in - I can't identify any of them, and the waitress wouldn't share the detail - made for excellent dipping.  +1
• Roxy's offers a full bar service option.  Don't know about prices, but they have just about whatever you could need. +1

So, where does that all get us?

It gets us to Roxy's having a score of 36.  I swear I'm not trying to jumble all these places in together.

• Terry's Turf Club - 45
• Cafe de Wheels - 44
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36 
• Roxy's - 36
• VanZandt - 34
• Gabby's - 34
• Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Sammy's - 26
• Arthur's - 26

I'm apparently not the only one who's happy to have Roxy's back on the scene.  WineMeDineMe is quite pleased with the rebirth, as well.