Lonnieburger Baskets: Troy's

I love Troy's.

Lemme just get that little bit of information entirely out of the way.  I love the place.

When The Girl and I lived in Northside, we had a default restaurant in Bacall's on Hamilton Avenue.  If neither of us had a particular taste but wanted to go out, we'd invariably head up to Bacall's because we knew that anything we ordered at Bacall's would be a solid six on a ten scale.  Nothing was every a nine, but nothing was ever a four, either, and there's something to be said for that.

Since our move to West Chester (The Burbs, as it were), Troy's has become our new Bacall's, our new default restaurant, only instead of everything being a six, everything a seven with the occasional eight or nine (for a restaurant where we spend about $25-30 for the two of us to eat dinner - it's admittedly not the equivalent of eating at Jeff Ruby's).  Their food is well thought out and well prepared, and it's a friendly place with a chef with whom we've come to be friendly.

I've had their Troy's burger before and was pleased, so I thought Troy's deserved to be a part of this little burger quest.  Let's see how their cheeseburger stacks up.

See what I did there?

Burger

• The Girl tends to be a little chattier than I am, and she's talked to Troy.  Turns out that they consistently get their burgers from the butchers next door - Dave's Quality Meats.  Troy's pretty pleased about that, and I'm all down with just about anything that Troy's doing at the restaurant.  The patties themselves, however, aren't really anything special.  They're decent burgers, thicker than a Steak and Shake burger and all, but they're nothing special.  Well cooked, decently browned, but just not worth nothing.  Burger - 5

Toppings

• I'm a little more down with the toppings than I was with the burger itself.  The cheese is quality - nicely aged cheddar - and well melted.  The other standards - onion, tomato, lettuce - were fresh enough, but it's the bacon that was really outstanding.  The bacon that Troy's uses is some high quality stuff, plus - as you can see in that first picture up there - it's very much freshly fried up.  No sitting around and waiting for a burger to go under it for bacon around Troy's.  Toppings - 7

Fries

• Normally I like my fries nice and dark like those you see right there.  On this night, however, I got the feeling that we were getting the end batch of the fries.  Admittedly, we were like half an hour before closing.  The fries at Troy's come with a little herb sprinkle, a nice touch.  The burgers on the menu come with chips, and fries are a $1 upgrade.  Normally they're very much worth the cost.  On this night, not so much.  Fries - 5

Cost

• $7.50 for a burger...$1 for the fries...$2 for the drink...$10.50 is right on the mid-price of the range.  Price - 5 

Ambiance

• I really like that painting.  Every time we eat at Troy's I think about how I really like that painting.  It's something that Troy picked up at Frontgate about two miles away, so it's clearly nothing special - and it probably came with the other wall hangings as a set and all, but I still dig it.  Troy's is, admittedly, in a strip mall, so that does tend to limit the overall coolness of the restaurant, but they've done a nice job within that framework.  The tables are topped with white tablecloths and tan paper that gets replaced with each diner.  The walls are tastefully decorated.  The front of the restaurant offers a leather couch seating area and a few high-top tables with vaguely-Asian-inspired seating (shown upside down in the photo below.)  It's not fine dining, but it's nicely done. Ambiance - 8

Other stuff

• The sauce up in the top right corner there is pretty awesome.  It's a mixture of Troy's homemade barbecue sauce (in the top left), the hot sauce (bottom center), and mayonaise.  It's outstanding - not quite the phenomenal miracle of VanZant's, but really wonderful and perfect for the fries.  If you chat him up, Troy's also willing to tell you most of what's in the barbecue sauce, which is pretty cool of him. +1 
• Troy has been working every time we've been in to his place.  He's friendly, and he's a great cook.  I love supporting the local businessman.  +1 

That's the storefront of Troy's Cafe & Catering.  Yeah, it's a strip mall frontage, but they've done some nice things with the inside.  How nice?

32 points for Troy's nice...

• Terry's Turf Club - 45
• Cafe de Wheels - 44
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36 
• Roxy's - 36
• VanZandt - 34
• Gabby's - 34 
• Oakley Pub & Grill - 34 
• Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
• Troy's - 32
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Arthur's - 26
• Sammy's - 25

I'll be honest, Troy's is easily my favorite restaurant close to home.  It's not, however, the place that I would go to get a burger most of the time.  Their burger's aren't anything special.  The rest of the menu, however, is usually outstanding.  I'll particularly recommend their spaghetti & meatballs, their uvo sandwich (outstanding stuff), their Cuban pork chops & rice (an occasional daily special).  Their specials tend to be really tasty but are always on a very limited supply, and they go quickly most days.

Give Troy's a try.

Feel free to pass on the burger, though.