Lonnieburger Baskets: Wildflower Cafe

Let's get back on this horse, ladies and gentleburgerfiends.

The best burger in the town is - according to Cincinnati Magazine - the Wildflower Cafe's eponymously named Wildflower Burger with their pretzel bunned masterpiece. Here's what the Magazine had to say about the Wildflower Cafe...

1 The World's Best Burger
Wildflower Cafe
$10
> This perfect architectural specimen of exceptionally thick and juicy grass-fed beef (from 100-percent pasture-raised cows) is seasons and cooked with steakhouse skill and tucked into a glossy toasted pretzel bun that's neither too dense nor too soft and handles the meat juices without disintegrating. No tomatoes were harmed before their time - the cozy cafe follows the seasonal intentions of chef/owner Todd Hudson. It came with oily sun dried tomatoes, crackling strips of double smoked bacon, perfectly melted provolone, and a smear of mayonnaise spiked with herbs from Wildflower's garden. Holy cow! 207 E. Main St., Mason, (513) 492-7514

Take a look at that spectacular burger that Cincinnati Magazine reviewed back a day or so ago...

That's not actually the one the Magazine reviewed. It's the one that WineMe,DineMe reviewed before the Magazine did.

The Magazine's burger was closer to being like this. At least that's what I'm assuming because it's the one on the cover of their burger issue of the Magazine.

Look at that crown and pretzel bun lid, both perched ever so rakishly on top of the burger.

It would be an absolute crime to have to eat this burger without such an outstanding bun, wouldn't it?

Wouldn't it?

So, The Girl and I first went to the Wildflower Cafe almost a year ago, just a week or so after the Cincinnati Magazine issue came out, and we were told that the demand for their burgers had been so drastically up since the Magazine's release that they couldn't serve us our hamburger on the pretzel bun back then. We had the burger in its bastardized fashion then and didn't feel like we should review the burger in such a bastardized fashion.

No worries.

I went back over Christmas Break with Calen and managed to get a pretzel-bun-topped burger but was without my camera. So The Girl and I headed to the Wildflower Cafe with a couple of friends to again try for a Wildflower Burger...with the pretzel bun of course.

'Cause without that pretzel bun, it'd just be a crime.

Keep that in mind as we head toward the numbers.

Burger

• Well, dang. There may just be something to this whole grass-fed thing, because this burger is phenomenal. There's some spice in there but nothing that overpowers the strong, almost gamey beef taste of the patty. The spices are just enough to bring out the flavor. This is a phenomenally well flavored burger. The outside could be a little crisper, but that's sort of like pointing out that the Mona Lisa has a pimple, it's just picking nits. This is a brilliant burger with juicy, flavorful wonderfulness. Burger - 9 

Toppings

• I went for the cheddar cheese which you can see is nicely melted across the burger itself. The rest is topped with thinly sliced onions, herb aioli, various field greens, two slices of hearty bacon, and sun dried tomatoes. I don't groove to the sun dried tomatoes, so I would probably order the burger without them if we go again, but the aioli is to die for, rich, creamy, perfect on top of the burger. The greens are fresh and provide a nice crunch.
  
  But we have an issue.
  
  I was clearly stupid in not taking a photo with the burger once it was all together, instead taking my snapshots with the bun top sitting upside down on the plate. But we definitely have an issue.
  
  There's no pretzel bun
  
  It's been replaced with an English muffin even though the online menu still says it's on pretzel bread. The muffin is nice enough, and it's tasty and all, but it just can't stand up to the juicy goodness of the burger. Maybe if the muffin was toasted it could do a little better, but it wasn't toasted.
  
  When I was lucky enough to get a burger on the pretzel bun, I found myself wanting to set the bottom of the bun aside so that I would have a tasty, juice-soaked snack after eating the burger itself. Not so much with the muffin.
  
  We asked our waitress what had happened to the pretzel bun, and she said she knew that the chef wanted to be as local as possible (something that's all over the menu, admittedly) and that the pretzel buns were from Germany (something I'm throwing the bullpucky flag on). She also admitted that the chef/owner is the kind of artist guy who just might have changed away from the pretzel bun because everybody was talking about how much they loved the pretzel bun. He's just a weirdo artist like that.
  
  Either way, the change away was a mistake. Toppings - 7

Fries

• And now to problem number two: they don't have fries. They have a house salad, potato salad, a cup of soup, and chips. The first three will cost you an extra buck. The last option comes free with the burger.
  
  I don't know exactly how to rate those things. They definitely aren't fries, but fries doesn't really fit into the crunch nuts and berries vibe of the Wildflower Cafe, either, so maybe that's a positive. They're all about the local, the environmentally friendly, the sustainable, so maybe it's a bonus for being consistent.
  
  Then again, they don't have fries.
  
  The Girl said she liked the fries, thought they had a nice flavor. Neither of us could tell, however, whether they were made in-house. I thought they tasted like an decently high-end kettle chip that I could buy at the store. Fries - incomplete 

Ambiance

• I mentioned the crunchy-nuts-and-berries vibe of the Wildflower Cafe. It's definitely a dirty hippie kind of place (not that it's at all dirty, it's just very much on the environmental tip). The restaurant is in a converted old house without a whole lot of converting. The dining rooms are the same sizes as each of the house's original rooms, one of which has a large chalkboard with the current menu (it changes with the shift in seasonal vegetables). Upstairs is a nice bar seating area where Calen and I had that one burger with the actual pretzel bun. The whole place has a very much lived in feeling with the floorboard's paint pleasantly worn, the windows hung with a burlap curtain from what I assume is a fair trade coffee bean sack. The only serious rehabbing that was done was to the kitchen and the large freezer that you pass if you come in through the restaurant's back door. I prefer all this to the typical sports bar thing that most of the burger places have, but it can be a bit much. They aren't pushy with the hippie vibe, but there's nothing else for them to push.
  
  There's a small seating area around a grill out back, and I'm assuming that'll be open this summer. It wasn't open on our rainy Friday evening visit.
  
  The Wildflower Cafe is the kind of place that can serve you an awesome burger but also has a curry chicken salad with kiwis, crackers, blueberries, and blue cheese on the menu. They have an eclectic menu. Ambiance - 8
  
  Photo credits from the top...365Cincinnati.com...CeliacsInTheHouse.com...CincinnatiMagazine.com... WineMeDineMeCincinnati

Cost

• You're paying for your environmentally friendly ways, folks. The burger is $12. They don't offer any soda products (other than bottled IBC root beer). They don't offer fries. That's a $12 burger with chips. In The Girl's words, "I don't think it's a $12 burger." Without the option of fries - something that's important to my burger experience - I'm inclined to agree.
  
  I'm going to have to be a little creative here. Let's assume $2 for the Diet Coke that I couldn't get. If potato salad is a $1 upcharge, the fries certainly would be, too. So, that's $15 for the mythical burger/fries/Diet Coke combo. Cost - 1 

Other Stuff 

• No fries. -1 
• No pretzel bun. -1
• Environmentally friendly place. +2

So, where do the numbers take us? The Wildflower Cafe comes in at 25 out of a possible 40. Everything else is being scored out of 50, so I'll scale this one up to that 25/40*50 would be a 31.25.

The problems with the Wildflower Cafe's burger experience are significant:

• It's expensive.
• The bun is a disappointment.
• There are no fries.

The strengths, however, are pretty solid, though:

• The burger patty is outstanding.
• The Cafe is part of a growing trend in locavore restaurants.

I don't know that I'll be going back to the Wildflower unless they reinstate the pretzel bun (seriously, it makes a huge difference), but it's a place that I'm glad is around.

• Terry's Turf Club - 45
• Cafe de Wheels - 44
• Senate - 43
• 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 
• Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40) 
• The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
• Habits Cafe - 28
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Arthur's - 26
• Sammy's - 25

Wildflower's burger deserves to be higher on the list. It's an outstanding experience that doesn't score well in my ranking system - primarily because of it's higher price (partially understandable because of the local sourcing and assumedly high quality of the beef) and total lack of fries (again, a product of the restaurant's style more than a knock against it).

I would recommend the Wildflower well above the other places in its score range, but know that you're not wandering in for a typical pub/sports bar burger and fries experience.