Lonnieburger Baskets: By Golly's

It's getting harder and harder to find one of the burger joints that's on the Cincinnati magazine burger list without crossing the river into Kentucky or heading all the way downtown. This means that a lot of the other burger quests will have to be scheduled rather than done on a whim. I'm not happy about that.

Milford's By Golly's is about the last recommended burger joint in the northern Cincy area at this point, so we hit it on a Thursday July night looking to see if By Golly's could live up to Cincy mag's description:

BY GOLLY’S
$7.50
►At By Golly’s, the juicy patty—hand-formed and somewhat fatty, but with a great texture—came on a toasted bun, with wonderfully melted American cheese. The bonus: you won’t feel like you’ve eaten half a cow (unless you pick one of their new, over-the-top burgers). They have hand-cut French fries, but do yourself a favor and try the crunchy waffle fries.

So, was the cheese wonderfully melted? Was the texture great? Were the waffle fries crunchy? Was the burger over-the-top?

In short, yes, yes,yes, and yes.

In long...

Burger

• The review from Cincy magazine mentioned avoiding "their new, over-the-top burgers," but we didn't see any way to do that. By Golly's menu states that all their burgers are 10oz patties. They do offer a double (20oz) and a triple (nearly two full pounds of meat), and maybe that's what Cincy was talking about. To me and The Girl, the 10oz burgers were over-the-top enough. I can't imagine how sick I'd be if I went for the double or the triple.
  
  As for what your 10oz gets you, it's a burger that tastes of a back yard grill. I don't know exactly how their burgers are actually fixed, but they certainly don't taste fried or griddled. These taste grilled, and it's a refreshing change. There's something to the taste of a charcoal grilled burger that feels like home, like summer evenings, like the best picnic, and that's what you get in this burger patty. It's a little juicy (read: slippery/greasy), but that was appreciated rather than bothersome (unlike at SmashBurger).
  
  The patties don't have much spice, and I threw on a little salt to top mine, but that doesn't take away much from what is a simple, uniquely prepared, high-quality burger. Burger - 8

Toppings

• I went for my standard bacon cheeseburger (with shredded cheddar as the top photo shows). The Girl went for the Route 50 burger (American cheese), the menu description of which seems a little too cheesy unless you read your conjunctions carefully: Swiss, American, cheddar, pepperjack, or provolone top the classic Lila. Lila is apparently their 'special sauce' which The Girl asked not to be on her burger once she heard it was mayo-based.
  
  The bacon and cheddar on my burger were fine...nothing special, really. The American cheese on The Girl's burger tasted of real cheese rather than the cheaper cheeze (or cheese food or cheese product). The toppings that we got weren't the stars here. The burger itself was. Toppings - 6

Fries

• The Girl ordered the regular fries, so I went for the waffle fries. Our fries were mixed up - hers served with my burger, mine with her burger. In a less cordial relationship, this might have been a problem, but we managed. Both types of fries were well cooked well and served nicely hot, but they weren't anything to write home about. Fries - 7

From By golly's website

Ambiance

• By Golly's is a neighborhood sports bar, the kind of place that our first burger joint, Sammy's, seemed to be, but the vibe in Sammy's felt forced, as if the owners had bought a whole bunch of local sports crap to throw on the wall and say "look, we're a neighborhood bar." By Golly's, on the other hand, felt like a true neighborhood bar. They had little league trophies on shelves with thank-you photos from the teams they'd sponsored. They offer a Monday night special for the local working folks, suggesting they come in after their shift and bring in coworkers. Sure, there are tv's all over the place playing ESPN and FoxSports over everybody's shoulders (which drives me nuts if I'm there to eat and not to watch sports, but if that's what you want, meh). Ambiance - 7

Cost 

•  The Girl's burger was $7.99 with fries an extra $0.50. My burger - not exactly on the menu anywhere - was $8.99 plus the fifty cents for fries. The diet coke was $1.95. The means I'm at $11.45 for my burger, fries, and a coke. Seems a bit steep to me. Cost - 4 

Other Stuff

• The mixing up of the fries is a small thing, but it annoys me. -1 
• We went for an appetizer of jalapeno bottle caps (battered & fried jalapeno slices) and were very pleasantly surprised that the slices were fresh and apparently battered in house. We got a mix of yellow, red, and green peppers accompanied by a chipotle ranch (we asked for it rather than the chipotle mayo - have I mentioned The Girl's aversion to mayo?) which was very tasty. +1
• Burgers are half price on Monday - same day as their after work specials - according to By Golly's website. +1
• A 10oz burger is too big. It didn't necessarily feel too big, but c'mon, that's two and a half servings of meat folks. And the offerings of the double and triple - including a challenge to eat a 2lb burger and a pound of fries in under 7:26 to break their record - aren't exactly what this overfed country needs. -1

Overall, we get a score of 32 for By Golly's.

• 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 
• By Golly's - 32
• Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40) 
• The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
• Smashburger - 28
• Habits Cafe - 28
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Arthur's - 26
• Sammy's - 25 
• Gordo's - 20