The Bestfest Club: Opening... LonnieBurger Basket: Suspending

So, The Girl and I feel like we've hit a bit of a wall with the LonnieBurger Basket series. At this point, all the burgers we're trying just keep ending up in the middle of the pack.

 We feel like the best burgers have been found...

1. Terry's Turf Club
2. Cafe de Wheels
3. Senate

From those top three, there's a sizable gap down to City View Tavern, Sutffed on Vine, and all the rest of the burgers in the Cincinnati area.

We're both bored with going to bars and ordering average burgers. Yeah, some of them are a little better than others, but none are remotely close to breaking into the top three. If anybody comes up with a new, allegedly awesome burger that we just have to try, we just might dust the LonnieBurger basket rubric off and take it for another spin. Until and unless that happens, though, it looks like the LonnieBurger Basket thread will be heading into cold storage.

But what should be turn our attention to next?

I suggested hitting up the various Mexican restaurants around - and there are a bunch of them around the city. I'm all down with going with tacos - maybe a chorizo and a shredded beef and a chicken or something - or with just going for green enchiladas, but The Girl said she has her favorite Mexican place (Taqueria Mercado) and doesn't want to have to go elsewhere instead of there.

Pizza joints don't work for me. We picked up the Cincy Mag pizza issue last summer and just couldn't find any interest.

The Girl suggested a Saturday morning date with breakfast dives - Waffle House, Sugar and Spice, Hyde's in Hamilton - NOT Grand Finale, First Watch, IHOP, Denny's, Original Pancake House. And no breakfast buffets. I'm all down with that and just need to come up with a way to score things. I need a few suggestions here, folks.

My questions...

• What should I order?
• I hate fluffy pancakes, so pancakes are out because most places go big and fluffy.
• Waffles are hit or miss - small, thing or big, thick with nasty fruit. I'm thinking that's out.
• Hash browns seem like a must for me. But how to order them? Plain? Onions? Cheese? Is that cheating?
• I'm a hearty eater, so no cottage cheese, no melon, no fruit, probably.
• I don't drink coffee, but The Girl swills it like she breathes air, so she'll rate that part.
• Eggs? how many...cooked how?
• Bacon? Sausage? Are links better than patties? Should I take whichever they say is better?
• I'm not feeling like an omelet is the right way to judge a dive bar.
• Water? Orange juice? Size of glass & cost?
• Toast? If so, is it bad to get jelly in a packet at a dive bar?
• How do I rate a dive bar?
• Friendliness of regular patrons?
• Crowdedness?
• Cost? If so, what's fair for what I'm ordering?
• Speed?
• Are shredded hash browns better/worse than cubes hash browns? Do you expect spice in your hash browns?
• Where should I go looking for the best breakfasts in town?
• What do I call this thing?
• For now I've gone with The Bestfast Club, but I could be persuaded to go in a different direction?
• The Breafbest Club?
• Cereal business?
• Eggs over Lonnie? 

Leave your thoughts, as always, below.

PS: As a closing to LonnieBurger basket series, we stopped by Gordo's in Norwood this past weekend, trying to see if the original was better than the Fairfield version. 

image from getinmahbelly.blogspot.com/2009/03/gordos.html

Turns out it was.

No photographic evidence exists, but here's the scores...

• Burger - 8 - good taste, not meatloafy at all
• Toppings - 8 - I cheated and went for the Gordo burger with Boursin, roasted poblanos, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and mayo. Very tasty
• Fries - 6 - plank...fine
• Cost - 4 - burger + fries = 9...Diet Coke = 2...
• Ambiance - 8 - This place has atmosphere unlike the Fairfield one.
• Other stuff - +1 floor (awesome wood floor)...-2 burger shaped like hockey pucks, hard to eat, too thick not wide enough
• Total - 33pts   

• Terry's Turf Club - 45
• Cafe de Wheels - 44
• Senate - 43 
• City View Tavern - 40 (scaled from 32/40)
• Stuffed on Vine - 38
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36 
• Roxy's - 36 
• FlipDaddy's - 35.5
• Sonny's Three Meat Burgers - 35 
• VanZandt - 34
• Gabby's - 34 
• Oakley Pub & Grill - 34 
• Gordo's (Norwood) - 33
• Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
• Troy's - 32 
• By Golly's - 32
• Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40) 
• Sidetracks - 31 
• Zola's - 30
• Trinity Pub - 29.5
• Virgil's Cafe - 28 
• Tank's Bar & Grill - 28
• The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
• Smashburger - 28
• Habits Cafe - 28
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Arthur's - 26
• Sammy's - 25 
• Skinny Legs - 25
• Gordo's (Fairfield) - 20