On a trip down south a few weeks back I spotted a Steak N Shake and had to stop. As the tractor beams pulled us into the drive thru I noticed a new item on their menu - the Steakburger Shooters. Obviously this is an attempt by headquarters to join the ranks in the slider/mini burger revival. I was not buying it. On the other hand, the smash method employed at Steak 'N Shake is pretty true to the roots of the original American hamburger so maybe it had a chance?
Steak 'N Shake is one of my favorite fresh-beef burger chains just behind In-N-Out. As we rolled up to the drive-thru speaker I folded and fell back on an old favorite. It was the bacon double cheeseburger with onions for me but a brave soul in the car (a client of mine) saw promise in a bag of 5 Shooters. Boy did I choose correctly. The Shooters were awful. Dry and hard (yes hard, like cardboard) and tiny, smaller than a White Manna single slider (the Holy Grail of sliders). The buns were cute though, but what a mess if I liked the bun over the patty. My client only ate 2 of them and I tried a bite of one. What a wipeout. The bacon double did the trick however. Why these guys tried messing with a winning formula is beyond me.
Check out this photo from a Steak 'N Shake ad. Does my burger look anything like the burger in the ad? Not so much.
