I passed on the hot coffee but they did have good food.

Steph and I headed downtown for a burger today.  Jo's on 2nd Street.  On Saturday you can park free at City Hall before 5pm and it's just around the corner.  There weren't very many people sitting outside but they were almost full inside.  We grabbed a couple Mexican cokes to cool off while we looked at the menu.  They have burgers, dogs, salads and other semi-fast foods on the menu.  The place looks and acts like a restaurant but they have a pretty wide selection of beer and wine if your inclined.  We stuck with the Mexican cokes.

We both had burgers but dressed different ways and that gave the experience slightly different outcomes.  It's funny how something as unexpected as lettuce can overpower the balance of a meal.  There burgers are prepared to order and done right.  We ordered them medium rare and that's exactly how they were served.  They come on those sweet kolachi buns and if you haven't had a burger on a kolachi bun you need to try it immediately.  It elevates the whole meal a few notches.

Steph had hers with bacon and blue cheese.  Plain and dry.  She said the bacon and cheese gave the burger the right amount of saltiness and blended well with the beef and the sweet, sweet kolachi bun.  I'm sure I heard her say Mmmmmmm a dozen times.  She also had fries as her side.  They looked hand cut to order, though we didn't ask, and were cooked done.  No limp, greasy basket of potato mush here.  And even though she said plain and dry they put a pickle in the basket.  I had to remove it before it ruined anything.  Disaster averted. : )

My burger came with American cheese, jalapenos, tomato slices and a forest of shredded lettuce.  My basket was almost half full of just the lettuce that fell from the sandwich so I added a little mayo to it and enjoyed an impromptu little salad.  Now don't get me wrong here, the quality of all the ingredients was excellent, but the burger can across as a little unbalanced.  The sweetness of the bun and the extra lettuce overpowered the flavor of the beef.  It was like I was eating a vegetarian sandwich.  The beef patty was probably 1/3 pound so it should have taken center stage.  Maybe I just needed to add a little salt or something.  So learn from my mistake and perhaps nix the lettuce or rake it off to the side as your salad.  Speaking of sides I had onion rings and they were fantastic.  Definitely battered and fried inhouse, they make those big, beefy 1/4" slices of heaven.  The batter is light and crunchy but doesn't overpower the taste of the onion.  I can't enough good things about those little round slices of goodness.

We didn't have any dessert as Steph was on the lookout for some ice cream imported from Wisconsin or some such place up north.  And I've been craving some Jelly Belly jellybeans so I know what I'm having later too.

Until tomorrow, Keep Austin Weird.

If you want to see pics and get a different perspective on Jo's just visit Steph's blog: Jo's 2nd Street