Review: Elbow Room, Bison Burger

Usually, as the Burger Quest king, I call the meeting but on this occasion I got a Tweet from Terri White-Griffin (@sagemcgreen) that she was up for a bison burger. Now bison usually isn't on my radar so she offered the Elbow Room as one of the choices. The Elbow Room at Ft.Wayne and N. Penn has long been a favorite so I selected it for our bison burger quest. Also added to the mix was Nila Nealy (@nilanealy). Since I hadn't met her previously, I was more than happy to have a F2F meeting with one of my other Tweeps.

A long time ago I had a bison burger and even my mom had prepared them a few times when I was growing up. My best recollection was it was dry, hard, and tasteless. However, the Burger Quest is all about going out of your comfort zone and I went with the bison, at a premium of about a dollar more than beef. As usual it was ordered medium, grilled onions, lettuce and tomato. Instead of pepper jack I opted for cheddar on this occasion. As you will see from the photo the presentation was nicely done but the grilled onions were pretty skimpy and not really cooked quite enough to my liking. The tomato and romaine lettuce were fresh and the bun had a nice texture, a bit chewy which is good, and was toasted on the grill very nicely. There were a few drops of juice on the plate so I thought this may be a home run. It wasn't but with a runner in scoring position (a favorite place), this was a good solid double with an RBI to boot.

The first bite was a very mild disappointment in that it was not nearly as juicy as I was expecting. This was not really bad because the meat was well prepared and quite tasty. It lacked a little of the punch, at a higher premium in fat, that I normally expect from a good beef burger but given the “healthy” nature of eating bison, I was pleased. The patty was well-prepared and there was enough slop and overage that it was a very satisfying experience.

Good company, good food, good place all contributed to the kind of experience I have come to expect from the Elbow Room. If I ordered a burger there again, I would definitely opt for the bison over beef because of the health factor and not give up much at all. The Elbow Room, and its sister restaurants- Broad Ripple Tavern and Binkley's, all offer bison burgers on their menus as well. Burger or not, The Elbow Room has always been a great place to have a casual dinner, for a reasonable price, downtown.