As we’re in the car, leaving Hodad’s, reveling in the glory of the burger when a thought occurs to me, “When , exactly, am I going to be THIS close to another burger joint, on my list, all the way across the country?”  How could I argue with that logic.

I put the address for Western Steakburger, in nearby San Diego, into “Maps” on my iPhone and (to quote Art Carney), awa-ay we go!

As we pull into the North Park neighborhood, Jo decides that since she’s just had a cheeseburger, she’ll pass on this one, so I park out back and run inside for a burger.  Once inside, I realized that this wasn’t your usual burger place.  It serves burgers.  And greek food.  For about a year, they were separate, then one day Gus (the owner) decided to throw some gyro meat onto a finished cheese burger.

When I was there, post lunch crowd, I had the inside to myself, so I got to chat and ask questions.  And take a picture of the grill.

Before going in, I had decided, after the meal (approximately a pound of beef, bacon and french fries) at Hodad’s, that I’d just eat half of a burger.  Looking over the menu, the choices were vast, but I went with the “Wild West Burger” – a half pound burger, with gyro meat on top, barbecue sauce and bacon (I passed on the grilled onions).  This thing was AWESOME.  I stopped in the restaurant, before I went back out to the car and took a picture of this behemoth:

The half burger idea?  That didn’t happen.  As I was eating the first half, I dropped Jo off to shop and went to park the car.  I had EVERY INTENTION of throwing the other half away and then thought, “no way.”  It was the second burger, and the better burger, of the day.  When we got back in the car, Jo asked for a bite of the burger, since I was only eating half.  Sheepishly, I just turned up the radio…