Coming back from a few days out of town, we were confronted with “the lunch question”.  Instead of being met with a quizzical look when I asked, there was a definitive response – “How about that place with the great bean burger, that’s drive through only?”  I knew she was talking about Mix’d Up Burgers (and their location on Boulevard.).  Born from a food truck, that’s still appearing around north Georgia 5-7 times a week, I remembered that they had recently opened a new location, in East Lake (that I had seen when we went to Mary Hoopa’s).

We headed from the airport towards East Lake, a little late for the lunch rush, and found a fairly empty parking lot.  One of us knew what she wanted before we walked in the door – the Santa Fe burger.  A gluten free black bean burger, topped with cheese, ancho (chili) mayo and an avocado purée, this was exactly what she was after.

And she enjoyed it thoroughly.  As we were leaving, she was talking with the grill guy about it and he suggested that next time she try a different black bean burger – “the Impossible”, treated more like a traditional burger, topped with lettuce, tomato and onion.  He said you can’t tell it’s not a burger.  I guess we’ll see next time.

I was completely undecided and, after consulting with the grill guy taking my order, ordered “the Pile”, based on the description.  “Our angus cheeseburger, piled on top of cheesy buffalo fries.”

It sounded like a winner.  When it arrived, it was a little different than I expected.  For whatever reason, I imagined a burger patty sitting on a plateful of fries, rather than a burger with fries as a topping.   The cheesy buffalo sauce had the taste of good chip-dip, but the burger was kind of bland as neither of the cheeses had a huge amount of flavor.  I added some ketchup and it helped some, but it was a one note burger.  I’ve had the Texan and intend to try the Sombrero.  The Texas was much more flavorful and the Sombrero promises to be.