Before leaving Le Bifteck St-Laurent, Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand and Ed “Blork” Hawco solicit opinions from some of the bar hounds, such as Shan the Man. Across the street at Buns, Ed reads the menu, which takes about 12 seconds as all this place makes is burgers, and there are only a few variations.
Inside Buns, Zeke and Ed meet the owner of both Buns stores, who explains the concept and provides some details on the meat. (Canadian beef, 15% fat). The meat is ground off-premises, but they form the patties in-house daily. Zeke asks the burger cook if he can have his burger rare, and the reply is swift: “no.” The boss then provides an explanation as to why rare ground beef is riskier than rare steaks or roasts.
After another round of nostalgia about Le Bifteck St-Laurent and its cheap beer, Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand and Ed “Blork” Hawco start talking about hamburgers. Specifically, they discuss their expectations of “Buns,” the new minimalist burger joint that first opened on Ste-Catherine Street and later expanded to a second outlet on The Main (Boul. St. Laurent). Will it be the best burger in Montreal? Zeke is a little worried that the burgers will be too minimalist and plain. Ed is hoping for a good “backyard” style burger. Zeke points out the role reversal when it comes to expectations.
(Montreal Burger Report: Le Bifteck St-Laurent & Buns, Part 1.)
In this episode of the Montreal Burger Report, Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand and Ed (Blork) Hawco head up Boulevard St. Laurent for a visit to familiar territory. Both Chris and Ed have been on and around The Main for a couple of decades, so a trip to Bifteck St-Laurent for a few pre-burger beers brings out the nostalgia. As Ed struggles to remember if he really did get some beef at the Bifteck, Zeke recalls that this is the place where he learned it was OK to “leave beer over.”
The guys get all “meta” and discuss the hamburger checklist and rating scales judiciously avoiding terms like “best,” “meilleur” and delve instead into burger rating territory with words like “grind” and “crumble,” while trying to come up with a better word than “gushy.” They decide to have another beer as they prepare to visit a newcomer to The Main, the minimalist Buns, at 3673 Saint Laurent.
In the final part of the Le Saint Bock & L’Amere à Boire episode, Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand and Ed “Blork” Hawco eat their burgers and in the end are not overly impressed. Blork’s burger had a dirty grease flavor that was so strong he didn’t even notice the bacon. In the end, the talk turns back to beer, which in this case delivered more pleasure than the burgers.
Zeke's burger. Note the pronounced grill marks -- the marks on Ed's were even darker. Unfortunately looks can be deceiving.
Blork’s Verdict
The more I ate my burger, the more I noticed a foul taste that seems to have come from a greasy grill that hasn’t been cleaned. In the end, it was the dominant flavor, and it left a bad taste in my mouth that I could still sense the next day. Perhaps it was a bad night, because this place’s reputation would sink like a lead canoe if all of the burgers tasted like that. Otherwise, it was a reasonably good sandwich, but not remarkable. The kind of thing you snarf down on a beery night out because you know you ought to eat something. Since I have been known to have the occasional beery night out, I might give this place another try — just to see if that dirty taste is still there. But ultimately, L’Amere à Boire makes my beer list, but not my burger list.
Zeke’s Verdict
As I said, initially I was anticipating something extremely good especially after reading the all the rave reviews on Chowhound about the Lamb Burger at L’Amere à Boire (one, two, three, four). Unfortunately what I didn’t realize at the time was that they were all written by the same person. I should have known better, I didn’t enjoy my lamb burger or my beer at L’Amere à Boire at all, and unlike Blork, I’m not likely to go back. Thankfully we had started the night at Le Saint Bock where the beer was delicious and the burger menu looked to be the same.
Le Saint Bock Address: 1749 Saint Denis Phone: (514) 680-8052
L’Amère à boire Address: 2049 Saint Denis Phone: (514) 282-7448
In this episode our heroes, Ed Hawco (also known as Blork) and Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand have left Le Saint Bock and order their burgers at L’Amere à Boire. Zeke wants his rare, Blork wants ketchup. Zeke doesn’t know it but he will be disappointed, Blork won’t be. While waiting for their burgers Blork and Zeke discuss how the Montreal Burger Report came into existence, and its reason for existing. Blork clamors for recognition, and then the burgers arrive.
In this episode our heroes, Ed Hawco (also known as Blork) and Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand finish their delicious beers at Le Saint Bock and are magically transported up the hill to L’Amère à boire for the main course.
Since the beers they had at Le Saint Bock were very good, both Blork and Zeke are hoping for the best with respect to the hamburgers at L’Amère à boire. Neither one expects a gourmet experience, but a good burger would complete the night.
Blork uses one of his lifelines to phone a friend and find out what L’Amère à boire means in English and what the pun is, Zeke asks the waiter for a recommendation about which beer to order and gets served the Černá Hora. Blork makes up his own mind and gets the Fin de siècle.
Burgers. Hamburgers. Cheeseburgers. Sliders. Call them what you want. Eat them whenever you want. Besides eating them, we also talk about them. We talk about burgers, Montreal, beer, the best burgers in Montreal, the worst burgers in Montreal and the almost endless variety of burgers in Montreal. Sometimes we also talk about fries.
The Montreal Burger Report is a weekly podcast dedicated to burgers in Montreal.
