sandwich/burger/hot dog restaurants Archives

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint

November 1, 2017

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint, part of a small regional chain, is one of Chattanooga’s newest places to get a great burger and a beer.

There are few things better in my opinion than a great burger. It’s pretty widely known that I love burgers-I mean, I have done not one but two top burger lists…so it shouldn’t be surprising that when Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint opened downtown people started telling me about it and asking if I had been.

So it took me a while to get there. I took some time off from writing restaurant posts when life got a little hectic back at the beginning of August. We finally got to Jack Brown’s a few weeks ago, on a lazy Saturday…Philip’s first Saturday off in months.

In the early afternoon there were not tons of tables taken, and the bartender told us to feel free to sit wherever we’d like. We chose a table by a couple of regulars from the shop and started looking over the menu. Philip chose a bottled beer (Victory Golden Monkey). They have eight taps and a wide selection of bottles and cans.

The two bartenders waited on us (and I didn’t catch their names…the receipt just said “bar share”). I asked for a recommendation between the basic cheeseburger and the Greg Brady. Our server recommended the Greg Brady without hesitation, and it was definitely hard to resist: a wagyu beef patty on a potato roll, topped with creamy macaroni and cheese and Martin’s BBQ chips. The burger patty was the way that I make it at home: thin and a little crispy on the edges, with that soft potato roll soaking in any juices. The creamy and cheesy mac and the crunchy BBQ chips were a perfect foil to the burger. I ordered sweet potato fries, which were just basic crinkle cut fries but were served with a slightly sweet, slightly spicy mayo-based sauce with what I think were finely minced shallots in it.

Philip went for the special. There is a daily special with Saturday’s special being a “freestyle” chef’s choice burger; I didn’t write down the name of that day’s special and can’t remember it for the life of me! No matter, though. It was the wagyu patty between two cinnamon pancakes, with bacon and maple syrup. I know that sounds a little crazy, but dang, it was delicious. And now I need to make a pancake burger.?Philip went for the regular (crinkle cut) fries, which were also served with the sauce that mine came with. In hindsight, we could definitely have split the fries.

We are not usually dessert orderers expect on special occasions, but when fried Oreos are on the menu it’s pretty hard to resist. At $1 each, it was hard to resist getting a couple. Battered, deep fried, and tossed with powdered sugar, these tiny confections were pretty irresistible. I love an Oreo dipped in milk, but deep frying = next level Oreos.

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint is a fun little place with a friendly staff and some tasty and well-cooked burgers. The prices are pretty average: our total for two burgers, two orders of fries, a beer, and two fried oreos was $32.75 pre-tip. Check it out for yourself!

Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint is located at 818 Georgia Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37402. They are open daily, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. You can call them at 423-682-8198. For more information, check out Jack Brown’s website or follow them on Facebook.

517 Subs (Signal Mountain, Tennessee)

July 12, 2017

517 Subs is a popular sandwich shop on Signal Mountain that has been around for years and serves basic but delicious sandwiches.

What is it about a great sandwich that is so sublime? Sandwiches are just simple lunchbox fare, after all. How many sandwiches have we eaten in our lives and not given a second thought to? In a world of PB&Js and ham sandwiches on squishy white bread, a sandwich might not sound like something that you would drive to the ends of the earth (or up the mountain) for.

Truth is, I don’t really love sandwiches. I mean, I like sandwiches, and when they’re served to me I’m happy to eat them. The instances of me taking a plain old sandwich of lunch meat on sliced bread this school year though? Zero. Zip. Zilch. There may have been a few turkey croissants but that’s pretty much the extent of my sandwich-packing.

We’ve been meaning to try out 517 Subs for a pretty long time now. I hadn’t really heard much about it until some friends who are fairly new Signal Mountain residents tried it out and told us that it was worth the drive to try it out. A recent rainy Saturday turned out to be “the day” and we headed up Taft Highway to give them a try.

The place was pretty empty when we arrived…a couple of employees doing cleaning and restocking tasks, one taking a break, and one behind the counter, plus another diner at a table. The decor is simple…not much beyond the tables and chairs and some retro board games framed on the wall. We got a laugh out of looking at the Disney’s Robin Hood game and the Beatles board game, among others.

I am decidedly a hot sub person. A BLT sub always sounds good, and it’s hard to pass up a meatball sub…but my sub order is almost always a steak and cheese (I may have declared my love for them at least once on here). I ordered a 6-inch steak and cheese on wheat bread ($4.25 plus $2.10 for chips and a drink) with onions and peppers. They ran out of onions, but I did get a couple of shreds of onions before she heated my sandwich. I dressed my sandwich basically, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and salt and pepper. The steak and cheese here was very reminiscent of the steak and cheese subs that I used to order at Blimpie, back when it was a frequent haunt of mine…when they still existed in Chattanooga (I thought until a few months ago that there was still one in St. Elmo, when I discovered that it was gone when I tried to eat lunch there??‍♀️). Their steak and cheese was always more like a pot roast sandwich than a Philly cheesesteak, and I always loved it. Thus, this steak and cheese was a throwback to my college years and I did indeed love it.

Unlike me, Philip is a cold sandwich lover, and he decided on the Italian – his standard sub shop order anytime it’s available (he’ll even order the Italian sub at Chuck E. Cheese’s, despite knowing from his years working in the CEC kitchen that the kitchen guys hate making sandwiches more than anything else). The Italian ($4.10 pre-combo) is made on your choice of bread (white, wheat, or rye, all baked fresh daily in the shop) with ham, salami, capicola (a cold cut made with cured pork shoulder), and provolone. Philip likes his Italian sub pretty heavily dressed and got his with lots of “stuff” on it. He said that it was a great Italian sub and commented on how good the bread was.

It wasn’t actually raining when we arrived, but by the time that we finished eating it was pouring rain and we had to hang out inside for a while since we had not brought our umbrella indoors. By that time there were quite a few other people in there – since it was getting closer to closing time, I assume that people were trying to get in before they closed. We hung out until the rain slacked off a bit then headed over to Pruett’s to check out what they had in the store.

If you’re looking for a good, basic but tasty sub, 517 Subs has you covered. The prices are definitely reasonable; the two of us had sandwiches, chips, and drinks for about $13.50. The staff was friendly, particularly the lady who made our sandwiches. There’s definitely something to be said for a great sandwich, and if you (like me) have been missing Blimpie, I’d recommend that you go here.

517 Subs is located at 1238 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, Tennessee (in the Signal Plaza Shopping Center near Pruett’s). They are open Monday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can call 517 Subs at 423-517-7827 (that is, 517-SUBS). They do not have a website, but you can “like” 517 Subs on Facebook.

Mike’s Pizza and Burgers

April 13, 2017

Mike’s Pizza and Burgers is a popular hotspot for (what else) pizza and burgers (and chicken sandwiches and hot dogs!) in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia!

Update (keep scrolling past the fried pickles for my original post!): Turns out Mike’s is a pretty good place for chicken sandwiches and hot dogs, too. Who knew? All of the burgers at Mike’s Pizza and Burgers (as well as Mike’s Hole in the Wall) are also available with grilled or fried chicken. I tried the Faith (with American cheese, honey mustard, and Mike’s wing sauce) as a fried chicken sandwich on a whim a while back and it turns out that I loved the chicken sandwich version even better than the burger. The chicken is super crispy and just a little bit spicy…it’s perfectly cooked and all of those toppings just go perfectly with chicken. I always get the wing sauce on the side for dipping. This is definitely one of the best chicken sandwiches that I have had at a local restaurant!

On our most recent visit, Philip got the Gluttony Dog, which is a jumbo hot dog wrapped in bacon and topped with chili and cheese. It was gigantic, guys! He couldn’t finish it, it was so big. The toppings all worked so well, though Philip (who recently stopped taking his daily Prilosec) was a little concerned about heartburn. I don’t think it turned out to be a big deal, though.

We also got some fried pickles. You all know that I love fried pickles, and I think that somehow I missed the fried pickles on Mike’s menu??? They are chips, not spears, which I prefer because I always burn the dickens out of the roof of my mouth with fried pickle spears. Mike’s fried pickles are coated in a crunchy coating that, like their chicken coating, is a little bit spicy, but also very salty – maybe a little bit too much so. The fried pickles are served with ranch dressing for dipping.

Original Post:

You know what I love? When I have a restaurant on my “short list” and an email shows up in my inbox offering a Groupon or Living Social deal for said restaurant. That happened this past week with Mike’s Pizza and Burgers. People had mentioned after I published my burger list that I needed to check out Mike’s, which is on Battlefield Parkway in Fort Oglethorpe, and the stars aligned. It’s Fall break, we needed to go to Costco anyway, and GROUPON!

Now, let me say up front that Mike’s Pizza and Burgers is not eligible for the burger list because it is not in Hamilton County. I have to have a way to keep it as simple as possible, y’all. It’s okay, though, because as I was checking out their menu on the website I noticed that some of the burgers sounded awfully familiar. I checked out the menu for Mike’s Hole in the Wall (#8 on the list) and it turns out that the logo is the same too. Same Mike! And to top it off, our server told us that Mike recently opened Mike’s Smokehouse on Broad Street in the former Sweeney’s location. I’ve noticed it while driving by a couple of times recently…I’ll be sure to give it a try soon, and I’m hoping that Mike can make that location a success!

Anyway, back to pizza and burgers. We were a little concerned going in at 12:30ish that it was going to be crowded, especially given the fact that the Groupon deal had just come out. It wasn’t crowded, though there were quite a few tables occupied. There’s a sign to seat yourself; Haley, our server, quickly brought us our menus. We ordered waters (they serve beer, but Philip wasn’t terribly interested in any of the craft beers that they had on draught and we have like 50 beers in our basement that need to be consumed) and cheese bread-thin breadsticks with mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan, served with marinara sauce (the Italian egg rolls, hand-rolled with pepperoni, salami, ham, mozzarella, & provolone served with marinara sauce, sounded delicious but also very filling so we decided to pass those up). The cheese bread was very cheesy, thin, both chewy and crispy. Quite tasty.

I couldn’t decide between pizza and a burger (all burgers, by the way, can be served with grilled or fried chicken instead of a beef patty if desired), so we decided to try both. That’s the beauty of a Groupon! They offer a lunch special, either one slice and a salad or two slices and a drink (priced depending on which pizza you order) but we decided to get a whole 12-inch pizza and take home the leftovers for lunch the next day. You can build your own or order one of Mike’s creations. We were interested in the bacon cheeseburger pizza (crumbled bacon, ground beef, sliced tomatoes, red onion, cheddar cheese, mozzarella, topped with yellow mustard), the chicken bacon ranch pizza (chicken, crumbled bacon, mozzarella, marinara, topped with ranch dressing-I’m somewhat obsessed with this combination right now), or the Boss Hog (hand-pulled smoked butt-from the Smokehouse, ground sausage, Canadian bacon, ham, mozzarella, marinara, and Mike’s wing sauce). With all that pork, Philip couldn’t pass up the Boss Hog. It was a good choice, guys. It was totally packed with meat and incredibly cheesy. The smoked butt was deliciously tender and smoky, the sausage well cooked and not overpowering, and the sauce was spicy but not overdone. The crust was very thin with a crispy yet chewy edge. We each had a slice then boxed it up and moved on to the burger.

We decided to split a classic cheeseburger (with cheddar-you can choose your cheese from American, cheddar, Swiss, blue cheese, or pepper Jack), just to see how it compared to the burger at Mike’s Hole in the Wall (though I was tempted to try the Faith, with lettuce & tomato, bacon, american cheese, honey mustard & mike’s wing sauce). The burger was über-thick and cooked well with a great flavor to the meat, and the cheese was melted nicely on top. The condiments were not too heavy, but you guys know how I feel about lettuce and tomato on a burger (I lost the onions on my half, of course) and I ended up taking those off when my burger half started falling apart. Everything was served on a Niedlov’s bun, which Haley told us Mike brings in fresh daily. Burger rating: bread, 5; cheese: 5; meat: 4; toppings: 3.5; size: 4; structural integrity: 3; overall rating: 4.08. The fries, just like those at Mike’s Hole in the Wall, were excellent: hand-cut, double-fried, a little bit of skin on, skinny, lightly seasoned…basically perfect. I had to make Philip move the plate so I’d stop eating them.

Mike’s Pizza and Burgers is a nice space, fairly spacious and nicely decorated, at the end of a strip mall. There are some arcade games to keep the kids entertained. The menu is small and well executed. The prices are competitive with similar establishments; for our cheese bread, 12-inch Boss Hog pizza, and burger with fries (which are $1.99 extra) the pre-tip total for our meal was $30.24….just 24 cents over the total for our Groupon. Woohoo! Haley was a friendly and attentive server as well. We really enjoyed our lunch at Mike’s Pizza and Burgers and will try to go back when we are in the area!

Mike’s Pizza and Burgers is located at 2535 Battlefield Parkway, Fort Oglethorpe, GA 30742. They are open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can call them at 706-406-2336. Check out Mike’s website, www.mikespizzaandburgers.com and like Mike’s Pizza and Burgers on Facebook.

Greg’s Sandwich Works

February 27, 2017

Greg’s Sandwich Works is a great restaurant in the Brainerd/East Brainerd area serving sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, baked potatoes, and more!

Sometimes finding a place to go on Saturday afternoons gets taxing. Philip usually doesn’t get home from work until around 3:30 and I never knew how many things close at 4 p.m. on Saturdays! I’m sure I have complained about this before. Have I complained about this before? He loves his job and for that I am happy, but I miss the old days when he didn’t work on Saturdays and we could go wherever, whenever we wanted.

Anyway…last weekend I really wanted to go to Greg’s Sandwich Works, which is located in the location formerly known as GollyWhoppers. I was honestly shocked when GollyWhoppers closed…it seemed like a pretty popular place and it had been around for a long time. Not too long after, though, the former manager (Greg, in case you were wondering?) decided to open his own sandwich shop there.

It wasn’t in the cards for us to go Saturday, because (you guessed it) they close at 4 every day (except Sundays, when they are closed). It’s definitely more of a lunch-type place, so I get it. Luckily for us, it was a long weekend, so we decided to wait until Monday to head over there. We had a late lunch, around 1:30. There were several tables occupied but it wasn’t super-crowded, which I attributed to the fact that (a) it was past “lunch hour”; and (b) it was a holiday.

The menu here is very similar to the menu from GollyWhoppers – Greg clearly knows that there is no point in messing with what has proven to work. A popular item on the GollyWhoppers menu was the taco salad, and Greg has recreated it as the “Fiesta Salad”. Shredded lettuce gets topped with seasoned ground beef, salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream, red onions, pickled jalapeños, and black olives, served with a side of tortilla chips ($6.99). If you like, you can ask them to crush the chips up for you so that you can scoop the chips up with your fork. I, however, like to use my chips to scoop up my salad. I asked for my salad without jalapeños, and if I had not skipped right over the mention of onions I would have nixed those too, but that’s okay – they were chopped pretty large so they were easy to pick out. The salad was very tasty, with a great taco flavor to the meat and a nice contrast between the warm meat and the cold salads and toppings.

Philip decided to go with the Italian sandwich – ham, salami, provolone cheese, tomato, onion, Italian dressing, salt, pepper, oregano, and Parmesan cheese ($6.49). The sandwich is served warm on your choice of bread. Philip is a sucker for a good Italian sandwich (surprisingly, one of his favorites is at – are you sitting down? Chuck E. Cheese’s. He grew to love them when we worked there, and we still go there from time to time so he can order them even though we know that the kitchen staff hates making sandwiches. Sorry, guys.) and this was a great Italian sandwich. The flavors just work together so well, and the bread was just fantastic. I loved that it was served warm so the cheese got a little melty and the flavors a little more pronounced (cold dulls flavors a little bit).

While we were eating, Greg made the rounds bussing tables and talking to customers. He stopped to talk to me about the whole chips versus crushed chips approach on the taco salad. He obviously enjoys interacting with the customers and he and his staff are doing a great job serving delicious sandwiches, salads, etc. My only disappointment was that they did not have the selection of cookies and bars that GollyWhoppers had (Greg’s does have cookies and bars, just not as many varieties as GollyWhoppers always had available to tempt me).

If you’re looking for a great lunch spot in East Brainerd, you have to give Greg’s Sandwich Works a try!

Greg’s Sandwich Works is located at 6336 East Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37411. They are open Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can call Greg’s Sandwich Works at (423) 551-8634. For more information, you can check out Greg’s Sandwich Works’ website and menu as well as their Facebook page.

Happy Birthday, Tremont Tavern!

December 7, 2016

Chattanooga’s most popular burger spot, Tremont Tavern, turns 10 this month. They’re celebrating with a weekend full of fun!

When I decided to write a top burgers in Chattanooga list, I discovered just how passionate Chattanoogans are about burgers. Honestly, I was a little taken aback by how strongly people felt about their burgers. It was an eye-opening experience.

Over and over again, I have been told (or read, or otherwise heard) that Tremont Tavern has the best burger in town. Indeed, it is one of my favorites too, and with good reason. Huge burgers made from house-ground beef with any number of toppings – how could you go wrong? Plus, there’s the whole tavern/place where everybody knows your name vibe.

Dustin Choate, Tremont Tavern’s owner, set out in 2006 to create a new beginning for himself after a dissatisfying stint in the corporate world. We all know about restaurant failure rates, and at the time that Tremont opened, the area wasn’t exactly a prime restaurant location. It would seem that the odds were stacked against the survival of a hole-in-the-wall dive bar in a previously vacant building…but the odds can be wrong. And wrong they were.

Instead, Tremont turned into a destination for Chattanoogans and out-of-towners alike. What started as a tiny two-room bar has more than doubled in size – but that doesn’t mean there’s a lot of space. That just means more people can squeeze in, and squeeze in they do. On a recent visit, Philip and I could only find seating at the minibar in front of the windows – there wasn’t a table to be had.

It’s pretty much undeniable that Tremont Tavern set the bar for burgers in this town. They’ve not only won local accolades, being voted the Best Burger for the 2016 Times Free Press Best of the Best, but they’ve also been recognized in Garden and Gun as one of the best burgers in the South. The burgers and the beer are not the only good things about Tremont, though – they have a small but varied and well-crafted menu and everything on it is good, as far as I can tell. The fish and chips and Reuben that we had on our recent jaunt certainly were.

And the atmosphere is pretty much unmatched. Like Waffle House, Tremont Tavern is one of those places that everyone just fits in, regardless of who you are. It might be a tavern, but it’s cool to take the kids; everyone in the neighborhood does it, for sure. It’s just as great of a place for a casual date or a night out with friends, though.

Tremont Tavern is turning 10 this month. They’ll be celebrating Friday and Saturday (12/9 and 12/10) with food and drink specials and live music from Mike McDade, Gabriel Newell and Jordan Hallquist & The Outfit on Friday and BJ Hightower, Slim Pickins, TJ Greever and Danimal Pinson on Saturday. Don’t miss your chance to stop by and say happy birthday! And be sure to have a burger while you’re there.

Tremont Tavern is located at 1203 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37405. They are open Monday 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., Tuesday – Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday, 12 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. You can call Tremont Tavern at (423) 266-1996. You can find more information about Tremont Tavern on their website or their Facebook page.