December 4: Meg's

Pioneer Square has been in need of a quick counter-service burger joint. Sure, Planet Java has burgers on the menu, as do most of the bars (e.g., Bad Bishop, Fuel, McCoy's), but they're sit-down, wait for your order, tip the waitstaff kind of places. Great State Burger  ($) and 206 Burger fit the bill, but they're a bit of a walk from Occidental. The People's Burger food truck works, when it used to be in the square, but for now it's a small trek down to Safeco T-Mobile Field to get it (until they open up their brick and mortar location).

After revealing their neon sign last month and working incredibly quickly the last few weeks, Meg's opened four days ago in the old Pioneer Square Market space. It's got a retro '50s color scheme of bright yellow, turquoise, and orange, and specializes in burgers. "It's close, it's quick, and it's open late," pointed out a high school classmate I bumped into on my visit. Eater.com's report says that next spring, Meg plans on keeping the joint open on weekends until after the bars close.

So how's the food? I arrived at the tail end of the lunch rush, and reports I've heard from others are that they've been slammed pretty hard. The half empty napkin dispensers and fountain drink area puddles showed that today was probably no different. With only a few people in front of me, the order taking was quick, and the food was up before I even finished the credit card transaction. I grabbed a Stubborn Cola from the fountain, a few cups of ketchup, and grabbed a window stool.

First, and worst, the fries. The best fries are the ones so hot that they punish you a little bit for eating them. The chart of french fry temperature versus quality is a hockey stick. Super hot, super good, and as the temperature drops, the quality plummets, until you get to room temperature, where the cardboard sleeve the fries come in probably tastes just about as good.

Much better than it looks

The fries I got were floppy and just above room temperature. They'd been under the heat lamp for a while. Almost as bad, I think a lot of it came from the bottom of the fry tray, too small to dip in the ketchup, almost like trying to eat cubed breakfast potatoes with your fingers.

The burger, on the other hand, was fairly good. I didn't order the "deluxe" with onion, pickle, and lettuce to get in the way. Instead, I went basic: double burger, sauce, cheese. The buns served merely as a delivery device for the cheesy beef: not remarkable, not falling apart. The patties were hearty and glistened a bit, but weren't too greasy. Also, cool on them for printing custom burger wrappers. That's pretty neat.

On the way out, I noticed that the staff had already cleaned up the soda puddles, were emptying the not-quite full trash, and were preparing to refill the napkins. Nice work.

There's not a lot unexpected here. A good burger, a relatively low price, quick service. Up the fry game, and we've got a new contender to get into my weekly rut.

Meg's
200 S. Jackson
Double burger, fries, cola, $12.66