The Monthly Burger: Mugs Cafe

At Rock City Eats, we are big burger fans. Each month we will take a burger from around town and let you know what we think.
Several weeks ago Mugs Cafe tipped us off to their new burger launch. In a little over a month since opening, Mugs has quickly become a favorite coffee stop for many around town. Their food menu is nothing to ignore however, they bring fresh ingredients together for some very good breakfast and lunch dishes. Because of that, we have been anticipating this new burger.
To start off, the burger is huge. It is one of those that you are not quite sure how you are going to fit your mouth around it, and you might very well not. The standard burger comes with bacon and avocado, although feel free to dress it up however you like. Here is the breakdown:
Bread: They are using an onion roll that is lightly toasted. It comes out as a very airy, but not too dry, bread. I personally love onion rolls, it adds a little extra taste to the overall burger.
Meat: The meat appears to be around 1/3 lbs (in the sample we had) hand formed patties. Very thick, and very juicy. It has a light char to the sides and lightly seasoned. This balance puts a lot of pressure on the meat to be good and thankfully it is a good tasting beef. The bacon here is a thick cut, cooked not too crisp, but well done.
Toppings: The big shocker here is going to come from the avocado, the rest is nice butter head lettuce and tomato and pepper jack cheese. The avocado is one I fear will be requested off most burgers, but it really adds overall balance with the chipotle mayo(see below) and pepper jack cheese. I am not a huge avocado fan but it works very well with the overall burger.
Condiments: The big punch of flavor (outside of the meat) comes from the Chipotle mayo. It has a very aggressive (but not overwhelming) kick in combination with the pepper jack cheese that works perfectly with the avocado. Your mouth feels the slightly sweet, creamy avocado first and then finishes with the spice from the mayo.
Overall: This is a very strong out of the gate burger from Mugs, I think it is going to win over a lot of people. Most places wanting to start a burger line up would come out with 4-5 burgers, instead they do one strong burger. It is an approach they have taken with the rest of their menu where they try to do a few things right, and slowly expand.
In addition to their new burger launch, Mugs is expanding their hours to dinner starting today. It makes for a perfect stop on the way home for you NLRs or a quick bite before a Travs game as they wrap up the final 3 games of the season (or playoffs).
Mugs Cafe
515 Main Street NLR (next to Argenta Market)
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