I had been to The Park once before, but did not have a burger.  Just a
quick frolic from The Shortstop on the south side of Sunset, the small
bistro is unassuming and cute.  If more of us had been there we would have
easily taken over the room and possibly dried them out of beer and wine.
It’s the kind of place you bring a date to show them you have ‘east side
cred.’  Or, the kind of place you bring someone who loves quality,
moderately fancy grub.

Although I do enjoy a menu with a list of creative burgers to choose from,
The Park offered a standard burger with upgrades.  This made it possible
to create your own burger masterpiece from the options and not be forced
to take that weird topping off when the ‘insert name for interesting
burger with one weird topping’ arrives.

My upgrades included chipotle BBQ sauce and caramelized onions.  They both
were part of what made my burger so yum, but I have to say that $1 for
each was a little steep.  I was thinking of adding bacon, but for an extra
$2 I opted out.  My burger could have easily totaled up to $20 if I was
really going to go for it. A way around this eco-burger-nomic dilemma at
The Park is to come try the burger on $5 Burger Night on Wednesdays.  Then
you can add bacon, crispy onions, gruyere, fried egg, and sprouts (so you
won’t die) without hesitation.

That’s not to say my burger was not worth the price.  The meat was choice
and cooked perfectly.  The bun was delicious and housed everything on the
burger just right.  I hate it when the patty is too big, the bun is too
small, and all your expensive fixin’s are falling out and onto your Big
Bird bib. It’s ‘not the look.’ They even offered a BEU-er some lovely
looking lettuce for her burger so she didn’t have a gluten fit.

I’m glad I didn’t miss The Park’s burger, definitely my favorite one so
far…  If Jed “The Jalapeno King” Donahue had been served burgers from The
Park on Glutton Bowl he could have eaten 13 burgers instead of 11. No
doubt.

Out of 8 total BEU members in attendance, here’s how The Park  fared:

Burger appearance: 7.25

Patty:  8.5

Overall taste: 7.54

Creativity: 8.375

Bun: 8.5

Toppings: 8.14

Price: 7.75

Service: 8.625

Who would win in a fight?

Beetlejuice: 4

Beetlejuice (Howard Stern): 3

Overall Rating: 8.08536 out of 10