Le Best

For the first time in the short history of this food blog, I'm going to go ahead and do a timely review, rather than one that comes one, two, even three weeks after the fact. I plan to change this style and do everything in a more timely fashion once I'm out of school and only have work to fill up my days, but for now, c'est la vie, and I'll continue doing my part whenever possible. With that, you're probably wondering (or at least I hope) what has me so eager to get to writing, rather than my usual procrastinating. The answer--Le Tub.

If you're like me, adventure is a part of your regular vocabulary and is graciously applied to any situation where narrow passages, winding through trees, field trips, or anything MacGyver-esque happens. I look for adventure because it makes even the most mundane of days seem a little more fulfilling, and I also like to think it keeps me young. So, upon entering the wooden deck maze of picnic style seating along the water, only to find that our friends were seated in the furthest booth located up some stairs, around a corner, through some trees and past the tiki torches, adventure was the first thing that came to my mind. It didn't matter that Oprah's travel expert and GQ magazine had already voted the burgers as some of the best in the U.S. or that my Floridian friends had raved about the food for some time--I was sold before I ever had a bite. Moreover, we had coincidentally already tried to enter Le Tub's jungle more than six months prior while on a Sunday afternoon trip to the Hollywood organic market, only to find the parking lot packed and wait too long for our grumbling stomachs. Needless to say, this dinner was destined to be great.

Once we finally sat down, the conversation quickly turned to Oprah, or the whole reason we were here in the first place. Oprah and the menu, that is. Sitting right on the water, there were, of course, seafood options on the menu, but none of us were interested. It was the burgers we had come for, the burgers we had heard so much about, and for perhaps the first time in my life everyone at the table ordered the same thing--a burger and fries.

I must digress for a second and talk a little about burgers, because they are near and dear to my heart. Growing up in the Midwest, in the land of meat and potatoes, I was exposed to burgers of all sorts. Frozen patties, my mom's fresh meat cooked to a dry, yet somehow delicious, well-done, burgers in restaurants of all types and, of course, the barbecue burger on lazy summer afternoons. As I look back, it was an education in flavor that could only be enjoyed by a chubby kid that learned to love food while sitting in front of the television for most of his adolescent life. For a while, I even tossed around the idea of driving around the country doing a burger tour, deciding for myself who had the best burger. Having now experienced what has been regarded as the best, I think a tour of this sort might still be worthwhile because, although the burger I had last night was good enough to silence our table for a solid ten minutes, I'm still not convinced that it's "the best." Booche's in Columbia, MO might have something to say otherwise, as well as a few other establishments across this great nation in which I've enjoyed some tasty beef patties.

Moving on, it may, in fact, be the sirloin and the sheer size of the 13 oz. patty that has people raving about Le Tub's burger, because in today's fast-food economy, finding a burger of that girth made out of a superior cut of beef is nearly impossible. Plain and simple, it's a fantastic burger. Upon first bite, the classic ketchup, mustard, onion, lettuce, tomato, bun and burger combo came together in a bite so savory and succulent that it brought back memories of the burger I had my sophomore year of high school after the Sadie Hawkins dance. It set my mind racing to remember all those other burgers I'd had because I hadn't had a burger in quite some time, at least not one this good, of this caliber. And in the end, it was only the burger in front of me, the water off to my right, the steak fries so hot and tender inside, and the ice-cold Corona that matched everything so perfectly that grabbed my attention. At that point, the other burgers didn't really matter much simply because this one was so damn good. Furthermore, I knew that no amount of classical French training in a highly regarded, expensive culinary school could make this burger. No, it was and is truly American, and although I'd never refer to myself patriotic or even proud, it was pretty nice to know that this was entirely ours and that you wouldn't find anything else quite like it anywhere else in the world.

And that was pretty much it. By the end of the meal we were all yawning, exhausted from having consumed so much meat. We finished up our conversation, passed on dessert and headed back through the maze, back to the buzz (albeit low) of Hollywood at night. I look forward to going back again, not simply for the burger, but for the ambience as well. It was, I have to say, a truly unique and utterly perfect burger experience, one that most assuredly slip in with all the others, just another branch of my education in American cuisine.

Le Tub (www.theletub.com)
1100 N. Ocean Drive, Hollywood, Fl; 954-921-9425