Roger K.
Yelp
Both of us were looking for a good burger on a late Saturday afternoon. We figured that arriving at Nighthawks at 4 pm we would avoid any crowd or rush. We were right! There were only a couple other tables with customers. A chalked sign on the side of the entrance said that brunch ended at 4 pm, even though their webpage said it ended at 3 pm. But as I already said, we were looking for burgers.
Our server explained that only the burger menu was currently available because the dinner menu did not start until 5 pm. Once again, no problem. As usual, my wife has an astounding ability to order something on a menu that is no longer available. She did it once again by choosing a Chatham Chocolate Peanut Butter Imperial Porter. It had been replaced by the Zero Gravity Extra Stout, which I decided to order, so she went with an Empire Kriek Berliner Weisse ($6 each).
The Berliner Weisse had that typical part sour and part sweetness taste, but seemed more like a cider with not much flavor. While my wife said her taste of my stout offered some chocolate flavor, I thought my ZG Extra Stout was a bit weak on flavor and lacked robustness.
The burger menu is reasonably simple to order from. There is either a beef burger ($10) or a veggie burger ($9). Both are served with a house sauce, house made pickle, and shredded lettuce unless declined. Add cheese for 50 cents, fried egg $2, house bacon $3, caramelized onion $1. The veggie burger can even be ordered vegan.
Both of us were curious what the veggie burger would be like because occasionally we've come across some excellent preparations. The one at Nighthawks is made with local beans, grains and mushrooms. My wife ordered hers with cheese, the standard sauce, pickle and lettuce, and a side of Fries ($2.50).
I opted for the locally grass fed beef variety with cheese, bacon, onion and all the standard toppings and a side of Fries also. I did find it interesting that I was not asked how I wanted the beef cooked. It came out medium-well, but it was obviously a loosely hand-packed patty that had good flavor, and more than sufficient moisture from the sauce, the onions and the cheese. In fact this was such a messy burger to eat that I found myself using a fork and knife to cut off the portions of the patty that extended beyond the edges of the bun. BTW, the sesame topped bun was very fresh and had a nice egg color. I also don't want to overlook mentioning how good the bacon was.
My wife's veggie burger may not have been up there with the best that we've enjoyed elsewhere, but she still found it flavorful, although not served hot enough. I thought there was a too predominant flavor of refried beans. Her burger was just as messy to eat as mine as the patty lacked some cohesiveness and may have had more special sauce applied than mine.
The weakest component of our meals was actually the Fries. For the first couple of minutes while they were hot they were super crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. However, as they cooled they became so hard on the outside that a fork would not pierce them. They actually looked like they were reheated leftovers. They averaged about 1 1/2 inches in length with none longer than 2 inches.
The dinner menu, which is offered Wednesday through Sunday looked truly interesting. We definitely want to return for that. Our service was friendly and welcoming.
