(yes, it's a burger...)

[CONTINUED]

[CLICK HERE for a full size photo]

It's like peanut butter and chocolate. Two great things on their own, even better when combined. When some guy brags, "I just ate a heart-attack in a bun," I can look at him and sigh, "Son, let me tell you about the Royal Burger Special."

Alas, all good things come to an end and the Pakistanis closed up shop after I left college (maybe from the loss of revenue) and I nearly wept the last time I was in town and drove by the store. My hopes of having another pastrami burger had shrivelled like fries left under the heat lamps too long. But then, my college eating buddy, Scott, told me of a city on a hill where all burgers come with pastrami. Where was this Zion? Salt Lake City, of course.

Royal Burger, apparently, was a knock-off of a Salt Lake chain, Crown Burgers. So, they were my first stop for a bite in SLC. Instead of Pakistanis, it was run by Mexicans. Some of the menu items had different names, but most of the things I remembered at Royal Burger were there -- even the gyros. I ordered a Crown Burger and my wife ordered a Junior Crown Burger. We split some fries. It's been too long to truly make a comparison, but the monstrosity was definitely in the ballpark. The meat was nicely grilled with a hearty char flavor and covered in melted cheese. The pastrami was piled thick and spilling out of the sesame seed bun. It's a big, lovely mess that tasted fantastic. The fries were cooked perfectly: crispy, no burnt ends, adequately salted, and no lingering off aftertaste.

(btw, Carl's Jr. has recently announced a pastrami burger and referenced Crown Burgers in their press release as a source of inspiration.)

The Salt Lake Weekly referenced this in a recent article on this phenomenon:

http://www.slweekly.com/article.cfm/greeksbearingburgers