Burgers and Booze
For a good long while I’ve been hearing about Burger Tuesdays at the Rosamunde Sausage Grill and the cult following it’s attracted. And I keep forgetting about it, which is dumb because I work from home on Tuesdays and can walk to Haight and Fillmore in minutes. Yesterday was different: the Tuesday Noon Siren went off as usual, but my brain said, “Hey! Noon! Tuesday!” and I was out the door.
So here’s the deal: Every Tuesday Rosamunde, usually known as Nirvana for fans of meat in casing, grills up half-pounders with cheese at lunchtime—but this is no standard lunch-break affair. Google rosamunde+haight+burger and you’ll find a slew of warnings, the basic gist being, Get there early and be prepared to wait. They ain’t lyin’. I stood in the queue for at least 10 minutes while the guys behind the counter called the names of orders up and customers squeezed past to claim their precious patties.
I finally shouted in my order over the blare of AC/DC and settled down on a stool for the “30- to 40-minute wait” (said the counter guy) for my burger with everything. I was OK with that; I had my Sunday Times crossword puzzle. But by the time those 40 minutes had passed—and indeed, it was 40 minutes—the call of “KIMberly! Your burger’s ready!” was music to my ears.
So the Yelpers and their ilk also say Rosamunde’s burgers are worth the wait, and they ain’t lyin’ on that count either. Crunchy grilled goodness on the outside but j-u-i-c-y on the inside. Like, dripping. Dripping even though it was cooked well enough to put most pink-meat paranoiacs at ease. And the cake icer? A burger with everything—cheese, sweet grilled onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mustard, all on an appropriately sized onion bun—is a meager $5.50.
It’s no wonder a slew of regulars lunch there every Tuesday. In fact, most of the orders I overheard went something like this: “Burger. Everything. Next door.” And what’s next door, you ask? Why, the Toronado Room. It’s true—on any given Tuesday afternoon dozens of people can be found in a bar on Haight Street, sipping pints and chowing on some of the best burgers in town. If there was ever a reason to wish my weekend included Tuesday, I think this is it.
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