The Habanero Jam Burger from Southern Burger Co. in Warehouse Row is a gourmet burger with a bite.
Staff Photo by Barry CourterJust a block from the newspaper, Warehouse Row is convenient to walk to for a quick takeout order, but for several months now, the food court has featured only one restaurant, Petunia's Silver Jalapeno.
That changed recently with the opening of Southern Burger Co., which started downtown in 2010 as a food-truck operation.
Burgers, we've come to realize in recent years, come in all shapes and sizes from round to square to thick and thin. Southern Burger serves up Tennessee grass-fed beef on a fresh-made bun. They also offer a hormone-free, char-grilled chicken breast sandwich and an eggplant-cheddar veggie burger.
Since I was trying it out for the first time, I thought I'd order something straight off the menu but not necessarily a basic burger. In addition to the fairly standard Southern Burger (American cheese, mustard, ketchup, mayo and Wickles pickles), the menu offered a Bleu Burger, Jalapeno Burger, Mushroom Swiss Burger and a Habanero Jam Burger. I chose the latter.
It came with habanero jam with goat cheese and arugula. Despite the exotic-sounding ingredients, the combination had a fairly simple, fairly subtle flavor that worked well, especially in spotlighting the flavor of the meat. The goat cheese and the arugula work together, and the occasional bite of habanero was nice.
Some places make their burgers thick and never flatten them with a spatula, which keeps the juices in, and some flatten them out. Southern is in the latter group.
The bread was a little doughier than some might be accustomed to.
It was not a wow experience for me but good enough that I want to try another combination. I got only the burger on this trip, but I will try the hand-cut fries and onion rings 55/50 combo next time and will build my own burger from the list of nine options, including fried egg, balsamic onions, sliced avocado and jalapenos.