In search of lunch after church, Josh and I hit the streets around the UofM with an open mind and no idea of where we wanted to go. In the true spirit of adventure we decided to try a fairly new place and somewhere neither of us had ever been before, My Burger. We'd heard it been described as a "less greasy Five Guys," and although less greasy than five guys could still get pretty greasy we also acknowledged the fact that it also appears to be a nicer looking version to Five Guys. Five Guys is black and white and red and block letters and bags of potatoes and boxes of peanuts and more black and white and greasy. The storefront is very narrow and is sandwiched in between two other businesses (no side walls visible from the outside) it is not altogether sketchy, just very plain and almost dreary in a garishly stark bright white bouncing light away. In contrast, My Burger is lucky enough to have two entire side walls to decorate, which they took full advantage of. These walls are painted with gray and orange simple graphic pictures of gophers (appropriate) and burgers (also appropriate). A slogan on the wall states something along the lines of "home of the double original / aka the original, doubled." Is it just me or is this redundant, or is redundant? Their sign is a very simple but interesting flat picture of a mainly orange colored burger. Everything is very minimal, yet very intentional in the way that it is outlined and interacting with other art elements. The storefront is a garage door that can be left open in agreeable weather and the wide open space to walk through is an extremely welcoming entry way in to the restaurant in which the first thing I notice is the brightly colored chairs. I notice the brightly colored chairs for two reasons 1) They are brightly colored in orange and blue and a shiny finished graphite gray color 2) These chairs are almost identical to my desk chair. My desk chair is from target and is supposed to be a dining room type chair but I decided I liked it so much that I would use it for a desk chair.
The interior...
The menu board was very well done. It was simplistic and easy to read with different sections partitioned off by well defined and different colored headers and good spacing. The background was gray and the letters and numbers were done in white which just seemed to have more thought and character than just black writing on white boards (like at five guys). After we ordered (I chose an original and Josh choosing the redundant double original) we took a gander at the rest of their interior set up. We were most intrigued by the back portion. It had two higher tables for six with orange stools and walls covered in various orange green and blue graphics on a white background. Once again, these graphics were all cohesive despite being of very different things - bookworms, burgers, books, pencils, and other things I can't quite recall at the moment. My favorite thing about the back area was the wall of clocks. There was a series of clocks on the wall labeled with different locations on campus and all set to different times - the time it would approximately be if you were to leave My Burger that minute and walk to that location. How cool is that. That is just seriously the neatest idea. Of course everyone walks at different speeds and aren't always going to those exact places, but it would give you a ballpark. I just can't get over how cool I find that idea. GAH. After we felt we had expressed sufficient wonder over that portion of the restaurant, we returned to the front and took a seat with perfect timing because our burgers had just been finished. While eating we were able to take in the rest of the building - the cool wooden portion of the ceiling with space cut out for lights, the clever sayings in the napkin holders, the references to campus streets such as Ontario on signs near the ceiling, and the smart combination of blue and orange found everywhere. Blue sometimes surprises me as a bold choice to use in restaurants because I had usually heard it lessened appetite. However, there wasn't much blue at use here, just pops of it here and there.
So yes, I really like My Burger. It's cool and good and lives up to the name of being a less greasy five guys. In the spirit of adventure I don't know that we will be back anytime soon just because there are so many cool places to explore, but if I ever really need a burger it will definitely be my choice.
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