Al's Red Frog - July 12, 2012

Thanks for attending today everyone! We had a group of 14 people descend upon the Czech Village today, which is more than the original burger tour EVER had, so great job! 

After looking at the responses to the survey, I've realized I need to make some changes to the questions so that burgers and sammichs are truly separated. Should be possible without skewing our results from today TOO badly. At this time, 11/14 have responded to the survey, 8/11 (72.7%) had burgers. Now, on to the review! 

Al's Red Frog

The Entrance to Al's Red Frog

Al’s Red Frog is one of those small Cedar Rapids bars that has been around forever, and has somehow managed to keep the same name. It’s located in the heart of the Czech Village, and was renovated following the 2008 flood. There’s a plaque on the wall by the front door, marking the water level in the flood. My best guesstimate is that the bar had 8 feet of water inside. It’s pretty amazing that they recovered and are still in business.

The entrance is rather unassuming, and it would be easy to miss the place if you weren’t looking for it. The Red Frog has a full bar, and would also appear to have an active dining crowd as well, given the range of the menu, and the # of people (aside from our group of 14) that were there for lunch.

As a Cedar Rapids native w. Czech ancestors, I should know what this says. Something about welcome is my best guess. Sorry Great Grandpa Vaclav.

The Burger

For purposes of review, I ordered a cheeseburger (medium well) with pepper jack, lettuce, and tomato, with fries and a delicious dill pickle spear on the side. It should be noted that the pickle spear was served touching both my fries and my burger, and did not add nor detract from the burger and fry experience, as some would have you believe. But I digress…

The reason we're here! 

My burger came to the table in a reasonable length of time, but I was fortunate in that I had ordered my food earlier than others, and before the crowd arrived. The burger looked great, smelled good. The first bite was…fine, but underwhelming. I immediately noticed my medium-well order was closer to medium. OK, that’s fine, I’m flexible, and “doneness” is often times subjective upon each cook’s judgment and  ability. The rest of the burger was good as well.

Overall, I can’t find anything BAD to say about my burger, but I am also at a loss to identify anything particularly outstanding about it. I gave mine a 6, and the overall group score was a 6/10 as well. 

Comments from the group on the burgers themselves included:

• Cheeseburger, no toppings, pepperjack cheese. The patty was meaty and juicy, so points for that. The pepperjack was a great cheese choice. However, the cheese slice was rather thin, and the burger overall was a bit too greasy for my tastes.
• Cheese, bacon, ketchup. Right level of crispness on the bacon, just enough grease to give more flavor, but not to make bun soggy.
• Signature burger the frog. Burger was ok. used cookies bbq. bacon was normal...not much smoke ring to it. cheese was over done.
• I had a plain cheeseburger, bun, cheese, burger cooked to medium and ketchup. The sandwich did not taste bad but there wasn't a lot of flavor. It was there. For the price I did not find it worth getting again.

Fries

Just about everyone had fries, and while I and others thought they were very good, they received a group score of 6/10 as well. 

Service

I do believe our waitress/bartender was also the owner. We were a bomb, dropped on her at lunchtime without warning. She handled it remarkably well, took everyone’s order quickly, kept drinks full, got the orders MOSTLY correct (any errors I saw were small and easily/quickly addressed), and got our check to us all in a timely manner. She also appeared to process a number of debit cards quickly, which in some places can be real time consuming. Group score for service was an 8.09/10 , and I believe it’s well earned. Comments included:

• For just the one waitress, i thought she was on top over her game.. An inexperienced waitress would of been in trouble with a group of that size.
• I enjoyed the close atmosphere and the staff was very friendly and did a good job when we took over the place.
• Friendly, prompt service. Mixups on several of the orders though.

Price

My lunch was $12 and change (8.50 for the burger/fries, $0.75 for the lettuce and tomato, $2 for the soda, plus tax). With tip, I dropped $14. That seems a little high for a burger, but, beef is expensive. This price seems to be consistent with other establishments serving similarly sized burgers. Future surveys will include a question about “overall value”, so we can track this info too.

Atmosphere

Not rated by a number, but generally positive. 

• Liked the atmosphere...
• I would definitly go there fora beer and maybe to try some other things but I don't believe I would get the burger again.
• Nice small cozy place, I liked the decor...
• Bathroom was very clean.

Yep, the story checks out Chief! 

Conclusion

Most everyone said that they would probably return to Al’s Red Frog at some future date. "Would you eat at this establishment again OR recommend it to your friends/family?" was rated a 3.73/5, even though the burgers themselves were generally "Just OK".  


This was my first visit there since 2004, and I hope to make it back again soon to try some more of their menu soon.