City Beat - 2/5/13

Welcome back to the CR Burger Tour. Our goal, as always, is to seek out the best locally crafted burger that we can find, and try to have a good time doing it. Today of course proved to be no exception, and we learned a lot along the way. 

1. Bill's a pimp. So I was spotted walking back into the office with my four ladies, my stable if you will, and was told that we resembled the picture below. 

Can't argue with the truth. Where my money at?

2. The World Wide Web, also known as the Information Super Highway, or "Cyberspace", can be used to purchase a number of goods that can often times be shipped to your home or business for a nominal fee. Some people have been reported to shop for goods while in their underwear. Can you believe such a thing??? 

Can you load some more interwebs onto this for me?

3. Gang signs. The Burger Tour now has an official gang sign, and slogan. Furries fo' Lyfe yo.

Is the L backwards? Do I care? It how we roll on the Bizurger Tour! 

What does ANY of this have to do with burgers? Not a damn thing, but I got to open with something! 

City Beat BAR & GRILL

City Beat is located on 3rd Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids. It's a newly renovated building, no doubt hit pretty hard in the 2008 flood. They appeared to have a pretty decent lunch time crowd going in and out, various ages and occupations represented, and everyone seemed pretty comfortable there. It's a standard issue neighborhood bar with a kitchen, and one that seemed pretty welcoming to anyone who might drop by. Oh, and they know how to manage a webpage in cyberspace too. 

The Burger

I counted thirteen of us today (had to stop flashing gang signs to ensure an accurate count, AND take a shoe off!). Eleven surveys have been submitted, and of those, it looks like we have 100% burger participation. Two surveys were submitted for Sammich's, but we had a couple new people who might not have understood the Sammich criteria. So, for today's review, we will stick to just burgers! 

The "pure burger" selection was somewhat limited, giving us just the option of the 1/3 lb. Cheeseburger, the Double Cheeseburger, or the patty melt. I think almost everyone got the Cheeseburger, and many people added bacon. The scores have been added, the values tallied, the ledgers balanced and the pipers paid. City Beat's burger scored a 6.83/10.

As presented. A "frilled sandwich pick" makes everything classier! 

For my money, I thought this was the best burger that the tour has experienced in awhile. 

Under the hood. Cheese, pickles, onion, mayo. Some lettuce, even the dreaded iceberg, would have been nice. 

Comments from the group included:

• Double cheeseburger with ketchup, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. My burger was huge and juicy. I'm extremely full. Bun was toasted, but became soggy and was falling apart while I was eating.
• Plain bacon cheeseburger. Bacon was crisp and sandwich was hot.
• Toasted bun, almost looked like a bagel and tasted like a tough crossaint. Average bar burger patty. Good size for the price.
• ...wasn't too bad, but nothing to go back specifically for. Bacon was cheap microwavable stuff.
• Great flavor!

Fries & Sides

Sides didn't rate so well today. Most of us had fries, with a small number of onion rings and cottage cheese mixed in as well. Sides received a 5.58/10. 

Comments: 

• Small cut fries on the side. Fries were warm when I got them. Their small size made them cool off too fast. They were okay. I should have added some more salt.
• Got fries, they were very plain and cold.
• Loved the hot skinny fries
• Fries were small and slightly over cooked.
• Onion rings were nice and crispy!
• Cottage cheese. Texture was weird.
• Fries. Plenty of them, but nothing all that special.

Service

This is always a tough one. We drop in on some of these places unannounced, and they do their best to keep up with their regular crowd, and then our group as well. Usually, there's one server in the whole place, and they work their butts off for us. I did see that City Beat had two cooks working in the kitchen. Tip well folks, they likely earn it. Service received a 5.67/10. 

Comments: 

• I thought the staff was on top of their game :) Quick service for drinks and orders. Refills were given. For a group of +10 with no notice, I thought they were fast on getting our food out. She also brought the check out promptly and I got change right away. Great job!
• Other than originally getting the wrong burger and then mine, she did a decent job considering the size of our group and lack of support staff.
• It was a big group so I expected service a bit slow, but she seemed disengaged. Not very friendly. Paying her was difficult and she mixed up a few orders.
• She did a good job taking care of us. Messed up an order or two, but I think everyone got fed.

Conclusion

City Beat is much like any one of a thousand bars across the country. A place to go and have a drink or two, or to stop in for a quick lunch. I've no complaints with the place, and would like to stop back again sometime when we're not dropping a 10+ person bomb on them. 

Would you eat here again, or recommend it to others?" We gave City Beat a 3.25/5.

Final Comments: 

• I thought the price was a little higher than other places for a burger and a side, but the burger was quite large and I was more than stuffed when I left.
• Not big on my list of places to go. Also in the evenings after work it is frequented by officers off duty, but drinking around cops is never something I am real comfortable with. (Good to know!!)
• I would never go here for the purpose of just eating. I've eaten here before because it was a stop on a group ride and I was hungry. But then again, it's just a bar, w/ bar food.
• Food was good, service seemed very good considering we al showed up at the same time.