Who mourns for Fatburger, I ask you? The poor little burger bar squeezed by a much more successful family diner has its work cut out for it. I mean it's named after both a choice and its consequence. The case is not helped given its location next to Rocky Mountain Fitness. No joke, a place called Fatburger shares a wall with one that sells fitness equipment. I'd call that genius marketing (actually, for a moment, I thought it was irony, but I'm pretty sure it's not).
If memory recalls, this whole corner (hundreds of square feet of it) was once claimed solely by Fatburger (don't believe me, check out Google Street View). Tough times obviously called for tough measures, and Fatburger now finds itself squeezed into a sliver of its former footprint, the remainder dominated by the larger and obviously more successful Ricky's. My friend and I were originally setting our sights on Ricky's. Correction, we had been aimed for Original Joes but they didn't open until 11:00, so there we were, starving with few options on a Sunday morning. Alas, as this predictable story turned out, Ricky's was packed tighter than an Alaskan Airlines flight (my alternate comparison claimed it denser than Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, but I figured that was a tad snobbish).
They've got going a strange situation here, with only one door leading into the complex, bringing one immediately into Ricky's. For Fatburger, you have to take a left, with considerable noise pollution spilling through the openings between the two establishments. I suspect both businesses are owned by the same entrepreneur wishing to maximize his or her property. Fatburger has been punted to a lower rung like a middle child wanting to go into music. It barely fits more than a dozen people. My friend and I both ordered the bacon burger combo that came with a half-dozen topping, none of which were cheese. My fault for not checking. As we were the only customers in this side of the building, our meals arrived quickly--leading me to wonder that if both businesses were owned by the same person, why not expand customers to the empty side if Ricky's is so overwhelmingly popular.
On the positive side, you do get a heaping side of fries, one of several options with your burger, and my Oreo milkshake was...wait...don't look at me that way. Yes, I ordered an Oreo milkshake. I went to the gym later, if that makes up for it. Regardless, it was quite good. The criticism to be made about the meal would have to be the burger itself. In short, it was lackluster for the brief moment it could be identified as an actual hamburger. That's because after starting the meal, despite it being held precariously together by a wax paper wrap like compression bandages on a guy that just underwent abdominoplasty, the burger quickly began to fall apart. The flimsy bun couldn't withstand the compounded moisture of lettuce, tomato, pickles and grease. Even the patty itself began to crumble, and by the end, I was picking shrapnel from the base of my tiny plastic basket. Although some would claim this part and parcel of the experience in eating a burger, I'd beg to disagree. There's a difference between eating a burger and enjoying a burger, between sitting down in a restaurant and having a well-made meal you can take time to appreciate and rushing against a slowly disintegrating sandwich. I like the idea of being able put my sandwich down and not race against a clock as if I'm diffusing a bomb. At the prices being charged, I do expect something a tad better than a meal pulled from thermal insulating foam packaging. Considering this, I wonder how long Fatburger will survive until its neighbor overgrows it like a moss. Who mourns for Fatburger, I ask you? Unfortunately, not I.
Food: 2/5
Service: 2.5/5
Presentation: 2.5/5
Value: 2/5
Recommendation: 2/5 read more
