Carolyn Fath
Diners can go classic with traditional toppings or over-the-top with plenty of unconventional add-ons.
There’s a running joke in my family that, no matter what type of restaurant we’re at in whatever city we’ve ventured to, at least one of my boys will order the burger. Their love for burgers runs deep, and they like watching televised sports while they’re eating them.
They appear to be the audience that Point Burger Bar is catering to — even though they’re not yet old enough to order beer. For adults, there are boozy shakes and plenty of Point beers on tap.
While the bones of the restaurant haven’t changed much from its days as Quaker Steak and Lube, the interior feels very different. A few kiddie games still surround the host station, and now the overflow dining room has been transformed into a full-time kiddie gaming area complete with claw, race car game and skee-ball. The whole place has exploded with television screens and nearly every sport you could imagine is on one of them. Burgers, beer and screens are clearly the draw.
While there are a few different sandwich, salad and entree options, burgers are a good 75 percent of the menu. The choices on the build-your-own burger menu will probably make your head spin.
The base burger itself comes with a multitude of options — angus beef, bison, lamb, duck, chicken, turkey or salmon, along with several choices for vegetarians and vegans: a portobello mushroom cap, a soy-based vegan patty with black beans, and the trademarked Impossible burger, which mimics beef.
Most add-ons, aside from lettuce, red onion and tomato, come as an upcharge. But there are plenty of fun ingredients, from peanut butter to balsamic onion jam.
It might be easier — and less expensive — to pick a specialty burger and let the chefs perform their magic.
The Classic is topped simply with American cheese, on a kaiser bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. The signature Point burger is also quite good, with Wisconsin pride highlighted by using Sartori Montamore cheese and Nueske’s bacon. The real tipping point for this burger is the truffle aioli, which is beautifully zig-zagged across the top and adds real depth of flavor.
Also delicious is The Hangover, served on an English muffin and topped with salty, greasy pastrami, American cheese, a fried egg, and Hangover sauce (a garlicky version of Thousand Island). The drippy deliciousness of this burger will take your mind off any hangover you came in with.
The beef burgers hit the mark. The patties were always juicy, flavorful, and held up to add-ons. The lamb burger was quite juicy and paired nicely with feta, red onion and tzatziki sauce. I usually enjoy duck, but The Daffy Burger didn’t do it for me. The pieces of duck seemed to be pressed together rather than ground and were surprisingly unseasoned and dry. This burger’s sauteed onion and orange gastrique were too syrupy sweet.
Appetizers are pretty standard pub fare, but the pickle fries were a nice surprise — deep-fried spears, not slices, and served with Hangover sauce. The chili cheese fries weigh about four pounds and are overloaded.
Parting from the burger menu one day, I tried the chicken pot pie and was astonished when the server brought out a ten-inch pie. Even though I wasn’t able to enjoy any of the crust around the edges because it stuck, the middle was still enough to feed a family of three.
Prices are steep for fancied-up pub fare. Several of the appetizers run $8-$10 and a plain beef hamburger starts at $9.
I love a good burger and Point delivers. But there are plenty of places to get a good burger around town. The prices, the unimpressive non-burger side of the menu, and the atmosphere that’s a mashup of Dave & Buster’s and Chuck E. Cheese means that Point hasn’t joined the ranks of “favorite burger spots” for me. Maybe I’m not quite the demographic they’re aiming for, though.
Point Burger Bar
2259 Deming Way; Middleton; 608-824-2011; pointburgerbarmiddleton.com
10:30 am-10 pm Mon.-Thurs., 10:30 am-11 pm Fri.-Sat., 10:30 am-9 pm Sun.; $5-$18
