Illegal Food
Overall rating: 2 stars
Food: burgers, fries and a few cheffier specials
Service: friendly but a step behind where it needs to be
Best dishes: "The Hank" burger, "The Pimento" burger, okonomiyaki fries, fried Brussels sprouts with buttermilk aioli and heirloom tomato powder
Vegetarian selections: There's a mushroom burger on the menu plus vegetarian specials.
Price range: $-$$
Credit cards: all major
Hours: 6-11 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Children: no problem
Parking: some street parking plus a $5 lot just outside the front door
Reservations: no
Wheelchair access: full
Smoking: no
Noise level: high inside; very pleasant on the patio
Patio: a great one, with a covered roof
Takeout: yes
Address, telephone: 1044 Greenwood Ave., Atlanta. 404-254-2141
Website: illegalfoodatlanta.com
The signature hamburger at Illegal Food, called “The Hank,” has been featured on a lot of best burger lists in publications as diverse as Business Insider magazine and the Zagat Survey.
I am personally wary of such absolute proclamations and tend to think of burgers the way some people do cameras (the best is the one you have with you) or men (if you’re not with the one you love, love the one you’re with). I am happy enough with a pretty good burger, which isn’t too hard to find, and loath to go on a quest for the ideal specimen.
But “The Hank” feels special. Even a little perverse. This burger, you see, is thick, a little springy, red in the center, crusty at the circumference and juicy enough that you have to watch for trickles down your wrist. It is, at heart, an old-fashioned patty. Yet it arrives with all the flavors you associate with fast-food, like a Big Mac. The American cheese, the iceberg lettuce shreds, the swipe of pink goodness, the all-important prickle and gravitas of pickle chips and raw onion. It is like the missing link between the backyard burger and the double stack.
Chef Steven Lingenfelter unleashed “The Hank” upon Atlanta at Joystick Gamebar in the Old Fourth Ward, where Illegal Food once operated as a kind of in-house caterer and served up a menu of signature patty creations and hand-cut fries. In March, he moved to the freestanding location in Virginia-Highland that was home to Bar Meatball and a kazillion restaurants before. Here he repeats the formula that made for his initial success: a concise, creative burger-and-fries menu augmented by a page of cheffier specials that change nightly. It’s a winning package, and once Illegal Food works through a few timing and service issues, it should handily break the space’s curse.
You may choose to sit in the small, bright, loud tiled dining room or make a beeline, as most guests do, for the covered patio. It overlooks a parking lot, but there’s no small pleasure in perching above a sea of cars with a cold beverage on a warm Atlanta night. You feel so grateful not to be in one.
Like just about any restaurant with a liquor license these days, Illegal Food tries to tempt you with a craft cocktail program. I tried one concoction called “One Down, Two to Go” that was based largely on rye and sassafras root syrup. It was like a Manhattan crossed with an A&W root beer. Next I tried the seasonal Strawberry Whiskey Smash, which was pinker and sweeter than advertised. And then I made the wise choice to move on to beer. The burgers here need nothing more than the Bell’s Two Hearted Ale on tap.
Ah, those burgers. Lingenfelter gets dry-aged grass-fed Brasstown Beef and butchers and grinds it in house. Other variations include the “Nasty Nate,” which benefits from a chili rub and sidles into the bun with blue cheese and bacon jam. Then he offers nightly specials, such as one fine creation called “Eat Your Heart Out.” This double-patty behemoth sports smoked beef heart pastrami, pickled onions, spicy mustard and Swiss cheese. It is the thickest sandwich I have ever held in my hands that managed to hold together.
If beef isn’t your thing, then try the “Banh Mi” with its double stack of ground pork patties, nicely seasoned in the style of Vietnamese pork nem nuong sausage. They arrive with all the goodies you’d expect on a Vietnamese sandwich, including pickled vegetables, hot peppers and cilantro. I honestly think this one works better with only one patty; you might save the second for breakfast the next day.
Just don’t ask to add anything, such as bacon. Lingenfelter may be slinging burgers, but he’s a chef who wants you to taste his creations as intended and refuses customization. (Obnoxious or chef’s prerogative? You decide.) To better understand his aspirations and perhaps his future direction as a chef, take a look at the specials page, which seems to have sneaked in from a trendier restaurant through the kitchen door. He may offer a duck breast with parsnip confiture and golden raisins, or a scoop of pasty but tasty smoked beef short rib rillettes.
Check out this special, called the “Vegetable Garden,” in the chef’s own words: “Mushroom duxelles, butter and bay leaf poached pebble potatoes, grapefruit and garden herb gremolata with black garlic, roasted carrots, sunchokes, shaved radish, red veined sorrel, fir and spruce tips, pine cone bud syrup, everlasting peas, honeysuckle.” This fanciful creation turns out to be a subdued plate of roasted vegetables cemented in place over a tasty chopped mushroom spread and a scattering of young, tender pine needles, edible flowers and pods. Now I know what to do with my garden prunings.
While I appreciated that dish and look forward to trying more specials, I don’t think I can ever visit without ordering the okonomiyaki fries. This splendid bowl of crisp, hand-cut fries arrives under a blanket of all the garnishes that get heaped on okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake. Think savory brown sauce, mayonnaise, pickled ginger, flaked seaweed and fistfuls of dried fish flakes. Crazy delicious.
Both the kitchen and the floor staff can be a little slow and helter-skelter. One night the fries dropped on our table just as our beers ran out. We couldn’t get our server’s attention for at least five minutes after, and then the next round took another five minutes to come. (Cold beer and hot fries: It’s all I ask.) In fact, I noticed weird timing issues on two separate visits with two different servers.
Illegal Food needs to fix this. Once it does, I think I’ve got my burger worth driving for.
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