Big Town Burgers

Address: 680 Bank St, Ottawa
Hours: 11:30am – 7pm (Mon – Sat); 11:30am – 5pm (Sun)
Website: http://bigtownburgers.com/
Green factor: Recycling and garbage bins on site; foil wrappers for the burger, styrofoam for the fries

The Glebe hasn’t exactly been friendly to food trucks, although outdoor gear fixture Kunstadt has made part of the parking lot available to several food trucks over the years. The current tenant is burger-slingers Big Town Burgers.

The name choice for this nondescript black truck seems a little odd, since they’re so close to being “Bytown”…but aren’t. I don’t know what a Town Burger is, but they’ve got Big ones here (with a capital “B”)!

One day while wanting something quick to keep me fueled for my foot-powered errands, I decided to try out this new-to-the-area truck. Big Town’s menu is pretty lean, at least figuratively, with burgers (cheese, bacon or additional patties optional), a grilled chicken burger, veggie burger, crinkle-cut fries and poutine, hotdogs, and onion rings. Other than drinks, that is literally their whole menu.

Obviously, I had to try a burger, so I went with the double cheeseburger combo ($12.50), which comes with fries and a drink. Once your burger is up, you can get it topped how you wish; I went with classic toppings of lettuce, onion, pickles, mustard and relish. #TeamNoKetchup! The whole process would have been a little more efficient if they asked you about the toppings while cooking, and the condiments were available to put on the burger yourself.

The burgers come on a sesame seed bun, and there was a decent sear on my patty. Unlike nearly all of the chip wagons downtown, this is fresh beef, not a squishy, from-frozen, insult to the cow from whence it came. As for the burger fundamentals, the meat-bun ratio was appropriate, and the real cheddar cheese was thoroughly melted on the patty. This was a very good, classic burger!

Unlike the burger, the fries were from a bag, but that’s what you get with any crinkle-cut fry. Luckily, potatoes are one of the foods that suffer the least from freezing, and these fries were cooked properly – wonderfully crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. No ketchup needed here!

While it would be nice to see them do some more foods from scratch, you’re not going to go wrong with a good ol’ fashioned burger and fries from Bytown Big Town Burgers.