Jay About the Shopping Bag

If you ever are looking for the best burger in Burlington, VT you will most likely be directed towards the Shopping Bag on North St. in the Old North End.  So just go North ok?  Well, I have been in Burlington for over a decade and I finally decided to make my way over to grab a burger for lunch.  The Old North End is a dump.  It just is.  There is a large immigrant population which is fine and very interesting for our cultural diversity but most of these folks are just getting themselves going so it is a pretty poor population.  Add to that the drug dealers in front of the elementary school on Murray St., the dudes not wearing shirts and drinking tall boys while riding their bikes around, the tattooed mothers buying 2 liter jugs of soda for their kids, and the crazy people who talk to themselves when not staring at you and you have a pretty bleak situation.  So I braved the crazies and made it to a shitty looking market in the middle of it all.  Inside was not any better than outside and I got a little nervous.  The ordering process is also difficult to manage as you determine what you want from the menu above the grill area, order at the register in a cramped front of the store, take the order back to the burger counter, and then wait in a tiny vestibule for your burger.  Well, I finally got my burger after what felt like a very painful wait.  It Food and Wine or whatever it is that gushes over this place tells you how quaint it is do not believe them.  The Shopping Bag as an entity is a dump and you certainly cannot eat there.  I took my burger back to the office and dug in.  Delicious.  Chopped beef that tasted pretty fresh and like real meat.  The bun was soft and buttery... just lightly grilled.  The lettuce and tomato were fresh tasting and the mayo was also good.  The cheese was just American but fitted the overall scheme well.  Was it the best burger in Burlington?  I don't know but I would not really put up an argument against it.  It was a good f*ing burger.  I also got a dimebag on the way back.  Just kidding.  I got chips. From the guy on the corner.  He said they were the best BBQ chips in town, very high quality.