Restaurant Review: Good Stuff Eatery
Evangelos “Spike” Mendelsohn, one of the more popular contestants on “Top Chef: Chicago” (the show’s fourth season), decided he was going to leave what he felt was an over-saturated restaurant scene in New York City, even though he was firmly entrenched as the chef de cuisine at the resturant “MAi-House” in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, and migrate down I-95 to open up a restaurant called “”Good Stuff Eatery” with his family in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington DC.
Savvy enough realize that, with the recent economic downturn, there may be more opportunities in high quality fast-casual dining, as opposed to sit-down joints with fancy French foods & concepts like Foie Grais and Confit. So, he decided he’d open a place that serves some good ol’ All-American comfort food — hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and milkshakes — in a two-level bustling pseudo-diner venue that has, what he likes to call, a “contemporary farmhouse feel.”
So far, it’s safe to say Good Stuff Eatery is not doing too bad for itself. The place is almost never not busy — even when my friends and I arrived shortly before noon on a scorching Saturday afternoon, the place was already more than 50% full — and has gained enough credibility amongst DC people in-the-know, such that both former President Obama and the his had both dined here (and now have burgers dedicated to each, at the restaurant)
And why not? It’s quickly obvious that Mendelsohn is all about big flavors and quality ingredients, when it comes to the burgers here. When you manage to find a table amidst the first-come, first-serve seating, the condiments that await you tip you off the this aint your typical burger joint. Along with the requisite ketchup and mustard, every table has a bottle of malt vinegar (a MUST with good quality french fries), Sriracha (a Thai hot sauce consisting of chili peppers, garlic, and distilled vinegar), and a sea salt grinder. Plus, near the soda fountain, where you’ll usually find the pump-based dispensers of things like barbeque or sweet & sour sauce as most fast food joints, are those same pump-based dispensers, loaded with an Old Bay mayonnaise, Sriracha Mayonnaise, chipotle mayonnaise, and mango mayonnaise.
But, of course, we’re here to talk about the burgers. For the purposes of standardization, I order the “standard burger”: a cheeseburger with America cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. The burgers usually come with “Good Stuff sauce” on them as well, but I ask specifically as for said sauce on the side, to ensure that i’m getting a better sense of the burger as a product overall, for comparison’s sake.
Whether it’s for dine in or carry out, your burger comes wrapped in one of those faux-foil wrappers, and it’s tossed into a bigger bag, along with fries or anything else you order. And as a result, I discover a smushed, lopsided, seen-better-days burger underneath that wrapper, almost as if someone literally sat on my fully-wrapped burger before placing it in said bag. If the old saying of “you eat with your eyes first” holds true, then this was a burger had a look that only an anorexic could love. And yet, the paradoxical aspect of the presentation was the perfectly melted cheese, and big, vibrant colors of the locally grown organic produce which the burger was topped with. The lettuce, tomatoes, and onions not only had the most aesthetically pleasing look I’ve seen out of nearly burger consumed. Basically, if the exterior of the burger didn’t look like someone had hurled it against a concrete wall before it was served to us, you’d have a damn fine looking burger.
The quality of the meat was good, not great, which was surprising considering Mendelsohn (by his own admission) spent a long time experimenting with the perfect blend of meats to grind for his burger, eventually settling on the blend of short rib and brisket that he serves here. The thickness of the patty, however, was very solid; they definitely don’t skimp on that aspect.
It was pretty hard to get past the smushed, generic, and sometimes slightly burnt buns, though. In all honesty, they didn’t look like anything different from what you’d find at your typical fast food restaurant. Very disappointing, especially considered the pathetic shape they arrived in, after being wrapped (and smashed) up.
Yet In totality, this was one of those burgers where no individual part of the burger really bowled you over by itself (although the quality, taste, and texture of the produce were outstanding), but when you combined the meat, the vegetables, and yes, even the bun together, the overall symphony you got was far greater than the sum of each individual part. None of these aspects overpowered another; on the contrary, they worked really well together to enhance the overall taste.
The biggest knock on this place, without question, has to be the service. And that’s really sad to say, considering Good Stuff Eatery is a family-owned operation, with Chef Spike running the place along with his mother, father, sister, aunt, and cousin.
Maybe not so much from the Mendelsohn clan, but from your common front-line employee, let’s just say that the service leaves quite a bit to be desired, and that’s putting it as politely as possible Almost every employ you deal with just has that look of “I don’t give a damn about how your burger turns out, after you give me your money” all over their face. The toasted marshmallow milkshake I ordered (make no mistake: they’re freaking awesome here) arrived a solid five minutes after my burger was tossed into the much-mentioned bag, likely cooking itself extra in it’s own heat past the wellness that I actually ordered.
When you take the wrapper off the burger, you get to bear witness to some of the laziest & hapharzard construction of ab burger that I’ve seen this side of your typical fast-food mega chain. The meat, produce, and buns look like they’re hanging off of different directions of the burger as a whole, almost as if they’re trying to get away from each other.
And remember how I ordered the “Good Stuff sauce” on the side, so I could get a taste of their basic cheeseburger? My (now somewhat overcooked) burger arrives absolutely slathered in said sauce, with nothing at all on the side — exactly as I hadn’t ordered.
To me, it’s a fine burger — and at $6.89, a very reasonable one too — but it just seems like it leaves a little more to be desired, from the name and the reputation of the owner. It’s one of those “I want to like this burger more than I actually did”-type places, where it’d be one of better contenders amongst the fast casual category of DC burgers, but probably couldn’t go toe-to-toe with the heavy hitters of burgers in this city.
