Don’t You Forget About Liberty Burger

I should tell you that while many folks pair wine with food, I’ve always paired music with food. I have a huge appetite for both food and music, and they come together for me naturally and, sometimes, improbably. Many of the articles I write here will include a pairing, and I hope you’ll understand and enjoy the thought behind each.

Music Pairing: Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds)

Other than the introduction of May’s Give Back Burger, the Ciao Down, there was nothing new to unveil at a recent media dinner I attended at the Lakewood location of Liberty Burger. And I’m so glad. Honestly, I forgot how good it is.

Ever been to a restaurant and you silently think you’d like to try three different things on the menu but, you really shouldn’t? Or maybe you’re like me and you talk it up to your husband to try to get him to order the other thing you want so you can have a bite.

Yeah, sometimes that doesn’t work, so visiting Liberty Burger last week was my opportunity to try several items on the menu that I’ve always wanted to try but haven’t. The tasting set-up of mini versions of their giant burgers and mini milkshakes was ideal to try things I’ve always wanted to taste, but not commit to.

If you don’t know, or maybe you forgot, Liberty Burger is Mariel Street’s burger chain with five Texas locations. She first opened a location in Inwood Forest shopping center in 2011 and has owned and managed the business ever since.

Mariel is the daughter of a successful restaurateur, but she’s proven herself to be able to stand on her own without further reference to him, so I’ll let you Google that on your own time.

The name Liberty Burger comes from the freedom guests have to make whatever kind of burger they darned well want. Guests can choose from eight “burger” types: beef, bison, chicken, lamb, turkey, ahi tuna, veggie, and the “Impossible burger;” seven kinds of cheese, 24 toppings, and 10 spreads.

I can’t do the math but that’s a lot of combination options.

If you’d rather rely on the menu, there are 11 named burgers and the monthly aforementioned Give Back Burger. This month’s GBB is the Ciao Down Burger, which is a beef burger topped with mozzarella cheese, seared prosciutto, blistered tomatoes, arugula, and basil pesto served on a Brioche bun.

Ha un sapore come la Toscana, which means it tasted like Tuscany, fresh with good depth of flavor.

The Ahi Tuna Burger was surprisingly good. I never order anything like this, so I was happy to try it. The tuna was cooked with a little pink in the middle, dripping with a wasabi aioli that I wanted to drink, it was creamy with a little kick.

The Jackie O Burger features a lamb* patty, baby spinach, tomatoes, feta, and Tzatziki sauce. *I don’t like lamb, or so I thought, but this doesn’t taste lamby or too “out there” for a burger. I loved it and would absolutely order it but only if I’m wearing oversized black sunglasses as Jackie did.

On the food menu, I only tried the burgers and fries; sweet potato and unsweet potato. Both taste great and were well-textured, not soft, not crispy.

There are salad options for non-burger eaters and a kid’s menu with the usual – grilled cheese, chicken tenders, and little burgers and chicken sandwiches.

There’s a great selection of milkshakes for kids of all ages, the grown-up kids having the option of the Big Lebowski, a white Russian flavored shake, the Orange Julius with citrus vodka and the Nutty Monk, among them. I’ve tossed back a few drinks with a guy who called himself a nutty monk, but I’ll save that story for another time. The adult shake flavors are complemented by, rather than overwhelmed by, the alcohol in them.

The non-alcoholic shakes also come in fun flavors such as Oreo, Heath Bar and Sea Salt & Caramel. The one thing I do not recommend is spilling an entire Nutella and Graham Cracker shake in your Tory Burch purse, which I did, which is why you *might” see a Tory Burch purse that smells like dessert on your Park Cities Resale Shop Facebook feed.

Besides being my birthday month, May is apparently also National Burger Month so if you celebrate things like that, and you should, remember Liberty Burger.

The food quality is very good and there are so many traditional and innovative burgers to enjoy. And, if you order the Give Back Burger, you’re doing something good for others – $1 from each burger sold is donated to a selected charity for the month. The proceeds of May’s GBB benefit Walk MS for JJ’s Journey, a charity walk that raises money to help find a cure for MS. Liberty Burger has supported the local mother-daughter duo with the disease for several years.

Liberty Burger
Givemelibertyburger.com
Allen, Addison, Richardson, Forest & Inwood, and Lakewood
IG: Libertyburger

Kersten Rettig is a Park Cities-based writer with more than 30 years’ experience in food and beverage marketing and PR. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and has a food Instagram called KickshawPapers.