The best burgers on the Corner can be found at its newest restaurant and bar, Boylan Heights — and from grilled pineapple to thick slices of bacon, they offer everything you need to personalize your order.
Boylan Heights shatters the Corner competition as the best establishment for watching sports. With five flat-screen televisions in the dining area, there’s not a bad seat in the house to catch a game. My date and I were skeptical about dining there on a pro-football Sunday night, but when we arrived, there were five or six open tables.
Boylan Heights does not have a typical sports bar atmosphere, however. Sure, there were men whooping about the games on TV, but overall, the restaurant has a preppier feel than standard sports bars. My date and I had little interest in the games, which was not a problem because the atmosphere was not athletically all-consuming. But Saturdays, when college football dominates the television waves, Boylan Heights is packed — and stays that way until the game is over.
The bar has extra seating upstairs in the form of high-top tables and couches, but guests must order both food and beverages from the bar. Because my date and I found a table downstairs, we had our own server. It took a few minutes for her to come and greet us, but once she arrived at our table, she poured us glasses of water and explained how the restaurant worked.
One of my favorite aspects of Boylan Heights is its clever menu, which features appetizers, salads, burgers, sides and a few Boylan Heights specialties. There is an overall school theme to the restaurant, and its menu reflects this premise as well. Instead of traditional menu headings, such as appetizers, salads and entrees, the menu calls appetizers “Registration,” salads “the Lawn,” sides “Assistants,” specialties “Special Collections,” smaller fare “K Through 12” and desserts “Extra Credit.”
Although Boylan Heights’ main draw is its burgers, it offers other dishes that look appetizing as well. For appetizers, it offers typical sports bar fare like barbecue nachos, chili and chicken fingers, as well as twists on old favorites, like cheese sticks made of panko-crusted Camembert served with a fruit salsa for dipping. Appetizers range from $4.65 to $8.95.
All of Boylan Heights’ salads are served on a wedge of iceberg lettuce, a growing trend in the restaurant industry. Each salad comes with different toppings and is available for between $5.95 and $6.35.
If you’re not too hungry, try something off the “K Through 12” menu, featuring entrees from a peanut butter and banana sandwich to the “Teacher’s Pet” — a grilled cheese sandwich — to “The Hot Dog Ate My Homework” — a hot dog loaded with typical toppings plus cucumber, sport pepper and celery salt. These smaller dishes range from $3.95 to $6.50.
For those with a bigger appetite, Boylan Heights offers non-traditional burger combinations in its “Special Collections” section. The “Green Eggs and Ham” sandwich is a turkey burger with Virginia ham, fried egg, smoked provolone and pesto sauce served on an English muffin.
For vegetarians, try the “Meeting Cancelled:” a veggie burger with cucumbers, roasted red peppers, olive tapenade, sprouts, feta and tzatziki sauce served on a 12-grain roll. All of the “Special Collections” burgers are $6.99.
If you’re looking for a more typical burger, Boylan Heights presents guests with a scantron sheet — following the school theme — to build your own burger. The create-your-own burgers are $7.50, and you can add fries and a drink for an additional $4.
First, select a meat: either beef, turkey or veggie. Then choose a roll: house, multi-grain, English muffin or the burger in a bowl without a bun.
There are nine cheese choices, everything from yellow American to cream cheese. Sauces range from the typical mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup to pesto, chipotle ranch and Russian dressing.
Next, you can select up to three toppings from a list including curried green tomatoes, grilled pineapple and dried cranberries. The usual tomatoes, pickles and lettuce are also available.
Finally, Boylan Heights also offers premium toppings for an additional 75 cents, such as bacon, avocado, fried egg and two different types of salsa.
Both my date and I opted for the burgers. I went the embarrassingly traditional route: a beef burger on a house roll with yellow American, ketchup, mustard, tomatoes and onions. My date wasn’t much more adventurous, choosing a beef burger on a house roll with cheddar cheese, ketchup, mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles and bacon.
With so many choices, I thought it was a little odd that there was not a space to choose how you wanted your burger cooked. I inquired about this to our server, and she said they usually cook their burgers medium well as a rule. I prefer my burgers cooked that temperature, but if you want yours cooked a different way, be sure to tell the server.
My date and I were in eager anticipation of a delicious dinner. Once the burgers arrived, they were fantastic, with a generous portion of meat that was thick, juicy and hard to fit in your mouth all at once. The toppings seemed as though they were cut and cooked to order — the tomatoes on my burger were sliced thickly and tasted as if they had just been cut from a fresh tomato, and the onions tasted like they had just come off the grill. My date was just as pleased with her burger and said the bacon was well worth the extra 75 cents — it was so thickly sliced that she could really taste it.
The only downside to the meal was the fries. Although the burgers and toppings were clearly cooked to order, it was painfully obvious the fries were not. They were cool and squishy yet still a little too firm. For a restaurant that prides itself on burgers, I feel fries are too important of a side item to neglect as they did.
The burgers were so big that my date and I only picked at the fries, anyway. We were also too full for dessert, but Boylan Heights’ “Extra Credit” features a s’mores dessert ($4.65), a fruit crisp ($5.50) and hand-spun chocolate or vanilla shakes ($4).
Overall, Boylan Heights is a great place to grab a burger during a big game, if you can find a seat. Just pass on the fries.
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