Brioche ‘n’ Gravy

I was at a volunteer event at Zealandia in the morning, so instead of coming straight home I decided to stop off in town for another burger. My selected venue was Pickle & Pie, Wellington’s premier purveyor of pies, and indeed, pickles. We’ve been there occasionally in the past. Unfortunately, I hadn't booked, so I turned up on the chance that they would be able to accommodate me. The place was pretty full, but the maître d' told me that they’d have something available within 10 minutes, so I waited. And, as usual, this was expectation management by them, as it was actually only a couple of minutes before I was seated.

The Brioche ‘n’ Gravy Is described on the Burger Wellington website like this: Double smash patties with gravy-dipped brioche, ballpark mustard aioli, cheese and pickles in a Dough Bakery brioche bun, with crinkle cut fries. It looks like this:

 

The Garage Project beer match was – surprise! – The Devil’s Lettuce, and – double surprise! – that’s what I ordered.

OK, this is a proper burger, no messing. The patties were definitely smashed, as evidenced by the irregular shape. The bun was a double-decker style, with the middle bit between the two patties soaked in gravy. This, along with the aioli and lettuce, made it a slippery customer indeed, and an initial investigation into its pick-up-ability revealed that this was going to be a knife and fork job. The crinkle-cut fries were crispy, but were clearly catering-pack style. But that’s a minor cavil, as the rest of the burger delivered in spades: nothing fancy, none of those unwanted additions that some places have included (which actually detract from the burger experience), just good, honest, burgeration. I scored it 9/10. Home-made fries, or an accompaniment with just a little more effort, would have lifted it to perfection.