A Burger A Week – The Rosemary
The Rosemary District gets a chance to show off their burger game
🌟🌟 We’re doing some Sarasota burger giveaways! Yes, that translates to Burger Prizes! We’ll be serving these up over on our Facebook Sarasota Burger Page. JOIN THAT HERE. We’ll also be giving those of you who aren’t members of that group some opportunities down the burger road. Good Luck!
There used to be a time in Sarasota’s not-so-distant past when the part of downtown north of Fruitville Road wasn’t a hotbed of restaurant activity. There were a lot of seemingly false starts along the way.
I have absolutely zero background in urban planning, so I don’t really know how these things are supposed to go. But I’m guessing from my novice perspective that it’s an “if you build it, he will come” situation. Over the past 20 years, a lot of restaurants have been “built.” And now, finally, folks are coming to The Rosemary District on a consistent basis.
The Broadway Bar was a fixture for a long stretch (an Indian restaurant, Turmeric Indian Bar and Grill, is opening there soon). Station 400 has been there for 10+ years (before that, it was Sierra Station Café). The restaurant across that little alley of a street called Lemon Lane has been a variety of things, including Darwin’s on 4th and The Mad Crow.
Now it seems that this once less trafficked area is finally coming into its own. And it seems to be happening at this very moment!
The Rosemary opened their doors back in the fall of 2015. There was a lot of buzz surrounding this place from pretty early on. Was The Rosemary going to be the culinary anchor that this neighborhood had been looking for? The answer, in a lot of ways, was yes!
They have only one burger on the menu at The Rosemary. It’s appropriately labeled, The Rosemary Burger. Points for simplicity awarded! Unfortunately, this is where our burger-tasting lunch took a slight detour. On our tasting day, The Rosemary Burger was a no-show. In its place, The Cowboy Burger. It seems the menu was very recently changed (their website hasn’t even caught up yet).
So, The Cowboy Burger it shall be. Let’s talk about our burger experience at The Rosemary…
RESTAURANT: THE ROSEMARY (411 N. Orange Ave. (941) 955-7600)
DATE OF VISIT: SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
STOP #: 9 OF 52
BURGER TASTED: THE COWBOY BURGER
📒 OUR TASTING NOTES
🍔 This burger is served as listed on the menu: 8oz. Grass-fed Ground Beef Patty, BBQ sauce, onion ring, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and choice of cheddar or American cheese. ($15)
OK, we have a few burgers under our belt now. And I figured we would run into a hiccup (or two) along the road…
The kitchen hasn’t quite got all the details of the new The Cowboy Burger ironed out yet. Mine was served without either cheese or red onion, and it came WITH pickles! (They’re not even listed as a topping) OK, I LOVE pickle slices on a burger, so this was a happy oops. Of course, as it always does, cheese would have made everything better. 😆
This burger was cooked perfectly medium. It’s one of the few that have come out of the kitchen right on the money, temp-wise.
It looks like this is a hand-formed patty. Extra credit for that. Burgers made this way seem to be a little less dense than the pre-formed product. Great for eating.
The onion rings were super thin and super crispy. They were also loaded with oniony goodness. This is an outstanding flavor (and texture) element to have on this burger. Solid choice here.
The fries – They were fantastic. If you’re a fan of seasoned fries, then these will bring a smile to your face. They were cooked perfectly too.
Be honest. When you see the name “Cowboy” on a menu (burger or not), you expect BBQ sauce to be somewhere in the mix. The two seem to go together. Unfortunately, a lot of times, those sometimes ultra-sweet BBQ sauces can overpower everything else on the burger. That’s not the case here. I also appreciated that it’s served on the side. This means you can add just the right amount for your own personal taste.
The outdoor dining space at The Rosemary is the way to go for me. Its semi-urban setting is perfect for that casual lunch or breakfast.
Overall, it was a pretty good burger experience. I’m hoping the folks that write the menu let the kitchen staff know how this burger is supposed to be constructed. I can only imagine how great it would be with American, cheddar, OR BOTH!! 🧀
📝 When my server asked how I was enjoying my burger, I told him about the issues with the toppings. He could not have been nicer or more apologetic. The restaurant ended up taking the charge for the burger off my bill, which I insisted to them was not necessary. So, on the customer service end, The Rosemary gets 5 ⭐.
Let’s check out how all of this looked when I ordered it…
BURGER TAKEAWAYS: Great outdoor dining space • Open-faced burger means you can add (or subtract) what you’d like • Fantastic fries • Attentive service • A solid burger experience
👀 SNEAK PEEK: Next up is a REAL moving target. A traditional restaurant experience, of course, is nice. But we’re going to be getting our next burger from “the window”…
We want to hear about your Sarasota burger experience. So much so, in fact, that we’ve started up a special Facebook Group just for this A Burger A Week series. So, feel free to share your Sarasota burger experiences, photos, and anything else burger related you’d like others to know about.
JOIN SARASOTA’S BEST BURGERS FACEBOOK GROUP HERE!
✅ Did you miss a week? No worries. Here’s a link to our A BURGER A WEEK SERIES ARCHIVE!🍔
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