This local eatery is a must see if you are in the Ann Arbor, MI area. A cross between a burger joint and Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” (NO SOUP FOR YOU!), Blimpyburger serves up great tasting burgers with a side of attitude. A large part of the fun is seeing your friends and associates in line being berrated for making mistakes, while you attempt to navigate through unscathed.
For the unintiated, you MUST follow the strict guidlines and steps for ordering your food here. Blimpyburger has thier own webpage where they detail exactly how you are to order your meal. (Just a tip… When the girl on the grill asks everyone ahead of you in line if anyone wants bacon, you’d better pipe right then if you want bacon on your burger. Due to the length of time for the bacon to get ready, you are just asking to get yelled at if you forget.)
Blimpyburger has even been profiled by Guy Fierri in his Food Network show “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” Check out the clip:
The food was fantastic. I had a triple burger with bacon, grilled onions, and chedder cheese. Add in some fries or some onion rings and that’s what I call one hell of a burger!
We did have one problem with Blimpyburgers that took away from the meal and the novelty of the experience. It is mandatory for everyone eating in to have a cafeteria style tray. We had so many people sitting at our table, that there just wasn’t room for the trays. In order to have enough wiggle room to put our food on the table, we cleared the trays away. About halfway through our meal, one of the employees comes out with a stack of trays (slams them down on the table next to us) and says with exasperation “We give you trays for a reason. If you’re not going to use them <mumble> <mumble> <unitelligible>.” And then he walked away. A little later, another employee came up and apologized saying, “We ask you to eat on trays to keep the grease off of the table.” Now, we had been enjoying ourselves, and the playful banter/attitude from employees while ordering was part of the fun. But this guy had just been a jerk. It was completely uncalled for and really left a sour taste in our mouths. Two of our party swore they would never eat there again (one of whom actually lives in nearby Chelsea.) It’s just a shame that a careless and rude employee managed to ruin what otherwise was a fun and memorable experience.
I would definately reccomend you check out Blimpyburger if you happen to find yourself in the Ann Arbor area. Just know that the employees will give you a little bit of ribbing. But that’s part of the fun.
Check out Blimpyburgers site here.
There are 2.147,483,648 possible Blimpyburger combinations. See the calculations here (are they in a college town or what?)
Oh my god, I don’t even eat beef and that looks amazing to me.
It’s a shame that the employee had to cop such an attitude. I would’ve done the same thing… I hate eating off of trays. But if they don’t want grease on the tables, it’s best to take matters into your own hands by either (a) offering smaller trays or (b) getting bigger tables! Yelling at the customers (in a non-joking way) is a bit counterproductive.