The Samford Crimson

Issue date: 3/3/10 Section: Features

Think about your favorite burger joint. Think about what they offer: A very boring round or quite unfortunate square patty that you think is beef, smashed in between two buns that look and taste like bread but you're not really sure it is bread. Then you have your mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, onions, lettuce or tomatoes very rudely slopped on that would-be bun. It may cost as low as 99 cents, but it is lacking in quality.

Enter Flip Burger Boutique. Nothing in the restaurant costs less than a dollar, but what is served is unlike any other burger around Birmingham. Apparently, the owner added the "boutique" to the end of the name to make sure prospective customers know something amazing awaits them.

Passing the boutique from your car on the street, this restaurant looks like any other up-scale burger restaurant, but once you enter the front doors, the all-white, art-deco interior looks more like a chic night club than a burger place.

"We brought the unconventional and edginess of the cuisine to the design using reflecting ceiling elements, bold colors and finishes and playful graphics," Flip designer Dave Heimbuch from the architecture and design firm ai3, inc., in Atlanta said. "The result is a design that's invigoratingly modern, yet like the menu; it doesn't take itself too seriously."

Creative director, co-owner and chef for Flip, Richard Blais, plays "a significant role in the development of the menu and the operations of the menu," according to flipburgerboutique.com, the official website of the franchise.

Blais knows what he's doing, too. He's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, is a recipient of Gayot Guide's "Top Five Rising Chefs of 2005," and you might recognize him from "Top Chef: Chicago" on Bravo TV.

Choosing from all the burger offerings will prove time-consuming, and anyone's indecisive gene will kick-in. On the left side of the menu are the 100% grass-fed, almost half-pound beef burgers that will delight your taste buds. Burgers range from the Bacon & Cheese burger, which is more traditional for those not wanting to branch out too much, and features onions, lettuce, tomatoes, house-made pickles, Benton's bacon, American cheese, ketchup and FLIP sauce, to the Philly burger, featuring caramelized onions, green peppers, ketchup and American cheese foam.

The right side of the burger menu features more inventive items. For the vegetarians, the Faux-lafel burger begins with a fried chick pea patty which is then topped with arugula, cucumber, red onion, pickled beets, red pepper and a feta cheese spread. Another option is the Po Boyger which takes a shrimp patty that is topped with old bay mayo, shaved lettuce, tomato, fried lemon and Tabasco.

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