Cheeseburger, fries and shake

It's classic for a reason

December 2024

At Good Stuff Eatery there’s a sign on the wall: “100% AMERICAN. DON’T LET THE FRENCH FRIES FOOL YOU.”

Next to this message, there’s a photo of a burger on a roadhouse tray. The tray is clipped to the chrome-edged window of some red and white classic car – maybe a Mustang.

Another sign says “NOT FAR FROM THE FARM” and next to that message is an image of the healthiest lettuces you’ve ever seen, growing under the sun in neat rows, with a group of farmers in blue jeans standing near a red tractor.

The music they play at Good Stuff Eatery is toe-tapping American pop-rock. (When was the last time you heard Heaven by Bryan Adams? What about Crumblin’ Down by John Cougar Mellancamp?)

If you didn’t know you were in America – or even, possibly, on the set of the movie Footloose – this small chain, fast casual restaurant is here to tell you what your boots walked into.

Good Stuff Eatery is an American restaurant serving American food.

What’s more American than apple pie?

Um, cheeseburgers.

Good Stuff Eatery chef Spike Mendelsohn agrees with me about the cheeseburgers.

Barack Obama agrees with me about the cheeseburgers too. When the former president visited Good Stuff Eatery he ordered what I do: yes sir, the cheeseburger.

He must really love cheeseburgers – Obama resisted the temptation of ordering the Pres Burger, named for him, and Michelle’s melt, named for his wife.

Eating a cheeseburger and fries at Good Stuff Eatery is like having yoghurt and honey in Greece, pasta in Italy or croissants in Paris.

You’re at the source. This is the dish, cooked where it was invented, with the original, local ingredients.

America is where cheeseburgers became famous. The cheeseburger at Good Stuff Eatery explains why they’re famous.

Hoo boy, the patty here … the beef is farm-raised; the burger itself a blend of ground short rib and brisket. It’s thick, juicy, grilled to medium, and it doesn’t fall apart.

It’s tasty. Some burgers – even pricey ones – are thick and juicy, but they’re watery, or fatty – or both.

What you get here is umami. The burger patty doesn’t taste like bolognaise sauce, but it has that depth of flavour – intensely savoury with a hint of sweetness.

It’s heavily meaty and rough-textured. This is not a patty formed by a spiral of meat paste.

The lettuce, tomato and red onion are locally and organically grown. The lettuce is like those lettuces on the sign – bright green and springy, not pale and limp. The tomato tastes like tomato, not water.

The Good Stuff Sauce is sparingly applied, thank goodness.

I like to think of the Good Stuff Sauce as being a kind of marinade that’s painted on the patties as they’re cooked on the grill.

I don’t like synethic-tasting sauces and the thought of some cold, sweet “BBQ” or “monkey gland” sauce being squirted into my burger makes me feel not-nice.

Speaking of synethic food, the Good Stuff Eatery calls its cheese “dairy fresh American”.

Well, it’s certainly not cheddar from Cheddar.

It is yellow, though, and melty. Tasty, too. It gives the Good Stuff Eatery burger an extra layer of umami. This is not gourmet umami, it’s junk food umami, a single remove from Melrose triangle flavour.

If you don’t like notes of road house in your burger, get the regular hamburger. But if you like a bit of something that tastes like Archie Andrews’ Chock’lit Shoppe – or like the diners in Tarantino movies – get the cheese.

The bun is controversial. Reviewers call it a brioche bun but the menu calls it a “freshly baked Pennsylvania Dutch bun”.

Whatever you call it, it doesn’t hold a strong shape. It’s so soft it gets squished in the bag.

No-one wants a burger that’s all bread but neither do you want bits falling out of your bun – and a soggy bottom is a deal-breaker.

Chef Spike might want to firm up this part of his operation.

Hardy, har.

Are you eating healthy at the moment? If you are, I’m not sure what you’re doing at Good Stuff Eatery. But okay, get the salad instead of the fries. I have never opted for salad so I can’t speak to that option, but comment on the fries I can.

Peel on!

These “handcut French fries” are unpeeled.

They’re good, too. The taste of the peel reminds us that we’re eating farm potatoes. The fries are crispy but not hollow. No-one’s using dirty oil here, or overfrying the chips.

On the tables at Good Stuff Eatery there’s Heinz malt vinegar, French sea salt and Sriracha sauce.

If you’d prefer mango mayonnaise, or Chipotle mayonnaise, or perhaps horseradish mayonnaise, they’re available in dispensers downstairs.

For those who can’t do without, ketchup and sweet mustard are also downstairs.

It doesn’t take much to work out there’s a real chef behind Good Stuff Eatery.

Spike Monaghan isn’t just a chef, as it turns out. He’s a celebrity chef. Americans know him from the TV shows Top Chef and Iron Chef.

He worked long and hard on Good Stuff’s burger patty. I’m glad he did.

Good Stuff Eatery fits into a category people here call “fast casual”.

You place your order and pay at the till. The food is presented like a take-away and all utensils and crocks are disposable.

This approach makes it possible to charge less for the food. My cheeseburger, fries and shake order is around the $20 mark.

That’s a good price considering the quality.

There are several theories as to what makes the perfect meal. Some say it’s a combination of salty, sour, sweet and umami.

Chef Spike’s cheeseburger and fries has that.

Others say you want something crispy, something creamy and something toothsome.

Chef Spike’s burger and chips has that (especially if you have it with a shake).

American ice cream is brilliant. It just is. American beef is famous too.

Dairy and meat can’t be good without good grazing and good grazing needs good soil. Lettuces and tomatoes like that.

Cheeseburger, fries and shake might not be the world’s most elegant dish. It’s darn tasty though, and Chef Spike does it proud.