Flip Burger

Location: Birmingham, Alabama

Last week I traveled down south to Birmingham, Alabama--a terrific foody city, but not necessarily known for vegetarian-friendly cuisine. Fortunately, most restaurants have added a few tasty veggie options to their menu and Richard Blais’ Flip Burger was no exception.

Ambiance: Fun. Funky. Fresh. Flip Burger gives off a futuristic 50s diner vibe. Large white booths with silver orbs hanging above line one side of the restaurant and a giant long table runs down the center. The ceiling is sky high and painted with random graffiti-esque art (is that a cannon firing into a cassette tape?) True to Blais’ Top Chef signature, an enormous liquid nitrogen tank stands behind the bar next to the milkshake station where waitresses spoon the smoking substance onto waiting shakes.

Variety: Not great at first glance, but any of the burgers are available with the “Fauxlaffel” tempura fried chickpea patty instead of the burger. I had the Southern Fried Chicken burger with chickpeas instead of chicken--delicious! The enormous sandwich came dripping in green tomato ketchup, pimento cheese, and curry pickles. As a side I ordered the vodka battered onion rings and stole some of my husband’s tempura battered sweet potato fries with chocolate salt. Yum! We also split a pistachio and white truffle milkshake with frozen whipped cream on top which was served to us still smoking from the liquid nitrogen.

Quality: Everything we ordered was great--and fun! Top Chef fans will not be disappointed in the creative menu and superb execution.

Bottom line: Flip Burger is great for a fun, casual meal. I was a bit put off by a few of the menu items (is it really necessary to have a foie gras milkshake on the menu?), but was glad that I could order almost anything on the menu vegetarian.