Review Preview: "Better" Burgers

Jennifer Silverberg

A burger at Dave & Tony's Premium Burger Joint

​This week, I look at four of the so-called "better burger" joints to have opened in St. Louis over the past several months: Christy's Hamburgers (14560 Manchester Road, Winchester; 636-527-4737), Dave & Tony's Premium Burger Joint (12766 Olive Boulevard, Creve Coeur; 314-439-5100), Jim Hanifan's It's a Better Burger (4881 Mexico Road, St. Peters; 636-922-7706) and Smashburger (1981 Zumbehl Road, St. Charles; 636-724-6777). A sneak peek is after the jump.

If you still doubt the impact of the so-called "better burger" boom, look no further than the recent marketing campaigns of the very fast-food goliaths that this new generation of burger joints wants to better. Burger King bowed its "California Whopper" with artsy, vaguely pornographic close-ups of ingredients being washed and prepared, while Wendy's introduced "Dave's Hot 'n Juicy," a burger whose every last component has been calibrated to be "better" via the sort of scientific precision that we used to associate with manned space missions.

Is there a Five Guys Burger and Fries in your neighborhood yet? No? Wait five minutes. According to an August report from Technomic, the ten fastest-growing "limited-service" (to employ the industry's artless term) burger chains increased their total number of locations by nearly 50 percent from 2009 to 2010.

Visit the RFT restaurant page late this afternoon or check back here tomorrow morning to see what I think.