Burp! Mobile

After reading an article in Food & Wine magazine this weekend, our brains were working some overtime coming up with yet another hair-brained plan for our imaginary restaurant concept.
Our latest imagination creation is the Burp! Mobile!

That's right, folks! Imagine Burp! taking it to the streets and cooking up breakfast treats and satisfying lunches. The best part is, we're doing it all in the comfort of our airstream trailer and we're hauling it right to a neighborhood near you!

Here are some menu ideas:
Breakfast
served in the morning (as it was intended) 8 - 10ish

• Burp! Scramble - Scrambled eggs with onion and black beans, served atop a warm flour tortilla with fire roasted salsa
• Yo! - European style vanilla yogurt topped with Burp! homemade granola and seasonal fruit
• Banana-Rama - Banana pancake, thick-cut brown sugar bacon, fried egg
• The Big Burp! - Two fried eggs served with braised Wisconsin pork belly and smashed garlic taters
• The Dilly-Dally - Soft scrambled eggs served up hot on a slice of pumpernickel toast spread with dilled chevre

Lunch
served 11ish - 2
SAMMIES
(all sammies come with hand cut fries or fresh greens)

• The Press - maple brined turkey breast, creamy brie, bacon, and thinly sliced pears, grilled to perfection
• The Bird - ground turkey burger topped with greens, black pepper boirson and thinly sliced cucumber
• The Burp! - grass fed ground sirloin, bacon, arugula, and creamy blue cheese
• The Q - your choice of pork or tempeh on a homemade bun, slathered in Burp's own BBQ sauce and topped with tempting chipotle coleslaw

EXTRAS

• Burp!fries - White cheddar cheese curds, gravy, and fresh herbs all dripping over hot hand cut fries

PASTA & SALADS

• Can't Beet It - Arugula salad with roasted beets and tangy goat cheese tossed with walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette
• The Noodle - buttered long noodle with truffle oil
• Peef's Potato Salad - Roasted potato salad with green beans, fresh spring greens, and tossed in a roasted garlic balsamic vinaigrette

Burp! The place is fake, but the food isn't.

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Life at Burp

So, inspiring dinners have been pretty rare at our house lately. We've been tangled up in automobile dealings (see our latest scrape and subsequent fix on the News from Peef and Lo blog) and haven't really spent much time cooking.

However, we have been doing a bit of thinking about what BURP! might look like... if it actually existed.

In a conversation over sandwiches and salad the other evening, we decided that a "salad and sandwich night" would probably be a summer fixture at BURP! Even in the winter months, we could pilot a more warming "soup and sammie" night.

To give credit where credit is due, we've been fond of the "soup and sandwich" concept for quite a while. It all started with a sandwich book we ran across, written by Nancy Silverton. She talks about a successful sandwich night in that book... and it always seemed to really fit into the BURP! branding concept.

The BURP! concept has evolved pretty steadily over the years. It has gone from dirty, hippie coffee joint... to semi-upscale trendy spot... to down-home oasis... to its current incarnation -- something that embraces aspects of ALL of the above. Whenever we're cooking, we're considering whether or not the food we're making fits into the BURP! concept. Some days it does; some days it doesn't. What we share here are versions of our favorites that we think might do justice to the BURP! menu.

So, what IS BURP! these days?
Well -- BURP! is that spot where everyone loves to go to dinner. It's the place you go to feel comfortable when dining alone; but, it's also a spot where you can hang with a group of good friends. BURP! will never be the spot to "see and be seen"... because we're not really about appearances here. We just want everyone to feel at home.

So, come hungry. We're waiting on you. ;)

The Story of Burp! The Imaginary Restaurant

So, how does the notion of an imaginary restaurant get started?
Well... the idea has been percolating for a long, long, time.

For as long as we can recall, Peef has wanted his own coffee shop. Throughout high school, he collected ashtrays and coffee cups as preparation for his grande plan — a wild, bohemian place filled with black coffee and beautiful women. A place of beat poets and jam sessions. A dirty little corner affair that stayed open late in the evening and catered to an artsy fartsy college crowd. But alas, the days of the coffee house grew tired. And the Seattle coffee craze became a trend of the past. And Paul gave up his cappuccino dreams ...

BUT THEN, in the spring of 2003, a restaurant went up for sale in Peef and Lo's neighborhood. Peef's eyes lit up in dayglow, and he began to chatter endlessly about the possibilities. They would quit their jobs. And start a restaurant. It would be fabulous.

As he put it to Lo — “It would be SO cool. We could have a restaurant SLASH coffee and jazz bar. During the week we would just serve appetizers and drinks and coffee. And we’d feature little live quartets and ensembles for entertainment. And on weekends, we would have a full-blown gourmet menu.”

He even started analyzing our daily meals — to see which of the entrees might be WORTHY to appear on the regular menu. The turkey-apple meatloaf that Lo discovered one night made it onto the menu. As did the fried calimari with aioli from New Year’s Eve. Lo’s “Mexican” tiramisu (served in oversized coffee cups) also made a big impression.

THEN came the discussion of NAMING the place. Peef and Lo went through any number of names before deciding on something very simple… “How about BURP! ?” The name evoked a sense of dietary satisfaction. It was a bit rough — but definitely not too derogatory. And it definitely didn’t make the place sound stuffy.

We could establish BURP! as a place for GOOD food, GOOD times, and free thinking. It was an excellent plan. And best of all — we could use the visage of a BABY for our namesake. It would be cute. Hip. And very cute.

So -- to make a long story short, the idea of BURP! really came up as kind of a joke — a random musing on a dull night. But somehow, the dream has stuck. And it won’t go away. So, I guess we’re somewhat obligated to cultivate it.

The way we have it figured, staying home and thinking about menu items will keep us from any number of other self-deprecating activities. It’s kind of like our anti-drug, so to speak. So, I think there could be a real future in this pastime.

I mean, come on — an imaginary restaurant. There are weirder things…. Right?

Ultimately, we're just two hopeless food geeks who harbor a genuine love for delicious (sustainable) edibles. We're not fancy, or fussy. But, we do love to create new and wonderful things in the kitchen. We keep the dream of BURP! alive through daily experimentation, and we share our successes (and failures) with you.

Email us at peefandlo(at)sbcglobal(dot)net


©BURP! Where Food Happens