Seventh Stop: The Blue Spoon, East End, Congress Street.

You know when you find something that was exactly what you were looking for all along, but you didn't even know it? I think that explains our experience at The Blue Spoon. We realized that there's a way to serve a gourmet burger that's not fancy or upscale, and Blue Spoon embodies that idea.

This place is small, and it made us nervous. We even managed to wipe out their entire selection of Spring Peeper Ale within our first two rounds of ordering drinks. However, despite the obvious fact that our 8 person party was dominating the very small 20(?) person capacity room, our waitress was cool and underwhelmed, and the food...oh the food.

The burger is $10 and that seems like a steal for how good this was. The ingredients taste and look like they have a full farm in the back that they use at their disposal. The patties are hand-formed, no standard disks here, and perfectly cooked, with a delicious char, but still incredibly juicy and actually dripping (in just the right way.) The toppings were simple, but perfect. Tomatoes that were thick and came in all colors, purple, yellow, red; lettuce and onion, with the option to add bacon and/or cheese. (These do cost extra.) And on the side, a potato salad that's served warm and filled with dill, and couldn't be a better completion for this "casual" meal. One of our Burger Beasts made note, "The chef is a burger Sensei."

In reading this over, I feel inadequate in explaining the quality of this meal, but let the simplicity of the description entice you rather than bore you--I'm now a believer that this is the way a burger is supposed to taste. If you still have doubts, read on to the scoring section.

So, although the intimate size of the place, and the dim nearly candlelit atmosphere was a little intimidating for our large crowd, the experience was ultimately comfortable. The energy there was casual, and we didn't find ourself at all out of place. And most importantly, if this is their execution of pub food, we were all in agreement that it is definitely worth exploring the rest of this little place's menu.

Scores out of 100

Taste: 95

Atmosphere: 93

Overall Experience: 98

Sixth Stop: Rosie's, Fore Street

I think for those of us living (as opposed to "summering") in the Portland area in 2010 it's damn near impossible not to once in a while get a bit annoyed with the rapid epicurism that has somehow begun to dominate this working class city. All of the sudden, I realize that I've officially seen "Truffle Ketchup" on more menus than not. Apparently, extra fancy no longer scratches our itch.

Now, overall, this is a good thing. We have pushed ourselves onto the culinary map throughout the country, stimulating articles from the New York Times, visits from the Food Network, Oprah mentions, all of which lend to the incredible tourism business that keeps our city alive and thriving. But sometimes, you just want a place where extra fancy ketchup is still the most upscale thing on the menu.

Enter Rosie's Restaurant.

The outside of the building, which is so far from flashy that I had driven by it everyday to work and never actually seen it, touts their logo, which is slightly reminiscent of a tattoo someone once got of an ex-girlfriend. The inside of the building is dark and homey, the kind of place you feel like you could slip into at 11 am and forget to leave, and that would be ok. The service is lovely, but not in a showy way. Our waitresses were sweet and familiar and brought us what we needed and left us alone when it was right to do so.

There's really very little to say about the burgers, but this may not be a bad thing either. The food was unmemorable for the most part, with some exceptions (one member had a great local veggie burger with loads of guacamole, and the onion rings were spot on). Everything was cooked right, tasted homemade, well executed but boring. If this is actually a possible phrase, it was all overwhelmingly unpretentious. If you've been to Ruski's in the West end, which we just might frequent more than any restaurant in Portland, and you like it, I have a feeling this will tickle your fancy as well. If they were related (and I'm making NO claims that they are affiliated in any way), Rosie's would be Ruski's (younger? older?) sister, who, despite her fancy urban location, has kept her simple family roots pure and true. It's unintimidating and an easy place to wind up at again.

Rosie's, thank you for being what you are. For weathering the culinary tornado that Fore Street and the surrounding areas have become and standing strong with your conviction that it's still ok to serve PBR pounders, onion rings, and burgers without truffle ketchup.

Scores out of 100

Taste: 67

Atmosphere: 77

Overall Experience: 73