42452 Ford RoadHow about we do something different?
We spend all of our time indoors at ice rinks. My kids tried Little League and they’ve tried AYSO but figure skating is what stuck.
My nieces are huge softball players though. They’re both on travel teams and play pretty much year round around their school sport schedules.
My youngest niece was in Canton last weekend for the USSA Fastpitch Great Lakes National Championship. The team is from the Kankakee area in East-Central Illinois but came up to the Detroit area for a weekend of softball.
We had a free Saturday for once and I haven’t seen her play that much. I figured Canton was close enough so we went over for a steamy afternoon of softball at Heritage Park in Canton.
A lot like figure skating competitions, these weekend long softball tournaments are taxing on the kids. My niece was pretty spent after her second game of the day and she was pretty bummed with the outcome. My brother apologized that they wouldn’t join us for lunch but I get it….I deal with a lot of the same emotions when a skate doesn’t go all that great.
The game was over just before 2:00 and J suggested we find a place to eat before getting back on the highway. I found a restaurant that sounded really good to me and I took a chance that everyone would find something they would like as well.
Basement Burger Bar in Canton is on Ford Road at the intersection with Lilley Road in a shopping plaza with a very tight parking lot and is very hard to cross traffic to get in to. This location is one of the three for the small Metro Detroit chain of burger restaurants. The other two are in Farmington and Downtown Detroit.
So, the restaurant isn’t actually in a basement. Of the three locations, only the original location in Farmington is actually underground. This spot in Canton is a pretty typical suburban strip mall restaurant.
The space actually quite small. I was surprised at how tightly tables were packed in and how full they were at 2:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon. There is a sign to seat yourself and we spotted a four top along the half wall that separates the entrance from the hallway leading back to the bathrooms. It was probably a good thing my brother didn’t come with us because we wouldn’t have been able to seat all eight of us together.
It took quite a while for the server to come over with the build your own menus. The regular menu is already on the table but the idea of Basement Burger Bar is to build your own sandwich or salad. They give you laminated menus with a dry erase marker and you just check off what you want. You can order stuff off the menu as well but you don’t fill that out yourself, the server will write down like they would at a traditional restaurant.
We didn’t see a kids menu either online or when we sat down but once the server dropped off the laminated menus, she went and grabbed a paper menu for B. That was my biggest concern when I picked this place. I had no idea what he was going to eat. There was a big sigh of relief when she brought the kids menu over.
J and I actually started with drinks. I mean, we all got water because we were a little dehydrated from sitting outside all afternoon, but Basement Burger Bar has a pretty good tap list so we too advantage.
I passed on my usual Two Hearted Ale and picked the M-43 from Old Nation Brewing which is always one of my favorites. It had been a while since I’ve had it and it was super refreshing after coming in from the heat.
J’s pick was the Cherry Limeade from Transient Artisan Ales. I took a quick sip just because I had never had it before. As far as sours go, it was fine…but those type of beers aren’t my thing.
I was excited about this place, obviously, because I like burgers. This is totally my kind of place. I built my burger with the Wagyu Kobe Style beef on a brioche bun topped with sharp cheddar, an over hard egg, hickory smoked bacon, pickled jalapenos, and hot wing sauce. It was kind of a typical Breakfast burger but with some added heat. Everything about this burger was delicious. From the bakery brioche roll to the juicy, flavorful perfectly medium wagyu to the smoky bacon and crispy fried egg to the heat brought in by the jalapenos and the hot wing sauce. I always love a Breakfast Burger but getting to add on to it with a little bit of heat elevated this sandwich to someplace entirely new.
I picked the Battered Fries as my side. Sides are not included with the sandwich so I added a half order for $3.75. The fries were good but also pretty generic. There was a bottle of mustard on the table I almost reached for. I’ve mentioned in other blog posts that battered fries aren’t my favorite anyway but this was the only fry option. They were good…could have used a little more seasoning. I cleaned my plate though so I can’t complain too loudly.
J also did a build your own sandwich but she went with Pulled Pork instead. She also did the brioche roll and added pickles, sharp cheddar and BBQ sauce to the meat. J is pretty particular about pulled pork. She likes it went it’s kind of thin and covered in sauce. There was a lot of meat packed tightly into the sandwich. I had a feeling when it was set down that this wasn’t going to be her favorite. She tried though and ate about half of it. I boxed the rest up and took it home for lunch on Sunday. I see where she’s coming from. I liked it but I know what her preference is. There was a vinegar sauce on the meat in addition to the sweeter sauce that was added. She wasn’t a fan but I was happy to take it home for lunch.
L went a totally different direction and ordered a build your own salad. She picked romaine lettuce topped with carrots, cheddar cheese, bacon bits, sunflower seed and Italian dressing. She loved this and she loved that she could customize a salad the way she wanted. She typically is stuck ordering a side salad and taking things off it but she absolutely loved the idea of being able to get exactly what she wanted. She ate about 3/4 of this large plate and said she was done….then went back a few minutes later and finished it.
B ordered the Chicken Tenders off the Kids Menu. He got three flat tenders and he actually ate two whole ones which is way more than he usually eats. Like L, he said the tenders were really good and he really liked this choice for lunch. I picked up a piece of his leftovers and I could see why he liked them. They kind of have a McNugget quality to them and he loves himself some McDonalds nuggets. This is probably the first time we’ve walked out of a restaurant in quite a while where we didn’t have to argue with him about taking more than two tiny bites of his food.
B’s plate did come with a side and we ordered the Tots thinking maybe L would eat some of them. She usually loves Tots but she was stuffed from her salad. B doesn’t typically eat sides anyway. He doesn’t like fries or tots so we thought we’d get the tots for L. J had also ordered tots for her side so we had a lot of tots on the table and only one person (J) who would eat them. J ate most of her order but B’s didn’t really get touched. I’m not a tot guy. I tried a couple but I was also pretty stuffed from my meal.
Our bill for lunch, with two beers, was right under $70. For as much food as we got, I actually think that’s a pretty good price nowadays.
Basement Burger Bar was a win for 3 out of the 4 of us. That’s actually better than I thought we’d do when I picked this place for lunch. L absolutely loved creating her own salad and I felt the same way about the burgers. B ate more than he’s eaten at a restaurant in a long time. J’s pick was a miss with her but I think if we did this place again, she’d still have a few options outside of the sandwich realm.