De Vrije Burger is no gourmet burger

 12 June 2023

 

DE VRIJE BURGER

Drostdy Street, Stellenbosch

 

Ever think of Bertus Basson as a sweaty short order cook slinging hash (as the saying goes) at a hot griddle, with the faithful deep fryer by his side?

 

Yeah, me neither.

 

Yet here I am, at small table in a room where the heady perfume of old, triple fried fish oil permeates the air, waiting for my nosh in an establishment operating under the umbrella of the foremost gastropreneur of the Winelands.

 

The big guy isn’t in the kitchen today, though.

 

The wife and I’ve eaten well and happily at Eike and Spek & Bone and though I’m not exactly a burger person, it seemed to me that the Basson bucket list would not be completely ticked if  I didn’t try this one.

 

Drostdy Street is hardly a culinary hotbed in a CBD otherwise overflowing with eateries and De Vrije Burger is glorious in its isolation in this street. You don’t just happen to pass by;  you have to make the journey  and, spoiler alert, I don’t think it rewards the traveller.

 

the establishment occupies three downstairs rooms in an interesting old building, and there are also tables in the  garden at the back and along the one side, which looked like a pretty sad, desolate English beer garden today though the rainy weather might’ve influenced my unflattering perception. Even the interior is quite spartan with tables and counter seating that seem to be provided purely on the off chance that someone might want to sit down for their meal.  Warm, cosy and welcoming it ain’t.

 

I’m told that De Vrije Burger is intended to be just a take away joint but plenty people came in and sat down to eat anyway,  and I would’ve thought a psychologically warmer environment would do better.

 

De Vrije Burger offers three non-vegetarian burgers and one that is vegetarian, there’s no coffee but you can get alcohol.

 

I ordered the eponymous, presumably signature, burger and was asked whether I wanted the meat well done or “juicy.”  I prefer my beef as rare as it can be and I’m all about juicy.

 

What you get for R155 is the burger in a stylish container  of thin cardboard and a heap of fries, some condiments, a serviette and a cleansing wipe.

 

The fries were an odd, deep brown colour (the picture doesn't accurately reflect what I saw visually) and kind of crisp on the outside but also too stodgy for perfection. The look and taste perfectly matched the odour of old oil in the background.

 

The burger patty was  topped with  onion, salad, tomato and perhaps some relish,  and the burger presents as pleasingly substantial. It was okay for the first few mouthfuls, even if  it didn’t exactly make my palate dance like a dervish, but soon became a tad too much and too dry despite all the trappings. If that patty was what the chef considers juicy, the well-done version  must be a Doppelgänger for an ice hockey puck.

 

I was mildly disappointed, to say the least. I don’t often eat burgers at restaurants because I deplore what’s usually presented as a gourmet burger, and this experience, even from the Basson stable, has reinforced that view.

 

De Vrije Burger seems to be popular with the younger demographic, so it might be just my curmudgeonly prejudices.

 

The best part of the day, though, was that I found an outlet of Costa Coffee (a brand we frequent when we visit the UK)  in the Eikestad Mall and rushed over, still masticating the last mouthful of my burger, for a thoroughly lovely, generous latté and a pasteis de nata, for only R54.