Burger Friday: Winnie's in Midtown

At Winnie's, the Louisiana-inflected sandwich shop in Midtown, I've found a new favorite burger that hits the sweet spot between inexpensive and eye-rollingly pricy. That's a vanishing category in this era of spiraling beef costs.

And get this: on Mondays only from 6 p.m. until they close, the estimable Winn-A-Burger goes on special for $7.50, which puts it in the inexpensive bracket. (You have to ask for the burger to be detached from the $15 combo special, which includes fries, a beer and a shot.)

"Sandwich shop" is the operative phrase at Winnie's. Attention to the conjunction of many ingenious, first-rate ingredients makes this burger more than the sum of its parts. It is a sandwich in spirit, rather than a pro-forma burger.

"This is delicious," I kept declaring to my friends as I made my way through the tall burger swaddled in its convenient paper wrapper. That is not a word I am prone to using, but I couldn't help myself.

Come along with me to Main Street at Winbern, just north of the Continental Club and Double Trouble, to check it out. You will struggle to find parking. You"ll discover it's worth it.

PRICE: $12 for the single Winn-A-Burger with cheese; (on Monday evenings only, it's $7.50). $12 for a Frozen Saturn cocktail makes a total of $24, pre tax and tip. (On a budget? Go for a soda, a beer or an iced tea.)

ORDERING: Order at the cash register at the end of the looooong bar, take your table tent number, grab your drinks, and find a seat inside or outdoors on the big patio. A server will bring your food. They make it easy to keep an open tab here—a big plus in a semi-serve operation.

ARCHITECTURE: Salad stuff on top. On a griddle-toasted, sesame seeded bun goes a swipe of the house mayo au poivre, followed by a layer of sliced dill pickles that are salty, not sour. Then comes a 6-ounce patty of 44 Farms ground beef cooked Oklahoma style, with a layer of very-thin-sliced onions caramelized under the meat. The patty is then flipped over, topped with a layer of melty American cheese, and dressed with a pile of pickled red onions, sliced tomatoes and shredded lettuce. The final touch: a lashing of Serrano mustard.

The burger is then half-wrapped in a white paper sleeve that makes it easy to attack despite its height and profusion of ingredients.

QUALITY: Every element shines, a tribute to the talents of chef-partner Graham Laborde (of the late, lamented Bernadine's), who devised the burger along with co-founder Benjy Mason and the now-departed chef Chris Roy.

The well-seasoned 44 Farms beef is good enough to drip some beef juices and speak with authority—amplified by its built-in layer of caramelized onion— even though mine was cooked to a medium well-done. (That's never my preference for a burger, but here it works).

The sesame-seed-paved bun holds up to its job of corralling the pile of ingredients without overstepping its role.

The fresh and pickled ingredients? Terrific, from red sliced tomatoes to wiggly romaine ribbons, from salty-crisp dill slices to skinny curls of red onions pickled to a gentle sweetness.

And those condiments! The mayo au poivre and Serrano mustard contribute just the right tone of heat, warming without being aggressive.

The whole package was so well thought out and executed (thank you, line cooks!) that I'd class it as one of Houston's best burgers.

OOZE RATING: Good drippage of meat juices.

LETTER GRADE: A plus.

VALUE: Very good. And on Mondays, great.

BONUS POINTS: There are serious craft cocktails on offer, as well as much less serious frozen cocktails—like the Frozen Saturn, a highly agreeable blend of gin, passionfruit, almond orgeat, falernum and lemon. Benjy Mason, of Johnny's Gold Brick, is the talent behind the drinks list.

If you need a first course, the boudin-stuffed egg rolls served Vietnamese style are surprisingly good. Even the fried pickles, a genre I shun, are very decent—with filmy, crisp crusts and a bite that's salty rather than sour.

MINUS POINTS: The frozen margarita, ordinarily a good burger match, is way too sweet.

PARKING: Try hard to secure one of the free spots on side streets to the east and west of Main. (Metro tracks make it tricky.) The nearby parking garages are costly enough to erase the Winn-A-Burger's value proposition.

LOCAL COLOR: Rose-pink on the outside, Winnie's inside is a cheerful hodgepodge of salvaged wood, industrial elements and vintage trimmings. The air conditioning is arctic; the music loud; the patio scruffier than the restaurant's "continental" boast would suggest.

Millennials gravitate here pre-and-post arts events at the nearby MATCH theater or music shows at the Continental Club; and there's a constant swirl of city life passing the patio fences. The unpretentious vibe is engagingly friendly and "come as you are."

That carries over to the entertaining Instagram posts written by Mason, which you should follow to learn about the frequent specials.

Postscript: At Christmas, Winnie's transforms into a Christmas phantasmagoria that is a must-see. Go ahead and put it on your calendar right now.