Bobby's Burger Palace- BBPs

While watching "The Next Foodnetwork star" last night, Bobby Flay announced that he was opening a new Bobby's Burger Palace at Mohegan Sun this weekend. My husband (its been 3 weeks and I'm still not used to calling him that!) almost knocked each other out trying to get to the computer to look up the deets. Sure enough, BBP was open for business. So we hit the road this morning and suffered through horrible holiday weekend traffic to see if these burgers live up to Flay's reputation.
We were bummed to see that while they had the winning Mulberry Burger from the show on the menu, it was sans the garlic bread bun that had us so excited to try it. Nonetheless, there were ample burger options, so much that I wavered between the Sante Fe and the LA during the entire 15 minute line to place our order. Hubby went for the Miami-swiss, ham, pickles, mustard and mayo,while I decided on the LA- watercress, avocado, tomato and cheddar. We rounded out the order with sweet potato fries, beer battered onion rings and 2 black and white shakes. (I just want to caveat this by pointing out we had come directly from the gym).
Service was quick and efficient and remained so the whole time we were there. The shakes came out first and while seemingly small, they were made with real ice cream and were so thick and creamy that they outlasted our burgers and fries. Burgers were perfectly cooked- really juicy. Both were great, but we agreed that the avocado in the LA Burger put mine over the top. We both chose to "crunchify" our burgers, a Flay trademarked term for adding potato chips on top. It was a smart choice- the flavor of the chips wasn't really there, but the crunchy texture and the salt really added a great contrast to the creaminess of the avocado for me, and the smoothness of the swiss for Hubby.
Onion rings were good, but made great with the addition of the BBPs Chipotle Ketchup. It has a great smokiness to it and a fair amount of heat. I would think it would be great to have in the house for those days when you just can't decide between plain ketchup or BBQ sauce. Sweet potato fries were a huge portion size and were cut perfectly- crispy, yet thick enough that the mouth feel and sweetness of the potato wasn't lost.
We enjoyed the wavy, bar style seating and the neutral color palette as a nice reprise from the casino's overstimulating decor. While not everyone will like the idea of eating next to strangers, I thought it was a modern take on the soda counters of the 1950s and I enjoyed the respectful nod to the burger's beginnings.
RATING- 5 out of 5 stars. The question isn't will we eat there again, the question is what will we order when we do.