Coda: ML Rose Pub

Although Higgins and I have long since agreed Burger UP is  the best Nashville has for red-meat patties long ago, and it's still pretty much true, I thought I'd come back and update you with one or two we didn't get the chance to hit at the time, and also put some time in for the new kids on the block.

The Melrose Pub (or as it's now officially known, M.L. Rose Craft Beer & Burgers, for expansion outside of the Melrose neighborhood in Nashville's untrendy South side) was already known to have a wonderful burger for some time and, in fact, Higgins and I were headed there to confirm it the fateful day we instead wound up in 12 South, chowing down on Miranda Pontes' creation. This nod is way overdue.
 

Nearly mooing

 Juiciness: 7. The burger was incredibly moist (cooked rare-medium-rare), with very little meat juice — maybe a few drops. There was more grease, though not overwhelming.

Flavor: 6. Most of what I tasted was the surrounding enhancers; cheddar cheese, mustard, bacon, bun. They were all good, though.

Attractiveness: 10. Come on, look at those pics — and that's only a bright-normal phone. I also need to bring up texture on the ML Rose burger. Its tenderness reminds me of the kind of burger I'd get back home in the Adirondacks, in a town too small to have a Sysco Foods store. The menu claims their meat is local and I've got to give them props for apparently going a step beyond: if I had to guess, I'd say this is one of the few burgers you could get in Nashville where the meat wasn't smushed (go read what Alton Brown has to say about meat proteins and texture) and frozen. At least, it looks and feels like it.

Atmosphere: 10. ML Rose has the look and feel of a blue-collar tavern, but white-collar eaters look like they belong there just as well (unless they're coming in pre-tanked from a $300 a plate fundraiser in the more tony section of Franklin Road, but that's a whole 'nuther episode).

Digestivity: 9. Very little in the after-effects & after-taste department.

Overall experience: 8. The burger rocks, true, but $4.50-$5 for a pint of Yazoo? Really?