Kevin Jachimowicz
It’s not often you exit a burger place feeling like a different person, but GoldBurger, which is in the vicinity of CCSU, and can satisfy your hunger for around $10. If you’ve never had eaten at GoldBurger in Newington before – not to be confused with GoldBerg’s in West Hartford – you have plans to mark down.
The first time you step inside GoldBurger, you are greeted with funky, colorful paintings on the walls (this includes plays on various famous paintings, of course their versions including burgers in place of other objects), along with multiple bulletin boards covered in drawings from the younger customers, recommendations for crazy new burger ideas, polaroid pictures of their competition winners posing, along with numerous testimonials to all their different types of incredible burgers’, loaded with pretty much any topping an American mind can come up with.
With that said, the staff is very friendly, environment is comfortable, and service is as professional as it needs to be for the type of establishment they’re in (think Moo-Ya style environment, yet fine-dining quality meat). GoldBurger did initially take the BlueChip card as a form of payment, but did away with that ability about a year ago, which was irritating initially, but the quality of the food far trumps any little circumstances of that nature.
Something fun about the restaurant is that they often hold little competitions, as well as beer tasting nights, in which you can buy a ticket to reserve your spot, and they close the restaurant to the public for a private event. They also have numerous challenges you customers can attempt to conquer. For example, The Trinity Challenge was held in the October of 2010 at GoldBurger. The requirements to complete the challenge successfully were to down a 3×4 in just 45 minutes flat (4 patties, 3 slices of cheese 4 bacon strips), a Schogger (a beef patty, chicken patty, hot dog and sausage all on a bun), 1.5 pounds of fries and a large drink…they aren’t always appealing, but still makes for a fun time, for those who are crazy enough to try it.
My go to meal at GoldBurger is the Rivals Rodeo Double Cheeseburger, which is somewhat of a spin-off on Burger King’s Rodeo Burger, if you ask me. The Rivals Rodeo comes with two beef patties, spicy BBQ sauce, thick-cut onion rings (which I substitute with frizzled onion rings), american cheese, topped with bacon. I also enjoy their occasional specials which are typically creative new burger choices, or something of the like. For example, one special they had, which would replace my typical burger, if they would put it on the menu, came with blue cheese crumbles, béarnaise sauce, and a hint of spicy buffalo sauce.
GoldBurger is the place to stop on the way home from, or on the way to school for commuters, when you need a quick, guaranteed-to-be-great meal.
