Burger joint of the week: Lulav, a Modern Eatery

The Cheesy Wheesy Burger at Lulav is pretty darn good. However, I don’t think I’ll be going back to eat there for lunch on a weekday. And I’ll tell you why -- on the jump.

It’s all a matter of timing. I have in the past been quite patient with waiting for my meal before at different locations; being my own boss meant I made the schedule and I could budget extra time to go eat lunch and shoot the food.

But now that I have a “real job” (as I have been told; this is not the time or place for that particular rant) I have a limited lunch hour, and I don’t have wiggle room. I make up for that by looking for locations within a quick drive from work, and by asking when I first enter a restaurant if I will receive my food within 15 minutes. Just about every place complies with that request -- and for the two which couldn’t guarantee that, I was cordially invited to come back when I had more time. Fair enough.

On this particular day I was able to get a whole 50 minutes budgeted for dining time, a bit longer than usual. I had heard about the menu change at Lulav and, knowing that the tiny bistro burgers I had talked about before were no longer available. I chose to venture there for lunch.

I entered and asked my question -- would my food be out at a certain time? I was assured that it shouldn’t be a problem. My dining companion showed a little apprehension, eyeballing the crowd that was coming in right after us.

We were shown to the side room and seated, with nary a soul there. I already knew what I would be eating; my companion had his choice in less than a minute. And we waited for about five minutes for a waiter, who took our drink orders and disappeared again.

I checked my watch. I now had 42 minutes for lunch. Well, no sweating yet.

Our waiter returned, took our orders and was gone again. The crowd in the other room was pretty loud. Another couple were seated in the same room with us.

I checked the time again. T minus 38 minutes now… T being the absolute latest I could leave to head back to work.

Our waiter came by and refreshed our drinks while my companion and I chatted. He assured us we’d be all right, that the orders were in and it’d be nothing at all before they got there. T minus 32 minutes.

The couple across from us were waited on. The crowd in the next room increased in volume again. T minus 28 minutes.

Now, I don’t expect a high-end restaurant like Lulav to offer an express lunch. But I had a feeling I was in trouble.

Our waiter came by to refill our beverages again. I pondered the location of the restroom, then nixed it and resolved to stop drinking quite so much tea. Knowing my luck, my lunch would arrive while I was utilizing the facilities. T minus 23 minutes. It had now been 15 minutes since I had ordered my burger.

A waitress came by and asked if we needed anything. I explained my growing distress. She told me she was sorry, but that the order AFTER ours, the order from the crowd that had come in after we had entered, might be holding our order up.

“But it’s in ahead of that crowd?” I asked.

“Yes, but there might be a hold-up.”

“Could you check?”

“Sure.”

I now had 15 minutes left before I absolutely had to leave, and had no food. I handed money to my dining companion, asking that if I had to leave before it got there to box it up and bring it to me later. He agreed and then complained loudly. I tried not to be embarrassed by that.

T minus 12 minutes -- and my dining companion’s food arrived. He stared at it for a minute. I think he was expecting a little bit more with his $9.95 Heirloom Mushroom Flatbread Pizza, described as “seasonal exotic mushrooms, caramelized onions and garlic, Fontina cheese, LULAV signature white sauce” on the menu. We debated the
"exoticness" of the mushrooms for a moment.

And then… with 10 minutes left, I received my Cheesy Wheesy Burger ($8.50) with its side of LULAV House Salad (other options are fresh fruit, Loaded Baked Potato Salad or roasted Kennebec potatoes). And it was a nice, tall burger.

You have the option of having condiments added to your burger when you order; I chose not to, and I am glad to say that was the right decision. The burger was quite good.

The half pound of ground sirloin was pleasantly lean but had formed a nice crust while being char-grilled and had reached somewhere between medium and medium rare inside. It was juicy and flavored lightly with salt and pepper. I was ambivalent to the field greens on it but just right with the tomato chunk.

And then there was the cheese, which is what make this burger so good. The blend of American, Swiss and Cheddar was perfectly balanced to give the entire burger the edge of saltiness it craved, a blend of pungent and creamy that clung to the patty and to every bite.

The whole shebang was book-ended by grilled sourdough bun halves. It took some pressing to get it short enough to place in the mouth without unhinging the jaw.

The Cheesy Wheesy is a good burger, but as I said, I won’t be ordering one for lunch during the week. I asked for a ticket and a box when we received our food. I was able to eat a third of the burger and about half the salad before I had to pardon myself and leave; my dining companion faithfully packaged the leftovers for later consumption and took care of the bill. I just made it back in time.

Lulav has some nice and delightful highpoints. But I think it’d be a lot more popular with the lunch crowd if it set up some sort of work plan for quicker diners. Alternatively, it could market itself as a relaxed lunch spot, particularly for those who aren’t constrained by the clock. But that’s just my suggestion.

You’ll find Lulav at 220 West Sixth Street, next door to EJ’s Eats and Drinks (which does another marvelous burger, handles crowds well and has a quick lunch turnaround). It’s open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and every day for dinner. Check out the restaurant’s website or call (501) 374-5100 for more information.

Opulent breakfast at Lulav.

• KAT ROBINSON
• QUIET BREAKFAST: You'd think it'd be busier

For a place that’s getting a lot of national recognition thanks to what’s going on with its chef, you’d think Lulav would be packed during business hours. Instead, I found it quite empty at 8:30 on a Monday morning. Just one other customer was seated when I came through the doors, looking to add yet another breakfast to my research.

I thought I was done with this. I had tackled Little Rock first while gathering breakfasts. But I saw the ads come up for Lulav’s breakfast last month. Please understand, I wasn’t holding anything against the restaurant (or the other restaurant nearby that’s also started serving breakfast recently); it’s just… well, you eat 70 restaurant breakfasts over a short amount of time and see how you feel.

I’d been urged to go, though, and I figured I should, especially since the boss said I should. So I did. And that’s how I came to be sitting among the opulent décor at Lulav on a Monday morning. I even knew I was going to go for that Mediterranean Eggs Benedict ($12) — I’d already looked at the menu before I got there and by goodness, that was what I was gonna eat.

But then the chef threw me a curveball.

• KAT ROBINSON

My waitress came out and let me know that the kitchen was out of lump crab meat. Now, I coulda gone with another choice, but she said the chef offered to make the same dish but with shrimp instead. I could go for that. So I did.

I sipped my orange juice (coffee, like eggs, has become tiresome for me with this assignment) and relaxed. This was going to be the one part of my day that I didn’t have to rush, so I was going to enjoy it. I watched people and cars pass by outside the windows, overexposed in the bright sunshine. Cool jazz and downtempo tunes urged me to sit back in the richly draped chair I’d perched on. I mentally noted design elements that, if I had the money, I’d duplicate myself at home.

• KAT ROBINSON

And I was so ready when my dish arrived. It smelled fantastic. It looked like a work of art. I thought the cheery pink of the Creole-ized Hollandaise sauce was perky against the white of the plate, the twin discs of English muffin, the super-white of the fluffy poached egg and the gold and brown tones of the hash browns. The pink shrimp perched on top, not quite obscured by the sauce, unconcerned for the fate that awaited them. Well, they are cooked shrimp, what do you expect?

After my customary round of photos, I hesitantly took a bite. The poached eggs were very, very fluffy in their whites, the yolks somehow perfect goldenrod ovoids barely under the surface. A slight press of my fork and one of the yolks burst, smearing the perfect egg-yellow paint across my plate and reminding me of the tempura colors monks used to illuminate manuscripts in Medieval times. The pliant yet still slightly chewy English muffin absorbed some of the yolk; I cut into one piece and used it to dab up some yolk and sauce and tried it.

And this dish… this dish reminded me of why it is I like eggs. I have had eggs so many ways these past few months — fried in butter, fried in lard, scrambled, over easy, over hard, over medium, in French toast, on muffins, boiled, poached, in umpteen omelets. I’ve grown so tired of eggs I’ve lamented that I will never eat another egg again. But something about how perfectly cooked these eggs were, combined with the firm muffin and a sauce that from its pinkness I knew the chef had rendered in an effort to make the best of the ingredients he had… it restored my faith in breakfast, in the delicious chicken-produced orbs I used to love. One bite, and I could eat eggs all over again.

I think my sigh of contentment disturbed the one other diner, who glanced up and folded away his newspaper before taking a drink of what I assumed was coffee.

• KAT ROBINSON

I took a forkful of the hash browns and found another friend. The hint of smoky cheese did not in the least obscure the perfectly cooked potato strings. The rosemary and coarse salt starred and danced in these hash browns, and I found myself thinking “how could anyone slather these in ketchup?” to myself. Salty and savory and so very different from the other star on the plate, I found myself trying to dissect the method so I could reconstruct them at home.

The shrimp? Tender and well cooked. Chef must be doing something really right, taking a dish that would normally be more pale white with Danish Hollandaise and lump crabmeat and improvising out something just as grand if not moreso. My only regret is that this variation is not on the regular menu. I’d so order it again.

Just one other customer entered while I was there, and the place was almost eerily still. In many ways, I felt like I’d been allowed to dine in a fancy restaurant on my own. Well, I was, I guess, even if it wasn’t anyone else’s design. Can’t imagine why there weren’t more diners — unless folks just don’t know Lulav does breakfast yet.

There’s a lot more on that menu I want to try. For instance, the Swiss Alpen ($7) with its rosemary cherry tomatoes, field mushrooms, zucchini and Gruyere… sounds magnificent. I’d really considered having that with the LULAV Signature Parfait ($5) instead — the idea of that honeyed granola, berries and walnuts and yogurt sounded delightful. It was really a toss of the coin there.

And there are other things to note on the menu — like the pork medallions in the cranberry reduction and the Italian Job with its proscuitto and three Italian cheeses (Asiago, Pecorino, and Parmigiano Reggiano). And raspberry pancakes — never had any of those, want to, though.

Anyway, Lulav is located at 220 West 6th Street in downtown Little Rock. Breakfast is served from 6:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. It’s worth checking out. (501) 374-5100 or at the restaurant'swebsite.