Discover Walla Walla

Back in the day, there were three taverns that shared a certain Walla Walla crowd’s affections:  The Red Apple (located where the Coffee Connection currently operates), the Blue Mountain Tavern (now the Blue Mountain Tavern and Casino), and the Green Lantern.  The three handily color-coded venues were affectionately known as the Red, the Blue and the Green.

The Blue has undergone several transformations, the Red just might be the only restaurant no one in Walla Walla really mourned when it finally gave up the ghost many years ago, but the Green has consistently provided a congenial spot to meet friends and have a beer.

Over the last few years, however, the Green Lantern has stepped up the food offerings to include gourmet pizzas and fish tacos, and they starting using Thundering Hooves’ locally-grown, pasture-finished beef for their hamburgers.  The logical extension of all of this is happy news for some of us:  they are open for lunch.

Which brings us to this month’s Bürgermeister’s Blog destination, and a sampling of the Green Lantern cheeseburger.

We must confess that we’ve had a second re-calibration of our burger palette since our last blog, this time at Max & Erma’s, a midwest chain that originated in Columbus, Ohio.  It’s pretty difficult to beat a medium-rare Max & Erma’s burger unless you make it yourself at home.  But we digress.

Our cheeseburger at the Green appeared as shown in our photo, beautifully presented in a basket with skin-on french fries, lettuce, tomato slices and a dill spear on the side.  While it’s true that an enterprising burger-eater could, in theory, carefully slice up a pickle spear and thereby incorporate the pickle directly into the burger—bite for bite—we didn’t go there.  The pickle served as we presumed it was intended: as a palate cleanser.

Thundering Hooves beef is consistently flavorful, and this burger was no exception.  The bun was grilled, which earns extra points in our book, and the tomato slices were deep red and ripe for eating.  The lettuce added a satisfying crunch, and the whole experience was top-notch.  The fries were a definite plus, and contributed nicely to the whole classic American lunch experience.

For those of you looking for our napkin rating:  we’re not sure exactly why, but one napkin actually got us through the entire basket.  Usually that would warrant some points off, but we’re choosing instead to make a commitment to re-visit the venue to get more scientific data at a later date.  It’s possible that we were more sensible in the application of our mustard and ketchup and therefore there was less spillage; it’s also possible that the toasted bun was able to absorb and hold more liquid and therefore the frequent mop-ups were more few and far between.  We’ll just have to return and pay closer attention to the napkin factor.

The Green Lantern is located at 1606 East Isaacs, at the corner of Blue Street.