By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com
Twitter.com/foodude

George Formaro as a Living Dead at Zombie Burger + Drink Lab, 300 East Grand Ave., 244 9292. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to midnight, daily

Robert Anderson, Director of the Iowa Culinary Institute for 37 years, explained why George Formaro was his student most likely to succeed. "I knew George was going to be a great chef because he was in love with cooking and completely obsessed with food, all the time."

Formaro's obsession with the breads of Sicily inspired him to build a brick oven bakery in his backyard on South Union Street. The breads he made there inspired him to start South Union Deli. The deli and bakery inspired Harry Bookey to enlist Formaro's vision for a restaurant that would make the Temple for the Performing Arts a success. Formaro's obsession with coal fired brick oven pizzerias of New York City turned that vision into Centro. For the opening of Gateway Market Café, Formaro spent a year having Japanese noodle and ramen stock recipes translated into English. He spent another year perfecting vegetarian versions of his favorite Iowa State Fair foods. At Django, he held try outs for a dozen recipes before he settled on one for the boudin blanc in the Django dog.

At both Gateway and Django, Formaro's burgers attracted national attention. Gourmet featured Gateway's among America's best, and USA Today named Django's just that. For Gateway's burger grind, Formaro settled on a brisket-chuck mixture, the latter for flavor and the former for texture and searing properties. I thought that "George's Grind" was the perfect burger mix. Formaro thought he could do better and came up with "perfect burger" — which differed in its methods of grinding and forming patties.

Formaro's obsessions extend to horror movies, which help keep him awake when he's working all night on his food obsessions. That explains the inspiration of his latest project, Zombie Burger + Drink Lab. It's equal parts George Romero and George Formaro. The zombie theme generated more pre-opening publicity than any Iowa restaurant since Centro. One might think that the burger research had already been done, but no. Food obsessions are as restless as the undead.

"After testing many blends not related to the Gateway Market blend, we had to formulate a blend that worked with the salt we had developed and the griddle we had purchased. I was surprised to see such a swing in the results. It would have been much less of a headache if Gateway and Zombie were the same," Formaro explained.

The new blend, which added a secret cow body part, produced a perfect sear with juicy innards on each of four occasions I tried it. Zombie offered 21 specialty burgers ($3.49 - $7.49), 20 of which included some kind of cheese. Special South Union buns had hearty flavor and soft texture. Hot dogs were deep fried, ripping their casings "New Jersey" style. Thin, thrice-cooked fries reminded me of In & Out's (high praise), but were served crisp one day and soggy the next. Onion rings, mac and cheese, chili, fried Brussels sprouts, fried pork belly, fried curds, salads and fried green beans were all better than one expects in a diner.

Service was flawed in the early going. (Formaro was rushed to a hospital on opening week after slashing his thumb but returned to work the next shift.) I waited more than 20 minutes just to order one night and more than 30 minutes to get served — on the "fast service" side of the restaurant. Trying to order a simple hamburger with tomato and lettuce turned into a "Five Easy Pieces" experience. Fortunately, the bar's beer menu was good reading, with alcohol contents, origins and serving sizes spelled out for 73 different offerings.

Bottom line — With more than 130 patio seats and three different service areas, it's hard to tell what this Zombie will become when it recovers from its opening weeks. The burgers can't get any better. Can they?

Side Dishes

Tandoor closed after six years on Eighth Street in West Des Moines. Three days later, Jimmie John's arose two doors north of Tandoor's spot. CV