The Burger With Big Promises

Tonight my husband talked me into going out for a burger at Elevation Burger. He said he had heard they use all organic beef and are really into being healthy. Sounded good. We went in and there were signs all over promoting their 100% organic beef-- looking good. My hubby ordered for us-- one elevation burger, three kids burgers, a grilled cheese, and two orders of fries (which are fried in olive oil). Sounded good. Smelled good. And then our food was brought over. They serve their burgers in cute little paper bags on metal trays. The beef looked good. But, okay, here's where they go down hill. They serve their burgers on potato rolls. Not wheat rolls. Not even made with organic flour. This is the first red flag. This means that its probably filled with preservatives to give it a longer shelf life and pretty much just plain ol' bad to eat. Next, I looked at the lettuce and tomato and then take a closer look at the sign-- none of their produce is organic. Another bad sign. Now I look at my grilled cheese (which is actually a potato bun with a piece of cheese in there). A piece of yellow cheese was used. I don't care how long they claim to age this cheese, when you have to use dyed cheese that's just not cool! "Today, many supermarket cheddars are still colored to satisfy consumer’s expectations of what cheese should look like. (Research has shown that color preferences influence how people shop for cheddar.) But inconsistent cheese color isn’t much of a problem anymore, since large-scale confinement farms have come to dominate dairy production over the last 30 years. Cows kept in confinement and fed a carefully formulated mix of grains, protein supplements, and dried grasses tend to turn out milk with virtually no irregularities. Milk from confined cows also contains considerably less beta carotene than milk from pastured cows—hence the need for dye."- from the Article Food Explainer: Why Is Cheese Yellow When Milk Is White? By Nadia Arumugam http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/07/26/why_is_cheese_yellow_or_orange_when_milk_is_white_.html So there I am eating my potato roll with cheese (which on its own is a sorry excuse for a grilled cheese) and I begin to get pretty upset. Lets look at McDonalds-- we all know they're bad for you, but guess what? They don't make any claims to not be! Elevation burger has healthy beef and bacon. That's it! The rest that they put around and on the burger is all crap! So, people go in and they see the signs about the organic beef and think they are making healthy choices, but when you take something good and cover it in crap, you're eating both my friend! I went up (much to my husband's dismay) and asked an employee why they didn't serve wheat rolls and he said this load of baloney, "We don't want to overshadow the burger." To which I said, "Yeah, but putting something unhealthy with something healthy is kind of counterproductive." Its just wrong. Next I asked about the produce. He said that would make the burger to expensive. Hey buddy, at over 5 dollars for just the burger, it ain't cheap-- especially when the only quality ingredient is the meat. I also asked about the dyed cheese and he said he had no clue. Thats what I thought! It just gets my goose that companies are masquerading as healthy alternatives and to quote Elevation burgers own slogan "Ingredients Matter" and serve up things that aren't healthy. It wouldn't bother me as much except its really deceptive. If you can't make a commitment to completely serving only the best ingredients than you probably should not make the claim ingredients matter. Because obviously, only a few do. We didn't even try their milkshakes which claimed to be hand scooped. That sounds like fancy wording to cover up the fact that there are most likely a lot of additives and perhaps even dyes used. So would I go there again? Absolutely NOT! They give people who are trying to eat right a bad association! What do you think? Have you been there?