the best kind of burger

I really enjoy having an Italian father. For one thing, he really appreciates food. He's owned a cafe and a bar and he knows pretty much every restaurant in port Jefferson and Stonybrook. Yeah, he lives in long island. So every week, he drives up to take me and my brother out. We have all these little eating places all around Connecticut. The Sycamore Diner is our favorite in Bethel. What I enjoy about Sycamore is that it is a fantastic place known for its 50's and 60's nostalgia. And its not fakes, which is great. You have old posters and clippings surrounding you and reminding you just how long this place has been around. And then there's the food. The thing about the sycamore diner is that you get the sense that is hasn't changed much since 1950. while other burger joints might have added a variety of sizes and a thick slab of meat, sycamore doesn't do that. Not that the hamburger meat is puny! No, its reasonable. And besides all those layers of lettuce, cheese, onion, tomato, ketchup, mustard, and pickles take up space too. And when its comes together. When you take a bite and all of these flavors burst onto your tongue. The sweetness of the ketchup. The freshness of the tomatoes. The sour of the pickles. The zing of the onion. The creaminess of the cheese that is melting off the burger. Its fantastic. All of burger places make the meal around the meat. The only problem is that a burger is more than the meat. Its the dressings. Its the sauces and the flavors that work alongside the hamburger to satisfy you. You just have a patty of meat that's just what it is. A patty of meat! But put on a toasted roll with some mushrooms, pickles, lettuce and cheese and suddenly you have an American classic. Its not just burgers. They have homemade root beer. Honest to god, home made rootbeer. You can taste the vanilla and its is so sweet and good. Its not over caffeinated and pumped full of bubbly fizzy chemicals. Its just a sweet soda. But, oddly enough, I am not crazy about the fries. They're kind of flavorless and thin, not entirely spectacular. I wouldn't be surprised if they were frozen. But, anyway, let's face it, the only place to get fries is Five Guys.