I feel like I need to start a blog to have a place where I can fully document my complicated feelings about Burgerville.

I want to like it. I want to support local. I like a lot of their ideas. Shakes are great. Lots of non-burger options. So much local sourcing.

But...

I just sat in the Lloyd drive-thru line for 35 minutes and when he handed me the bag, the fries were cold.

Ice cold fries in my mouth as I drove away.

My last two Hawthorne trips were not as cold, but not hot, and... fishy? Like the fryer oil was super tainted.

They keep changing up a big reason to go—their shakes—and not in a good way.

They have turkey burgers. More places should. Ground turkey is a healthier, sometimes tastier beef substitute. But, theirs are painfully thin. Give me a thick, real patty.

Each location looks visually different, and not in a good, fun, unique, interesting way, but a “frozen in time with only some updates inconsistently grafted on way.”

Burgerville has never been amazing, but it has been fine and some things were really good. Over the past 10 years, though it feels they lost their way. They’ve eroded any trust.

Tonight they had a list of all these shakes and then a handwritten sign “only chocolate and vanilla.”

It’s tough because the other options are big multinationals. Every dollar goes somewhere else.

So what do you do? What should I do? I feel like every time I go Lucy lifts the football up at the last minute.

But I still go. I’m still Charlie Brown, every time.