Virginia Beach restaurant offers $30 burger

VIRGINIA BEACH

The apocalypse is here.

It hit Rudee Inlet in the form of a hamburger that's spiking cholesterol levels and sparking a heated debate: Is Hampton Roads ready for a $30 burger?

The cause of the commotion is the "Apocalypse Now" - a hand-shaped patty of Asian beef topped with foie gras, pork belly and sour cherry jam served with a clutch of duck fat fries.

"You have got to be a total moron if anyone talks you into paying $30 for a burger," said Narciso Salas of Virginia Beach.

"Worth every penny," countered Joe Takach of Virginia Beach, a repeat customer. "Foie gras, truffles require an investment. This was a worthwhile one."

And on and on it goes.

At $28.95, the Apocalypse Now is the costliest burger at Todd Jurich's 21st Century Burger Bar, which opened earlier this summer at the Oceanfront.

The same money could buy five of Burger King's most princely offerings, the Triple Whopper with Cheese, which goes for just under six bucks. Or more than two dozen burgers from McDonalds' Dollar Menu.

Burger Bar owner Jurich cringes at the comparisons.

"We try to explain to people that we are baking our own bread in a $10,000 oven," said Jurich, who also owns Todd Jurich's Bistro in downtown Norfolk, one of the area's toniest restaurants. "We age the beef. We have a meat grinder in the walk-in. ...

"You are having a burger that's not a Chevy; it's a Lexus."

Pricey burgers have survived for years on metropolitan menus in places such as New York, where patrons woof $70 hot dogs and sushi rolls. Whether diners can stomach high prices here is "a tough call," said Larry Filer, director of Old Dominion University's master's of business administration program.

Although Hampton Roads is often thought of as a military, blue collar kind of place, the region has a per capita income of about $40,000, close to New York City's $52,000 figure, Filer said. But there's more at play.

"When you look at our income distribution as opposed to New York City, they have a large number of people who are at the very, very high end, people with four to five times the income of wealthy people in Hampton Roads," Filer said. "We don't really have that here."

And those very, very high earners, Filer guessed, would be key in sustaining any high-end venture once the initial intrigue passes.

Gina Rodgers, who lives in Chesapeake and bartends in Virginia Beach, considers herself "absolutely a foodie" but doubts she'll experience the Apocalypse.

"The $30 burger will be an adventure," she predicted. "The person will eat it, raise a fist in the air and say that they experienced an expensive burger. But... you go back to your daily routine or, in this case, back to your regular burger joint."

Jurich's burger bar menu features eight gourmet burgers topped with epicurean delights including artisanal cheeses, arugula and truffles. Most range in price from $9.95 to $12.95.

The $11.95 "Allan Benton" Bacon Burger - topped with Grand Cru Swiss, balsamic onions and Tennessee bacon - is the best-seller, making up a quarter of his burger business. The $11.95 "Parisenne" - topped with Grand Cru gruyere, frisee, lardons, truffle mayo and a sunny-side-up egg - accounts for another 8 percent.

Meanwhile, 100 Apocalypse Now burgers have left the kitchen, which amounts to 2 percent of the restaurant's burger sales.

The figures don't signal the end of the world for Jurich. The way he looks at it, about half of his burger business is for sandwiches that cost $13 or more.

His answer to the question at hand: "Maybe they are ready."

Jurich hears the quips that the burgers are overpriced, that fast-food joints serve burgers that are just fine for a fraction of the price, that he's lost his mind if he thinks he can make it.

The talk reminds Jurich of the 1987 opening of Crawdad's Cafe in Virginia Beach, which introduced many locals to Cajun food.

"Do anything on the frontier," he said, "and you take the knocks for it."

Check out Lorraine's blog at HamptonRoads.com/blogs/lorraine-eaton.

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 477-5652, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com