Last month, while attending a TLO group outing at an Energy FC match, our delightful, behind-the-scenes wonder Beth mentioned her long-term veganism and how Tucker’s, the whimsical onion burger locality, had recently introduced their “found in nature”-based Impossible Burger to the masses.
Almost as if on cue, editor Patrick told me to go forth and check it out.
Returning to Tucker’s was a mostly bittersweet affair for me; while I have always appreciated their hipster-styled onion burgers, I’ve always felt out-of-place in there, especially when dealing with their service: from my order being forgotten and left to freeze on their countertop, to the counter-help and their intense cleaning of the tables as I was still eating, after a while, it became a bit too much for me and my dining dollars.
However, I must note that these experiences had always occurred at the Tucker’s at 324 N.W. 23rd, so, that being said, I decided that to try the aforementioned Impossible Burger that I would go to the Tucker’s in Nichols Hills at 5740 N. Classen Blvd. #3; an upscale burger joint surrounded by all the “better-than-you” class that the Hills have to offer—surely my personal time with an Impossible Burger would be recognized and valued, right?
The afternoon I went, it had truly been a miserable day; the rain wouldn’t stop beating on my green mac. Luckily, the interior beyond the great glass doors were warm and mostly inviting, the smiling faces of the Hillians on their lunch breaks, the smell of Tucker’s unmistakable onions on the grill. And as much as I wanted a single onion burger with cheese, I dutifully ordered the burger that I was asked to, the Impossible Burger ($9.75).
Having been forgotten about in the past, I’m now trained like a fast food-loving dog to wait at the window, watching every bag that comes up, making sure to grab my order before they even call my name. Order in hand, I found a chair and unfolded this prescient foodstuff out on the table; made from wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein and heme—whatever that is—it very much looked like a classic Tucker’s burger and, even more incredibly, smelled like the real thing as well.
You know, even the taste is very reminiscent of their typical beef patties—I’m willing to bet that I personally could not tell the difference if you laid both patties in front of me. With the proper amounts of onions, lettuce, pickles and mustard—and a heaping helping of their unnaturally green jalapenos—it made for a practically delicious burger, with the only real difference being the salt content, but I suppose I’m the only one who can taste that these days.
About halfway through, I felt as though I had a great lunch at Tucker’s; I had taken all the precautions necessary and came out on top…until an employee came over and mindlessly cleaned the tables right next to us, splashing table-cleaner over some of my food. Letting loose the sigh of a man who should’ve knew better, I just gave up; my dining partner, on the other hand, went up to complain, a majority of the spray misting on his arm and burger.
Packing up my few uneaten remnants, ready for the trashcan on the way out, I thought about how much I truly did like the Impossible Burger—and really all of Tucker’s eats—but, not mincing words, absolutely cannot stand dealing with their inner-workings. Maybe I would’ve had better luck at the Norman establishment, you think?
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Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.
Tucker’s makes a good burger. They are a little proud of them in my opinion.
bunnys on meridian
They’re good all right. Especially if you don’t mind smelling like fried onions the rest of the day.
S&B has the Impossible Burger, too. And a much more friendly establishment.
Heme is the blood-like substance that gives the pink hue to the burger, beef or veggie. Turns out plants make that substance, too. It tastes like blood, basically.
I’ve been to Tucker’s on 23rd, May Ave, Classen Curve and even the airport many, many times and have never had cleaning solution sprayed on me. Weird…
I do enjoy their single with cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato and jalapenos, along with an order of fries and 1/2 lemonade 1/2 sweet tea with a squeeze of lime.
Burger rotation”
Tuckers, S&B(Fire) and Patty Wagon(Big John)
Me too! I actually have struggled to find a clean table before.
I appreciate their effort to clean, but there’s too much to eat in Oklahoma City for me to take a gamble on this type of irresponsible bussing, or the lackadaisical effort with to-go orders. I can’t say I’ll try them without a response (as to correcting this) from someone with Tucker’s.
We are told all the time to not eat heavily processed foods, for a long list of reasons. The Impossible Burger is the ultimate in “processed food”, those nice-sounding vegetables having been chemically treated, broken down and reconstituted to create something that tastes, feels, chews, and tricks us into thinking it is something we refuse to eat in the first place. That last thing along just baffles me. If you won’t eat something, why do you want to eat something that is an exact recreation of that thing you refuse to eat? But I digress. That “heme” Louis talks about is a chemically extracted compound from plants. You don’t just mash or grind a plant to get it, you have to treat that plant with chemicals that do not occur in nature (not “natural”) in order to get that compound and then combine is with the other chemically processed ingredients. Nope, just give me a nice patty of meat, thank you, others can keep on with their processed thing and suffer the consequences. I will suffer mine gladly.
Then again, perhaps the conscientious employee, for whatever reason, thought a little table cleaner table would go a long way in your general vicinity. Just a thought. No telling what goes through the mind of a “clean freak”!
If you want clean tables try Braums 🙂