M'Coul's Public House with Abbot Vantreese

M'Coul's Public House- 110 W McGee St, Downtown Greensboro (Hamburger Square)

One of the best Patio's in Greensboro, good burgers that are well balanced and not too over the top, great ambiance and great beers make this Downtown pub a must try......

Abbot Vantreese scoping the scene on M'Coul's patio

     After a drab winter that took me WAAAAAY toooo long to get over I was so glad to finally be really feeling the spring weather here in the 'boro. I was looking forward to a nice chill afternoon on one of Greensboro's best patios so after a morning of wrestling with Twitter to get my new blog banner to look centered in the banner box (I lost by the way...deal with it) and after planting new spring flowers on our back deck; we headed downtown to M'Coul's for an late afternoon dinner with the family. 
     For the very first Burger Blog Post I wanted the guest to be someone special and also, I'll admit, a softball interviewee, so I picked my 1 year old son Abbot Vantreese. The day was perfect for patio surfing in Greensboro, so with Laura Mvula's- Green Garden blasting away on the stereo and Abbot strapped into his car seat we cruised through the afternoon sunshine on a good feelin, happy to be sharing the beautiful day with our fellow Gate Citiers enjoying the North Carolina spring.

Bloody Mary-Good, but small.

    Now Abbot Vantreese seems from the picture like a pretty chill one year old, which he can be. However, my fellow parents know that a one year old isn't always the best dinner guest. So after arriving at M'Coul's and being seated on the lower patio (there is an upstairs one too!) at a sweet granite table with hand carved Celtic designs, Abbot decided that it was time to throw everything within reach onto the ground. This is one of his favorite games to play and a good place to start the interview.
Q: Why do you like to throw stuff on the floor?
Abbot: *High pitched, very loud squeal*
Q: Shhhhhhhh Can you keep it down please?
Abbot: *even higher pitched squeal*
Q: Okay okay, how about some Goldfish?
Abbot: *nom, nom, nom, nom*
     Time for a Bloody Mary. I love me a Bloody Mary and M'Coul's is decent, but a little on the small side for me, I like mine in a hi-ball glass. This one I wiped out in three swigs. Time to order. The service was good, friendly and efficient, but not especially energetic or engaging. Maybe it was just the lazy Sunday afternoon vibe.

Old Glory Burger

     M'Coul's has 7 Different Burgers on the menu, all 1/2 pound hand-pattied beef, running from the basic Dublin Burger (Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, mayo) to the more adventurous Limerick Burger (avacado, provalone, wasabi cucumber sauce and sprouts). They also have a veggie burger, an actual garden patty, also with avacado and sprouts...(damn I love sprouts). I settled on the Old Glory Burger (blue cheese, fried onions and sweet Thai chili sauce). Although the fries are good Lowery seasoned fries, I was very happy to have some other good side choices and got the Tabouli Salad (Coleslaw, Baked Beans, Celery and Carrot are a couple of the other choices)
     I usually order Medium Rare, but twice at M'Coul's I ordered it Medium Rare and it came very very rare, so I played it safe and went with medium. The Old Glory burger hit the spot. Highlights were the nicely toasted buttery kaiser Roll and the well proportioned construction. I was glad they didn't try to over compensate with sheer size or an absurd amount of toppings. There was a perfect amount of fried onions and the not-too-hot, not-too-sweet Thai chili sauce was drizzled on--not doused on or over powering which was a nice compliment to the overall flavor.

Excellent Edibility

     Edibility is a huge thing for me. I hate when a burger becomes a crazy mess two bites in. This one was very reasonable and easy to handle which allowed me to enjoy the subtleties of the taste instead of having to wrestle the burger into my mouth or use every bit of concentration to keep it off of my clothes, chin and beard. The toppings stayed on nicely and no sauce or grease dripped out. The Burger Patty itself was okay, it had very nice charring which added a good flavor, but the meat, while good was not anything extraordinary.
   The Blue Cheese was also interesting. I normally don't like blue cheese but this was melty and delicious and I actually didn't think it was Blue Cheese. It added great texture and flavor with out being too sharp or over powering. In fact, I'd say it was the thoughtful combination of all the burger elements which created an extremely well balanced burger and made for an very enjoyable experience. The tabouli Salad was also a nice tangy compliment to the meal and enhanced the flavors of the Burger. I highly recommend. Abbot also really liked the Tabouli salad.

Dark Hearted

      I don't know if I was just REALLY hungry, but I finished every last bit of food I had, the Bloody Mary and a Dark Hearted (Guinness and Bell's Two-Hearted (YUM!) and was satisfied, but not stuffed, which is a good thing.   At $8.95 for the Burgers I feel like it was fairly priced. We had enough room to walk a block down to The Creamery (the new Ice Cream Place Downtown) for dessert and finish the interview with Abbot.
Q: What is some of your favorite things to do?
Abbot: The acceptable things: *likes to shake his head back and forth, make Popeye mouth, and likes to dance*
The Dirty secrets *likes to eat cat food, play with cat litter and the dirty dishes*
Q: What's one more thing people don't know about you?
Abbot: *Is learning sign language, but only uses it on rare occasions, it's much easier to just scream and point*