Summit Cafe with George Scheer

Summit Cafe (1050 Summit Ave, Greensboro, NC- A "real honest burger" on perfect Texas toast with a very friendly staff make this cute little cafe a good out of the way stop for an afternoon burger.


Elsewhere Director George Scheer- Unique, creative ideas that make our city cool sometimes seem hard to come by; George Scheer of Elsewhere has been making them happen for 12 years.

     It's Tuesday around noon, I am very excited to be meeting up with George Scheer of Elsewhere for a catch up session. I always love talking with George because the possibilities always seem endless. Ideas roll in like a storm and you can feel them electrifying the air around you and you just know lightning is about to strike.  Besides being my sometimes doppleganger, George is just a super cool guy and happens to run one of the coolest places in Greensboro. If you are one of those people who live in Greensboro, but have no idea what Elsewhere is or does, I feel saddened for you. It's THE most progressive, interesting, creative, original thing we have in Greensboro.  And that's not an understatement.

     The spot we pick is Summit Cafe, a little diner-esque place just past Bessemer on Summit Avenue. I have been noticing it lately mainly because of the bright orange paint job and my desire to find "new" places, though it's actually been there since 1989.  The staff greets us warmly and we decide to sit outside on the nice patio under a shady umbrella. It's right on Summit Ave, so the traffic is like right there, I thought it might be loud or disturbing, but surprisingly, it is quite comfy and I don't really notice the traffic at all.
      I like easy choices. They have 2 burgers: Handcrafted Classic Beef or Handcrafted Classic Turkey. I go with the beef. The menu says "with lettuce tomato and mayo", but the waitress just kept asking with a smile what else on it..... grilled onions, bacon, pickles..... I think I could have added just about anything, but stop at fresh onions and pickles. It comes with fries....so again, easy choice, I get the fries and think about how this Burger Blog is going to make me so fat. "It's worth it!", I quickly retort back.

    
     Elsewhere, which includes 2 Directors,  5 curators, 5 inters and 6 resident artists is currently in their 12th season (YES, they have been rocking out the art scene in GSO for 12 YEARS!!). They were recently awarded a $200,000 grant from the ArtPlace America  which is a collaboration of 14 national foundations including fancy ones like the Rockefeller, Ford, Kresge, and Mellon as well as the National Endowment for the Arts to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S. Elsewhere's vision for this grant includes a mix of fixed and permanent projects to create active spaces in the South Elm Area. George is excited about the possibilities and has been troncing around back alleys and under utilized lots for sometime dreaming of the possibilities. The realities of what manifests next year will, I am sure, be well worth checking out.  
   

     Summit Cafe burgers are served on the most perfect Texas toast I have had. Perfectly buttery and toasty and a welcomed change from the standard white bun.  The burgers themselves embody the moniker "handcrafted", you can definitely taste the homemade.  They are a little crumbly which I prefer over a molded premade patty, and the char of the griddle made for a great tasting burger that didn;t require much more to make it great.
     The pickles, onions, lettuce tomato, and mayo were all fresh and good. The waitress had warned us that the fryer was broken and so the fries were going to take some time. They turned out on the soggy greasy side, but I am guessing this is only due to the fryer trouble. Th burger made up for the shortcoming.
     George got the burger as well and his initial response for the record was, "A real honest burger."