The Burger King : The Counter
8439 Park Meadows Center Drive 
Lone Tree CO 303 790 9630

When the craving for a burger hits, we're willing to drive the 17.4 miles from our doorstep to The Counter in Lone Tree. Sure, there are closer spots, but each bite of all-natural ground beef, provolone, lettuce, tomato, fried onions, sautéed mushrooms, and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette reassures us that the mileage was worth it. Toss in crispy fried onion strings and a thick mocha milk shake, and there's no better way to spend gas money.

"You'd think burgers would have been done every which way, but we do it better," says Josh Blanchard, the Colorado-based operations partner for The Counter, a Los Angeles-based chain. A bold claim, but one that Blanchard and team deliver on.

For starters, The Counter uses freshly ground (never frozen), certified humanely raised Angus beef. Patties are hand-formed and cooked to order—not something you often find at a chain. You also get a choice of 56 toppings (herbed goat cheese spread, dried cranberries, fried egg) and bun options, including English muffins.

And those crispy fried onion strings: Most burger shops—and especially chains—fry up frozen, prepackaged rings. Not here. The kitchen cuts up whole onions, soaks them for 24 hours in buttermilk water, makes its own breading mix, breads the onions, and fries them to order every single day. Same deal with the milk shakes: Each one is hand-spun, with real ingredients. "We add fresh bananas, fresh peanut butter, fresh chocolate—everything is made to order. We don't use mixes," Blanchard says.

On the way home, we're already thinking about another visit. Perhaps for our next experience we won't have to drive quite so far—The Counter plans to add four new metro-area locations by 2011.

Don't Miss The Counter Burger, crispy fried onion strings
Hot Seat Grab a stool at the soda fountain-like bar for a view of the crew mixing milk shakes and delivering stacked burgers.
Fun Fact The restaurant offers more than 312,000 burger combinations.
Insiders Know Try swapping the hamburger bun for a toasted English muffin.