We had a nice weekend. On Saturday the three of us had lunch at the newish Smashburger in Orem for lunch and then stopped by the Provo Library’s Children’s Book Festival. This was our second time at Smashburger and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite burger places.
They have a great menu. The first time I ate there I had a Baja burger (pepper jack, jalapeños, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle mayo) which was really good. I’m not sure how they do it, but the patty was the most flavorful and juicy I’ve had in a long time. The toppings went well together and the whole thing was awesome.
But I’m trying to eat better now so this time around I grabbed the Baja salad which has basically the same flavor profile. It was tasty enough that I didn’t feel deprived for not getting a burger.
Eh, it wasn’t the healthiest salad ever (with all the bacon and cheddar and whatnot) but it was really tasty!
Somewhere underneath all those haystack onions is the rest of N’s Beehive Burger (Honey BBQ sauce, bacon, and cheddar cheese). I stole a bite and it was good but a little heavy on the fried toppings for my taste.
While the restaurant is more stylish than the average burger joint, it’s pretty kid-friendly. When I asked the cashier how much a kid-size drink would be for E she just gave us one on the house which I thought was nice. And since they fry in olive oil and not peanut oil like some other burger places E is free to enjoy the fries.
After we ate we headed down to the Provo library which is located in a gorgeous historical building. I had heard that they were having a children’s book festival and thought E might have fun. It turned out to be super crowded and the lines for balloon animals and the free books were too long for E’s patience. But he enjoyed seeing characters like Curious George and a Wild Thing in costume and giving them high-fives. The other highlight for E was when he found a bunch of stickers stuck to the floor and spent five minutes prying them up and carefully placing them on his shirt. You know, simple pleasures.
Our friend (and one of N’s old college roommates) Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy author and was there signing books but the line of fans was so long we didn’t get a chance to say hi. It feels kind of weird intruding on him when he’s in author-schmoozing-with-fans-mode anyway. But if you like fantasy you should check out his books. And if you have any precocious book-loving kids in your life they’d probably like his Alcatraz series.
Wow, those burgers look amazing. I am such a sucker for burgers with delicious toppings – like jalepenos and friend stuff! Yum.
I'm way impressed E would high five all the characters in costume! Eve was terrified of that kind of stuff when she was his age. Fun weekend!