CHEEBURGER CHEEBURGER, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

So yeah, the other day for lunch about six of us piled into Ian's Cherokee and travelled a little farther than we normally would for a workday lunch outing (about 20 minutes away), but it was definitely worth it. Our destination was Cheeburger Cheeburger -- a mythical chain of have-it-your-way giant burger restuarants wildly popular in parts well south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Their menu taunted us with burgers in five different sizes. From "The Classic" (5.5 ounces...I'm guessing it's some sort of appetizer or something) to "The Serious" (half pounder) to "Our Famous Pounder." On this day I had a lot of work to catch up on in the afternoon, so I went with "The Delirious" (three-quarters of a pound) with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, horseradish and pickles. The build-it-yourself selection of toppings are what separates CheeChee (just made that up...not sure if anyone actually calls them that) from other burger joints. Eight different cheeses and 24 different goodies. Can't argue with that.

The other cool thing is that their burgers don't START as half a pound of beef and get cooked down to whatever. No, they start their half pounder with 10 ounces of uncooked beef. Likewise with the pounder. It starts as 20 ounces of beef to ensure that you get all 16 beautiful ounces on that bun.

They've also got a wall of fame. Eat the pounder and you get your photo on it. Only six days after they opened, there were already north of 20 photos on the wall, including one "repeat offender." There's a also a wall of fame for kids under 12 who eat the half pounder. Yeah, I thought it was a little weird too, but who am I to preach about corporate America's role in preventing childhood obesity?

Overall, the burger was good. Not great (I've had three or four better burgers in the Harrisburg area alone), but not bad for a chain restaurant. A little costly too. After my $8.29 burger and splitting some $6 fries and special sauces (99 cents each) six ways AND getting a half-sized milk shake (over 70 different flavors), my total with a $2 tip was over $15. Definitely not something I would consider doing for lunch more than once a month, but we're already planning a trip back there to polish off some TWO pounders, so we'll see.