this was one of those burgers where everything sounded right, but the experience never lived up to the hype. don't get me wrong, it was a good meal, delicious in its way, and well paired with the delightful grenache. just felt like it was a burger on the edge of greatness, but one that collapsed under the weight of its own expectations rather than seizing the reins and running to glory. i have to take some of the blame for that, obsessed with getting the perfect toast on the bun, i overcooked the burger a touch. it wasn't killed, by any stretch, but it was more done than it should've been, and that's something i have to live with.
mushroom paste: frozen "medley" of cultivated 'shrooms, garlic, dried rosemary, pepper, salt, red wine. - absolutely delicious. think it could have been better with port instead of the grenache, but i mean, come on, you can't go buying a bottle of port every time you want a mushroom burger. on it's own, it was fantastic, on the burger, contributed to a saltiness issue that plagued the burger all meal-long.
fried onions: same issue with the saltiness.
bacon: you guessed it, a contributor.
chipolte: you're probably thinking "wait, was this burger too busy, was that the issue?". well, nope. tried a bite without the chipolte, definitely not the problem.
blue cheese: see chipolte.
marinade: red wine, a touch (just a touch, for eff's sake) of brown sugar, salt, pepper, rosemary, bay leaf, garlic, olive oil. yeah. not saying this was the whole problem, but it didn't help. there was just a lot of taste on top. the marinade wasn't needed, and in fact detracted from the burger's success. this was a live and learn; less is more situ.