Le Grande Orange Offers Unique Take on Cheeseburger Week

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[Editor’s Note: Community Editor Eddie Rivera is eating his way across Pasadena this week as Pasadena celebrates its second-favorite holiday season—Cheeseburger Week.]

The veggie burger at Le Grande Orange tastes a bit like a spicy bean burrito. And that’s a good thing.

As Pasadena charges headlong into its annual Cheeseburger Week, we’ve decided to include a healthy helping of veggie burgers in our coverage

this year. Quintuple bypass heart surgery last spring might have helped our decision along a little bit.

But here’s the thing: We love cheeseburgers, and a healthy person can probably get away with eating them often.

Le Grande Orange is already one of our favorite places in Pasadena to dine, knowing its history and its way around a burger.

First came their Texas Burger, topped with unmelted Tillamook cheese (“Sharper that way,” said Manager Matt, who guided us through the holiday menu.)

I handed the two thick slices of bacon to my aptly named dining partner Chuck, who also made short work of the tomatoes I rejected. I sliced the burger and had a bite.

This was a serious burger, the kind that I had missed since my surgery. My half disappeared as fast as my willpower.

Next up on the crowded table was Le Grande’s veggie burger, not a “Beyond,” or “Impossible” burger, but the restaurant’s very own concoction.

As Matt described the affair, the burger patty is black beans, shitake mushrooms, poblano peppers, cashews, and the house cashew cheese, as well as gluten-free bread crumbs. As I mentioned, think bean burrito with ketchup. Yum. The burger also comes with house pickles, which are cucumbers, bell pepper, fennel and onions. We got those on the side.

As if the table wasn’t already crowded enough, we were also served a Cheeseburger pizza. It went like this: a medium-sized Napoli-style crust, topped with ground beef, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. What did it taste like? Like a salad with beef on top of a pizza. Not a lot of cheese, and lots of lettuce and tomatoes.

Like salad? You’ll like the cheeseburger pizza.

Le Grande Orange serves up its cheeseburgers with style and a clever approach to traditional cheeseburger offerings. And if you’ve never been to the place, you’ll find its converted 1934 train station/retro modern approach very appealing. It’s also literally the Del Mar stop on the Gold Line Metro. And there’s a wood-fired pizza oven in what was once the luggage room. Grab a free salted chocolate chip cookie off the hostess counter, on the way out, while you’re at it.

There’s a lot to like here, and a lot to eat.

Cheeseburger Week runs through Friday, Jan. 31. Respond accordingly.

Le Grande Orange, 260 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA. (626) 356-4444. www.lgostationcafe.com