Richard Blais' Flip Burger

Last spring David and I came to Atlanta to check out the city, as we knew we’d be moving here this summer. While on this trip, I had the opportunity to check out a couple of different restaurants. As a huge fan of Bravo's Top Chef, the place I was most eager to see was Flip Burger, which is owned by Richard Blais, a contestant on Season 4 and personal favorite of mine. For those of you who’ve seen the show, Richard always used molecular gastronomy in his cooking and has a bit of a mini-Mohawk.

It’s clear from the name that this relatively new restaurant does burgers. They’ve got all kinds of burgers (turkey, faux lafel, salmon and lamb, to name a few) and they do them well.

Before we went, our friends called ahead to see if Flip Burger was willing to accommodate gluten free customers and they said they definitely could. Located right on Howell Mill Road, Flip is in an up and coming area on the Westside and it is filled with customers.

When we got to the restaurant we sat outside and could not have had a friendlier waiter. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable, she told me to pick what I wanted and they would see what they could do. I decided to go with the turkey burger which comes with avacado, alfalfa sprouts and pomegranate ketchup. The cook wrapped my burger in lettuce since I had to go sans bun. Definitely a thoughtful touch! We also decided to share the Caesar salad (without the croutons of course). Everything I ordered was delicious and looked beautiful. The presentation and menu creativity are some of the best parts of Flip besides the food.

The highlight of the evening for me was actually getting to meet Richard Blais! Like I mentioned earlier, I loved him on Top Chef. He was friendly and nice to us and I thanked him for being willing to make gluten free burgers. He said of course they accommodate the GF customer and that he realizes what a large population is becoming gluten free. He even mentioned that on the side he’s working with a friend to try to create a delicious gluten free pasta. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything more about that.

Flip was a fun and unique first dining experience for me in Atlanta. I was definitely star struck but also enjoyed the delicious food. Many of the burgers themselves are gluten free (if you leave out the bun), but you might have to make some modifications to the toppings. Sadly you’ll need to avoid fried things (fries, onion rings, okra, etc.) but the salad was yummy and they have a beet and goat cheese salad that looks good too. The potato salad and five bean salad might also work, but I’ll have to check.

The other component to Flip Burger’s menu are the liquid nitrate milkshakes. Full from my burger, I did not try or ask about the shakes. My guess would be that you need to stay away from the Krispy Kreme shake, but the others (Georgia peaches ‘n cream, foie grois, and spicy chocolate mole to name a few) are probably GF.

If you go to Flip, and I suggest that you do, remind your server about being gluten free and also ask them to clean off the section of the grill/pan that they’re going to use to prepare your burger in order to avoid cross contamination.

Enjoy! And maybe you’ll get to meet Richard too! (It’s still worth it even if you don’t have a Richard sighting.)