Experienced Eater Review: StrEAT Kitchen at Social Food Hall

Key Takeaways

• StrEAT Kitchen lives inside Social Food Hall in Elizabethtown — smash burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and dirty fries
• The McDowells went on a smash-burger quest on a recommendation from Bourbon Barrel Tavern
• Standouts: Michele's Jalapeno Business Burger (whipped cream cheese, cheddar, jalapenos) and Britten's build-your-own with pepper jam "sweet heat"
• The beef-tallow fried cheesy tots and chips were a repeated highlight
• Verdict: "This is an experience you gotta eat" — Britten praised the menu's consistency, noting "duplication is key"

Summary

Britten and Michele McDowell took the Experienced Eater segment to StrEAT Kitchen inside Social Food Hall, chasing a smash-burger recommendation from Bourbon Barrel Tavern. Between the build-your-own smash burgers, a cold sauce bar with 15-plus options, and beef-tallow fried tots and chips, the McDowells came away sold.

The review wasn't just about the food — it was about execution. Britten kept circling back to how well the team runs a simple, well-designed menu, calling consistency the real mark of a good kitchen. Michele's one small wish for thicker patties was answered by the format itself: a smash burger is supposed to be crispy. The closing word: an experience you've gotta eat.

Watch this segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa_bI8aPZQM&t=3110s Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa_bI8aPZQM

Full Article

The Experienced Eater — Britten and Michele McDowell — opened this week's review on a mission. "We're on a quest for smash burgers," Britten said at the top of the taped segment. "We were told from a good friend of ours over at Bourbon Barrel Tavern that StrEAT Kitchen here at Social Food Hall was the place to go." So they went to see what StrEAT Kitchen had for them.

The order

Michele led with the Jalapeno Business Burger — whipped cream cheese, cheddar, and jalapenos — then made a beeline for the cold bar, a self-serve station Britten clocked as having "maybe 15 different types of ketchup and sauces." She added a chipotle spicy mayo. "Of course, I'm all about the sauce," she said, "so I like the extra sauce on there." Britten went the build-your-own route: grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, pepperjack cheese sauce, pepper jam, and the house StrEAT sauce, which he described as a kind of spicy fry sauce.

The toppings landed. "The onions are super sweet, the mushrooms have a good bite," Britten said, with the pepper jam delivering "some sweet heat." Alongside the burgers came the side that stole some of the spotlight: cheesy tots, fried in beef tallow. "I think that adds a lot of flavor," Britten said. He's a self-described "tater tot junkie," and noted that StrEAT Kitchen fries its chips the same beef-tallow way — crispy, well-seasoned, and, in his book, as good as the tots.

The smash-burger debate

Michele had one note: she wished the burgers were a little thicker. Britten had the counterpoint ready. "It is a smash burger, so they are gonna be crispy. They're gonna be done that way." The thin, crispy patty isn't a shortcoming — it's the whole point of the style. He also clarified for viewers that the burger was bigger than it looked on camera, calling it roughly an 8-ounce, two-patty build that just looked small in the food-hall setting.

Why it works: consistency

What impressed Britten most wasn't any single bite — it was the execution. "Whoever put their menu together, it's simple enough to be executed repetitively, which is a big plus," he said. "It doesn't matter how well you can do something once, it's how well you can do it over and over again. Duplication is key." He praised the team's grasp of flavor profiles, pointing to the whipped cream cheese on a jalapeno burger as a move that sounds like left field until you think of cream-cheese jalapeno poppers — then it clicks. The food is also made fresh to order, "right in front of you," not sitting under a heat lamp.

The verdict

The McDowells closed on a high note. "I really liked my burger," Michele said. "I really liked the beef tallow chips and fries and the tater tots. And this is an experience you gotta eat." Back in the studio, Rachel — who hadn't been yet — admitted the review left her hungry and ready to go try it, while the hosts gave a shout-out to Bourbon Barrel Tavern for the recommendation that started the quest.