Five years ago, if you asked for a halal burger, you’d be limited to a few Muslim-owned restaurants serving their country’s food and a burger as an afterthought. In the last few years, drastic changes have arisen as new restaurants have opened featuring the glorious burger, with beef slaughtered in the zabiha halal manner. This should come as no surprise, as Muslim populations in the region are just as American as the rest of us – and there’s nothing more American than a cheeseburger and fries.
Brome is a more recent addition to a group of burger restaurants, mostly in Dearborn, that serve a halal-eating population. This group includes Taystee’s Burger, Famous Hamburger, and Good Burger, to name a few, that have been getting a lot of good press and a huge following in Metro Detroit. While these burger restaurants are getting a great reviews for their American food, I’m also looking forward to seeing what Halal Soul Food looks like, as pork (a staple of soul food cuisine) is prohibited in the Quran.
In addition to serving certain religious populations, halal meat has the benefit of being mostly locally sourced and slaughtered specifically for halal markets. This means that many beef, lamb and chicken are raised on nearby farms that go directly to halal butchers. Because they’re not working with animals on the scale of something like Tyson farms, restaurants have a better opportunity for more consistent quality in their meats. The many halal butchers in Eastern Market and Dearborn reflect these practices, and many of them sell some of the freshest meat you can find in the region.
What you’d Expect – and a Bit More
Brome, opening up in West Dearborn, followed the model of many successful fast-casual chains, including big ones like Shake Shack, which also recently opened in Detroit. Order at the counter, get a number, sit down and wait for your food to be brought out. Brome features lots of reclaimed wood (from the Dearborn Amtrak rails, if that matters to you) , a huge open space with a patio, and a beautiful wall of vegetation. While many of these features are considered normal at a fast-casual restaurant, Brome’s execution is spot on.
They’ve also gone all in on the marketing and iconography – and their restaurant has very heavy branding that makes it feel like a huge chain of restaurants despite its single location. It’s unclear if their goal is to rapidly expand, but it certainly looks like it.
They also have a significant amount of signage letting you know about their beef, giving you a good idea of the product you’re getting, and how they seek to reduce waste. This is echoed on their website, where they discuss the methods of putting the restaurant together with reclaimed wood, seeking to reduce waste, and promoting sustainable farming practices.
The whole club was very impressed with the values and physical openness of this place, as most of us strive to be more sustainable or at least have some idea of what we are eating and where it comes from. Sometimes they are intentionally vague in their marketing about these practices, as the fact that they produce so much paper litter, recycled content or not, may be troubling to some. Either way, more mindful practices are a great starting point, and that value is something echoed by their customers.
The worst thing about Brome by far was the music. The music skipped between top 40, obscure 80s pop, and there may have been a christian rock ballad or two in there. I really cannot express enough how bad this music was. And though I may be a snob about music, it wasn’t just me that hated it. Truly very abhorrent stuff. The best thing I can say about it is that it was playing at a reasonable volume.
The Goods
Brome offers a menu you’d expect at a burger fast food place. Instagrammable foods seem like a necessity, pushed along by their branding. They push their milkshakes (and concretes), burgers, and french fries. They include vegan options to appease everyone, and a few interesting choices, like sweet potato fries or tots, a breakfast sandwich, and a hot dog. Another nice touch was the flavored waters. Very simple, but great for washing down a big burger!
They have two blends of burgers, served in 6 oz patties – one of them is a 70/30 (lean/fat) blend, and the other is 80/20 organic. Both of the blends come from cows raised at Thunder Ridge, which specializes in grass-fed animals for halal butchers. Unfortunately, Thunder Ridge is located in Iowa and not Michigan, taking the product a step away from the source. The restaurant website claims that they use no antibiotics or growth hormones and all the cows are grass-fed. You’re going to pay $2 more for the organic patties – which seems like a steep hike – but that comes with the territory of sustainability.
While reading the signage at the restaurant and reading their website, I got a bit confused whether both types of beef are non-GMO and grass-fed. Sending a message to the owners, they confirmed that both the angus and the 100% organic are grass-fed and non-GMO, so either choice is not a bad one. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t tell me what cuts of meat they use for their burgers. I have my own guesses, but you might have a better one!
One of their tenets at the restaurant is that they only cook their burgers medium or well done. If you’re like me, you like to appreciate the beefiness without any dryness in your burger. A juicy enough burger will avoid this problem, making up for moisture with fat. Cooking a burger to medium is fine, but really not optimal, and it seems like a shame to be offered such good beef, with a huge amount of hype, and then not cook it at a level that lets that beef taste its best. Brome doesn’t serve thin patties either – at 6 oz, these are almost pub-burger thickness. They have no real excuse to only offer two doneness levels. It may be done as a way to avoid training the employees to temp their burgers correctly – or it may be done out of fear of foodborne illness. Both concern me – it’s not hard to use a thermometer or learn to time a portion of beef on the flat top; and a simple FDA warning about undercooked meats would suffice for rare and medium rare meats – which already exists on the menu. This isn’t Canada – I expect a properly cooked burger!
The Delicious and the Disappointing
I got the One-eyed Brome – loaded with beef bacon (no pork bacon here), a fried egg, provolone, tomato, mayo, and avocado. It comes on a brioche bun, as all of their burgers do, lightly toasted and buttered. There was a lot going on with the burger, stuffed with ingredients, intensely rich and creamy. Despite all the umami loaded on the burger, I was a little let down by the patty itself. these are substantial pieces of meat, and I got their regular 70/30 blend, which should make up for any shortcomings with juicy beef fat, but there didn’t seem to be any real seasoning. Of course, I had to order it medium, instead of my usual medium-rare, compounding my dissatisfaction.
The major issue here, I think, is that there is very little to balance out the gigantic amounts of umami and salt encountered in the toppings. Tomatoes provide a small amount of acidity, but not nearly enough to balance out that richness. My tastebuds were worn out after a few bites. The topping quality is good – they care about their ingredients, for sure, and that helped me deal with it. The beef bacon is more interesting than you’d think it would be, especially for those of us used to pork, and fits in nicely with the egg.
I’m willing to accept that it was my mistake in getting excited about fried eggs and ordering the richest burger, instead of thinking about how things might be off-balance. Other offerings on the menu seem to have better balance of texture and flavor- and feature interesting flavor combinations. I’d be happy to try another- like the Mex with corn salsa, cheddar-jack cheese sauce, pickled jalapeno, avocado and chipotle mayo – and most others seemed to enjoy their burgers quite a bit!
I will happily wax poetic about the bun at Brome. The brioche, lightly toasted, soaks up a good amount of moisture, while still staying light enough to not overload the burger. There is just enough crispness and butteriness there to keep things interesting. The buns held up, remarkably, to most of our moist burgers. Throw away your pretzel buns and your bakery rolls – invest in brioche!
A couple folks were disappointed we got to Brome a few days after their delicious-looking fried chicken sandwiches had stopped being served. Instead, they had their Poutine burger on special for the month, featuring “Fried cheese curds, veal gravy, shoestring french fries and cherry pepper relish”. A couple people ordered it, though it sounded heavy and strange to me. They liked it, but thought the jelly was strange with the gravy. Similar complaints of patty flavoring to mine came from other club members – and similar praise for their buns. Overall, their burgers ranked pretty highly for us, and the small problems with the patty there were made up for by quality ingredients, the best bun possible, and interesting topping choices.
Their tots were a great addition to the menu and fried perfectly. The outsides are crisp and the insides are moist and soft – perfect for dipping. The fries were fine, and served in big portions, but were not quite crispy – a shame for a thinner style of fry that Brome serves. They do have four flavor options for the fries – salt and pepper, cajun, garlic and cilantro, or truffle and parmesan. Though the spices made the fries more interesting, the fries’ lack of crispiness detracted from the intended product. Brome’s shakes, however, were a hit. they’re made with custard from Calder’s Dairy in Lincoln Park, which make some of the best dairy products around Detroit. Brome offers a new shake each month as well as the option to get each shake malted. Alice and I split a salted Caramel shake, and the richness of one shake was more than enough for both of us together.
The Long and the Short of it
Everyone liked what Brome was about. They care about their ingredients, their restaurant, and their customers. They took a well liked fast-casual model and molded it to make a unique halal burger offering. They seem to be loved in Dearborn, and I imagine they will stick around. The space is beautiful, right in the middle of West Dearborn. There is so much thought and care put into Brome, that I almost feel bad saying anything bad about it.
Unfortunately, their burgers didn’t live up to the hype. I do think there are a few changes they could make that would give the restaurant a broader appeal – the first would be more seasoning for the patties so that beefiness really shines through. The second is cooking to order. Give me a rare burger if I want it! I really want to experience that high quality product you have, and that’s the best way that I can do that – especially when I’m paying almost $20 for a meal.
And please, play some better music.
Ratings:
Music Report: It was terrible.
Burger: 4.094 (ranked #4 so far!)
Service: 4.29
Atmosphere: 4.36
Value: 3.09
Overall Rating: 3.93
Alice – “The burger was very moist and had lots of juicy toppings, but the bun kept things together really well. I appreciated the shredded lettuce, since its often hard for me to bite through.” 4/5
Amanda – “Burger was very flavorful and juicy but the fries left something to be desired. Need more seasoning, and I guess I prefer thicker cut and crispier fries.” 4/5
Bonnie – “Loved the strawberry shake and tots. ‘I change myself, I change the world.’ Glad I tried it. Booth is comfy.” 4/5
Carl – “I thought the inclusion of pickled red jalapenos on the poutine burger was an odd juxtaposition. The delicate flavours of poutine were overshadowed by the imposing pepper. The gravy was good, though. Wish they had the chicken sandwich, but its ok.“ 4/5
Erik – “They care about good things and have thought through the ideas of this place. Good toppings, service, space to talk and meet. Love the plants. They fall short on a few things (patty doneness and seasoning) which would boost the levels easily. The bun is what all burger places should aspire to.” 3.5/5
Ian – “The music was revolting.” 3/5
Jeff-
Twenty dollar meal
I hope the servers are paid
I didn’t have beer
The burger was good
Poutine gravy was tangy
that was kind of weird
3/5
Lindsay – “While it was very juicy, maybe a little greasy, lots of liquid anyway. The bun held up, as did the structural integrity of the sandwich as a whole. Thinking further, I really liked the sauce on the burger. Overall, I liked it for fast casual, maybe a little expensive, but they really put a lot of care and thought into the business and I appreciate the emphasis on ingredients. The milkshake gets a 5 from me” 3/5
Brome Burgers & Shakes
www.bromeburger.com
22062 Michigan Ave.
Dearborn, MI 48124
313-995-5050
(Thank you Carl for some of your photos)
Motor City Burger Club 
Brome is fantastic. I’ve been there like 3+ times now, and every time the food is delicious.