I know—not exactly the heights of culinary ingenuity or Holy Grail of refined palettes, but—as we recently re-discovered in trips cross-country—Johnny Rocket’s Streamliner veggie burger is 100% vegan and really pretty awesome in a pinch.
The burger itself is Boca’s Original Vegan Veggie Burger, but, as a whole, the Streamliner encompasses that classic, sautéd onion-covered, yellow mustard-smeared, crinkly paper-wrapped burger that you maybe still crave in a cathartic, regressive way that’s just perfect sometimes; like when you’re coming off a massive wedding weekend followed by a trip northeast, waiting for your plane back west. It’s not winning awards, but it gets the job done.
Actually, scratch that, according to every description of the burger the company provides, Melrose Avenue native Johnny Rockets describes the Streamliner as an “award winning meat-free hamburger”—maybe a reference to the 1994 Golden Chain Award the company received when it added the veggie burger to its original menu.
And, for all you longtime hardcore vegans out there checking out the photo of the burger bun with a questioning glance, yes, that too is totally vegan. Johnny Rockets is actually pretty great about ingredient transparency—you can find a full list of menu items ingredients on their Web site. So, American Fries + Sweet Potato Fries, safe; Onion Ring, not so much.
Can’t win ’em all.
