Fuze Burger opening at Ponce de Leon Ave & Briarcliff Rd

265 Ponce De Leon Ave, Midtown
(404) 685-9988

Bringing different cultures together can be difficult, but when it works, it's a beautiful thing: just look at the Olympics, where athletes from every country come together under the banner of peace, understanding, and having sex with each other, except the shot-putters, who are just gross. Spanning cultures with burgers and bevs, Fuze.

Overtaking the former Thai Palate digs, Fuze mashes Asian and continental flavors to make dominant burgers and cocktails, served on both a small front patio and in a 65-seat dining room with hardwood floors, zigzagging red & white triangles on the ceiling, and a snake-like hanging 30' paper tube light which the staff calls "condomnation", aka, "not Vatican City". The chef's focus on distinctive ingredients and exotic aromas/flavors (curries, shallots, etc) comes from working in his family's NYC Chinese restaurant since age 16; never-frozen angus burgers include the Mexicana (w/ cheddar, guac, sour cream & jalapenos) and Kung Pow, heaped with red & green bell peps, onions, & spicy Asian sauce; non-angus burgers range from ground lamb (w/ ginger wine sauce, tomato tartare, dill) to turkey, wasabi-glazed Kobe, and pulled chicken, who's just glad he wasn't also choked.

For imbibables, you can build your own mojitos, Caipiroskas, and spiked lemonades with standard or flavored vodka, rum, or alternate spirits (Veev, PAMA, Canton); mixologist Jazmin Ho has also created a list of libations repping major ATL streets, such as the grape-Kool-Aid-like "Edgewood Avenue" w/ 3 Olives Grape, orange liqueur, cran & fresh lime juice, and the "Buford Highway", with Herradura, Thatcher's Organic Elderflower, Chambord, sour, and Thai chili slices, which is "violently shaken", as was every Minnesotan's hand on Jesse Ventura's road to governor.

Fuze also brings it with the beer selection, including drafts like PBR, Sweetwater I.P.A., and Rogue Chocolate Stout, plus 11 bottles like Sierra Nevada Kellerweis & Torpedo, Rogue Dead Guy, and McSorely's Irish Black -- a name suggesting two cultures coming together to make you text ex-girlfriends.

Originally Posted October 1, 2009
By Thrillist Atlanta