I decided to go to this Brunswick restaurant on the recommendation of my father. He spoke glowingly of great burgers and mounds of sweet potato fries and he has never steered me wrong in this regard. The Happy Hippo is on Pearl Road north of Brunswick, south of Strongsville.
When we first walked in on this Thursday evening at 6:00 PM, a couple of things stood out to me immediately. The restaurant was nearly empty during prime dining hours, there were white table clothes on all the tables and booths (which I found odd for a burger joint), and the funny older Mexican gentleman with the mullet that eventually greeted us at the door. He seated us in a booth and took or drink orders. A young Mexican girl came out to take our order, and then another Mexican fellow brought us out chips and a substance to dip them in. It was at this point I began to consider the possibility that this place had changed some since my old man had been here last.
The menu had a little bit of everything, but not alot of anything. I had mostly pre-determined that I was getting a burger, and I asked the waitress if she had any recommendations, as I often do. She kind of looked at me blankly and then told me about the fajitas. In the description of the Hippo House Burger I noticed that it listed a special secret ingredient. I've seen special sauces and such before, but never a special ingredient on a burger. We asked her about this, and she responded that they haven't told her what it is. At that point, curiosity got the best of me and I ordered it, Carlos ordered cod. After ordering, we tried the chips and the mystery sauce/salsa that came with them. It was runny with a light green color, and tasted rather bitter. My best guess is that it was some form of humus, but I did drop some off at NASA on the way home for testing.
The service from our waitress was inconsistent, leaving us for extended periods without beverage, but we were understanding towards her once we considered the possibility that she might not be getting paid.
There was flat screen TV in the dining room playing a movie, loud enough for us to hear Chris Rock and Ice Cube dropping F-bombs and large enough for us to see Tracy Morgan get Danny Glover's fecal matter on his hands and a naked guy sitting on a roof (I have no idea what this movie was). Eventually the other customer complained and they turned the channel.
Our food came out in good order and I was curious to see what the secret ingredient was. Beneath the lettuce, under the tomato and onion, and there it was... a gooey black pile of something. I think there were a few different kind of peppers or vegetables that had been cooked in some type of blackened sauce. It was quite strong and kind of bitter, enough so that I was sick of it by the time I got halfway through the burger. My whole plate was covered in a puddle of black juices, which soaked through the pretzel bun. It takes an extreme situation for me not to eat everything on my plate, but today presented a circumstance that required such action. I graciously left a good tip and we were on our way.
My assumption is that Happy Hippo had a recent ownership change and is a restaurant in an identity crisis, but as we left, our waitress welcomed us to come back this Saturday to try their all new menu, as they are changing to a "half Italian, half Mexican" restaurant, which sounds like an excellent business model that should breed success. They seemed like nice people and I wish them all the best in their pursuit of the American Dream, but I fear the realities of capitalism will have something to say about that.
