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It's tempting to look at Elevation Burger, a recently imported boutique fast-food chain, as the Harbor East's take on Five Guys--back-to-the-basics burgers and fries done well, and organically. But in a food scene saturated with words like "fresh" and "organic," the Elevation concept isn't any more outlandish for most people than of ordering fish at McDonald's. The menu here is indeed tiny--burgers, veggie burgers (two kinds, two different variations on the literalness of "veggie"), and a grilled cheese, with side options limited to fries ($2.79), a side salad ($2.69), and fruit. The fries are decent--shoestring, kind of limp--but they've got nothing flavor-wise on the big burger chains. We sampled a Half the Guilt Burger ($5.59), a veggie patty stacked with a meat patty, and the combo works better than you'd think, actually quite well. Toppings are better-than-average with items such as caramelized onions and balsamic mustard joining the usual suspects, but we're not sure it added anything that substantial to the whole experience, and we were chapped to bite into our burger and find out it didn't come with cheese (most don't). Finally, we have it on good authority that the milk shakes here are aces, but we'd already racked up an $11 tab on the basics--we'll save that for McDonald's.

E-mail Michael Byrne