22 hours Ago
Brooke Frank, a co-owner and the wife of Lee Frank, takes customers’ orders at the front counter at Lee Frank’s in South Berwick. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald When you’re walking into a restaurant for the first time, it raises your hopes when you run into clearly satisfied customers on their way out. It was the couple’s first time at Lee Frank’s, too, and they told us they were thrilled by their chili cheese dog, double chili cheeseburger and chili cheese fries.
(The obvious common thread was key, we’d come to find.) “I just inhaled it,” the man said, patting his midsection and grinning like a cat with a belly full of canary, “and it was amazing.” Toby Tufts and Jen Foley seen through the window having dinner at Lee Frank’s in downtown South Berwick.
Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald That’s exactly the kind of reaction Lee Frank was going for when he launched his smash burger joint in 2021 in South Berwick, where he and his wife and co-owner, Brooke, live. It was a culinary departure for Frank, who has been chef-owner of the refined tasting-menu venue Otis Restaurant in Exeter, New Hampshire, since 2016. Before Otis, Frank helmed the kitchens of such acclaimed Southern Maine restaurants as MC Perkins Cove, Arrows and Anneke Jans, and he’s been a semifinalist for the past two years in the James Beard Awards’ Best Chef: Northeast category .
This year, the Beard Foundation initially listed Frank in connection with Lee Frank’s, which caught my attention — and perhaps raised my expectations in the first place. After he called the foundation to inquire, they later amended the listing , affiliating him with Otis instead of Lee Frank’s. Still, Lee Frank’s seemed worth checking out.
The chef has serious culinary chops, and though he doesn’t man the grill often at Lee Frank’s, it’s his eponymous concept. It’s also been successful enough that he opened another location in Wells last fall, with a third launching in Exeter by the end of April. Inside the mustard-yellow building where the South Berwick restaurant rents space, Lee Frank’s rustic dining area is dominated by rough-hewn wood beams lit by exposed hanging bulbs.
It’s the little branding touches that hint at what Frank is going for here: the overlapping LF of the logo, resembling the LA in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ball caps, and the pops of Dodger blue on the chairs and doors. Frank is a Los Angeles native, and Lee Frank’s is his homage to the countless mom-and-pop burger joints that he grew up enjoying in that region, as well as legendary operations like Original Tommy’s and In-N-Out. Grab extra napkins for Lee Frank’s double cheeseburger, made “dirty” style.
Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald The influence is clear in items like Lee Frank’s double cheeseburger ($8.50), two crispy-edged smashed patties draped with American cheese on a toasted Pepperidge Farms bun, with shredded iceberg, dill pickles, a thick raw onion ring, mustard and ketchup. We ordered it “dirty” (with griddled onions and house-made Thousand Island-type sauce for an extra $1.
25, available for any menu item), their twist on In-N-Out’s off-menu “animal-style” offerings. It’s a righteous mouthful — tasty, gooey and delightfully messy. You’ll go through some napkins at this place.
The chili dog ($4.50) was another close contender for best in show at our table. Swaddled in a soft bun and topped with chopped onion and yellow mustard, the steamed, all-beef frankfurter (from Massachusetts-based Pearl Meat Packing) had good snap to its natural casing.
But the chili was the star here. This is SoCal burger joint-style chili: no beans, tomatoes or chunks of meat, just spiced and thickly saucy ground beef. It’s not meant to be eaten by the bowlful, but rather ladled over the foodstuff of your choice, amping up the umami factor and adding some mild background heat.
Frank’s chili — straightforwardly spiced with mostly paprika, chili powder and cayenne — delivers surprising depth of flavor. The chili cheeseburger ($7.50) was tasty, but needed a bigger ladling of the good stuff.
With indulgent comfort foods like these, more is more. Our basic cheeseburger ($6.25) could have used some chili itself, or maybe a little dirtiness, because the patty, though well-seasoned, was pretty dry; its lovely brown crust seemed to come at the expense of moisture inside.
The restaurant uses an 80% lean chuck blend from Carl’s Meat Market in Kittery, ample fat to keep the beef moist if it’s not over-pressed or left on the grill a touch too long. (Though some places go with an even fattier beef blend, like the 70/30 grind Kennebec Meat Co. in Bath uses for its dreamy smash burgers .
) Judging by online customer reviews — many of them raves — dry patties are an uncommon occurrence at Lee Frank’s, but ours wasn’t the first. The chili cheese dog: Frank’s chili is simple yet compelling. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald The N.
Y. Dog ($4.25), topped with distributor-sourced sauerkraut and brown mustard, didn’t have a lot of sauerkraut on it, but that may not have been a bad thing.
The mushy cabbage was a little too puckery for my taste, especially in combination with the mustard, though my friend liked the intense tang. Either way, we agreed the dish would benefit from the crunch and fresher flavor of raw sauerkraut, or at least a pasteurized version with firmer texture. Better still: house-made.
A chef of Frank’s caliber could surely make some kraut good enough to make that dog sit pretty and beg. Lee Frank’s crinkle-cut french fries ($3.50) are also sourced from a broadline distributor.
Which is puzzling: Why go with frozen fries in a potato-rich state like Maine, where so many restaurants pride themselves on their hand-punched, locally sourced fries? I doubted it was a matter of cost, thinking specifically of Backwoods Burger Shack in Gorham, which uses Chipperbec potatoes from Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg for its generous order of fries ($3.75). Frank told me he doesn’t have enough kitchen space or refrigeration to properly make twice-cooked fries.
He also finds that hand-punched fries don’t travel well and get soggy in takeout orders. Consistency, though, was his greatest concern. “It was a fear of mine,” he said.
“One day you come in and the fries are the best you ever had, and the next day a different line cook did them and maybe didn’t take the same amount of time the last guy did. The biggest thing for me was, because we were going to expand, when you walk into a Lee Frank’s in South Berwick, Wells or Exeter, the french fries should taste the same.” But the consistency argument goes out the window with a batch like the one we had, which was inconsistent even within itself.
While most pieces of the crisp, nicely salted fries were deep golden, some were on the pale side, and others were over-browned and scorched at the tips. Regardless, they’re surely thick and sturdy enough to support a layer of chili. Addictively crunchy house-made onion rings served with ranch for dipping.
Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald The fantastic onion rings ($4.50) at Lee Frank’s demonstrate the tremendous upside to scratch-made sides. The cooks soak hand-sliced onions in buttermilk overnight, then fry them in a mix of seasoned flour and and cornstarch.
The sweet, crisp-tender onions, audibly crunchy and flavorfully coated, pair nicely with the housemade ranch dressing that comes on the side. But they’re perfectly delicious all on their own, too. A vanilla milkshake ($5.
50), made with Gifford’s ice cream, came with the rest of the meal, but was still too thick to suck through my straw even after we finished with our food. It made for a nice enough treat by the spoonful at the end, but I’d have liked to enjoy a few sips between bites. Our service experience at Lee Frank’s was easy and pleasant all the way through.
The personable server who took our order at the front counter was helpful with questions, well-informed and highly accommodating, even to last-minute order changes after we paid. Kitchen staff wasted no time whipping up our food, which the server delivered to our table in under eight minutes. Frank doesn’t frame his growing mini-chain as a place for cheffy, “elevated” takes on classic burger shack fare.
It’s meant to be simple and satisfying. At these prices — cheaper than Five Guys — you can’t expect house-baked buns and grass-fed local beef. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Frank said.
“We’re not trying to be gourmet burger. We’re just trying to put out a good burger at a reasonable price.” At that, they largely succeed.
Kevin Parent and his son Mikey Parent, 12, have dinner at the window, left, as other customers head out at Lee Frank’s in South Berwick on a recent Friday. Parent, who lives in South Berwick, said they come to the restaurant at least once a month. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald RATING: *** WHERE: 12 Portland St.
, South Berwick. 207-704-0099. leefranks.
com SERVING: 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.
m. Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Sunday PRICE RANGE: Burgers and dogs: $3.
25-$9.75. Sides and shakes: $3.
50-5.50 NOISE LEVEL: Medium-low on a less-busy weeknight VEGETARIAN: Some dishes GLUTEN-FREE: Some dishes RESERVATIONS: No BAR: No, just soft drinks and milkshakes WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: No ramp, there’s a step going into the building from the sidewalk. BOTTOM LINE: Beard-nominated, Los Angeles-native Chef Lee Frank opened Lee Frank’s in 2021 as a nod to the classic SoCal burger joints he grew up enjoying.
He’s since launched a second location in Wells, with a third on the way in Exeter, New Hampshire. The food at Lee Frank’s is at its best with fully loaded versions of classics from the likes of Original Tommy’s and In-N-Out. The double cheeseburger, “dirty” style (with grilled onions and Thousand Island-style sauce), is a five-napkin affair and worth every sloppy bite.
Items like the chili dog, featuring Frank’s simple yet compelling chili, are also good bets. Don’t miss the addictively crunchy and flavorful housemade onion rings. We ran into a dry patty on our regular cheeseburger and unevenly cooked crinkle-cut frozen fries.
Still, as a casual burger shack (and a slightly cheaper alternative to Five Guys), it offers good value and friendly, fast service. Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service and value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such): * Poor ** Fair *** Good **** Excellent ***** Extraordinary. The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second.
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