NFA Burger’s full-service Avalon restaurant chases fast-food perfection
The story of NFA Burger has always been about obsession. How deeply can one person explore ingredients and process to achieve their platonic ideal of a fast-food hamburger?
The single-minded pursuit of burger perfection led Billy Kramer to found NFA Burger in a Dunwoody gas station and gather widespread acclaim for his meticulous smashburgers. The attention opened doors for NFA Burger, including simultaneous opportunities this year at Truist Park and Avalon, the mixed-use development in Alpharetta.
In April, Kramer’s perfectionist tendencies ultimately led him to pull NFA Burger out of the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark a week into the baseball season. The grueling event schedule at Truist Park and faster-than-expected progress at the Avalon NFA Burger pulled him in two directions at once, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time.
NFA Burger at Avalon opened in May. Much like the burger itself, the restaurant is a study in simplicity and exactitude. Now, the famous NFA Burger faces arguably its toughest test: Can it anchor a full-fledged restaurant? And can the rest of the menu match the burger’s quality and consistency?
NFA Burger has never claimed to be original, and entering the Avalon restaurant immediately brings to mind an upscale version of Five Guys. The basic red-and-white color scheme and limited menu options are remarkably similar to the multinational burger franchise.
Customers stand in line to order and get a number for an indoor or outdoor table. NFA Burger opens onto a perpetually busy courtyard in front of the Regal movie theater.
The menu isn’t the easiest thing to read, but look to the central column for the main event: the burger and all its options for customization.
Burgers can be ordered with up to four patties, but the double is labeled as Billy’s Classic. Each burger automatically comes with cheese, mustard, pickles and sassy sauce — sweet, creamy and lightly spiced — on a squishy potato bun. Additional toppings include raw or grilled onions, jalapenos, bacon, hatch green chiles and turkey chili from Breadwinner Cafe & Bakery in Sandy Springs. Kramer’s favorite toppings are indicated on the menu — bacon and chili.
Other food options include two hot dogs and a kids menu with a single-patty burger and a solid grilled cheese sandwich. Between the hot dogs, I tried the larger, 1/3-pound Southsider, a high-quality Vienna beef Polish sausage that I ordered with mustard, diced pickles and raw onions. It’s a very good hot dog that seemed to be made with just as much care as the burgers; the toppings were placed as precisely as if the cooks had used tweezers.
Below the dogs are the sides, french fries and tater tots. Their claim to fame is that they’re fried in beef tallow, as were McDonald’s french fries before 1990. The fries were fine, especially when covered in chili, but the tots were not ideal. They seemed overcooked on each of my visits; the exterior had too much crunch while the center lacked enough tender potato.
A little creativity shows on the dessert side of the menu, which features different combinations of two different items: Liege waffles and frozen custard. The Liege waffles are small and deep-pocketed in the Belgian style, and studded with crunchy bits of pearl sugar. These can be ordered as a dessert with custard, or employed as a bun for your burger. I tried the waffle-bun burger variation and found it delicious, with a lot of the savory-sweet appeal of a McGriddle from McDonald’s, without all the preservatives.
The custard only comes in vanilla but is used in several dessert variations, including floats with root beer or other soda flavors, and milkshakes with a few different syrups. The banana milkshake is labeled as “what Billy orders,” so I had to try it. Banana might be a polarizing dessert flavor, but Kramer is onto something with this tasty shake.
Alcoholic beverages, another new offering for Kramer, are found on the back of the menu. As one would expect, the drinks are basic, though it’s nice to see that some of the liquor choices are thoughtfully sourced from local companies like ASW Distillery, Old Fourth Distillery and the Distillery of Modern Art.
The cocktails are mostly classics, though they varied in quality. The margarita tasted like it was made with a mix despite listing only three ingredients on the menu: tequila, triple sec and lime. However, the paloma was nice, made with soda water and actual grapefruit and lime juices rather than the more expedient, but less interesting, grapefruit soda often employed at other quick-service bars. All of the cocktails on ice score extra points for their size, served in large, plastic pint cups.
But at the end of the day, the burger is the thing that really matters. It is excellent, a truly simple indulgence that checks every fast-food burger box. Kramer’s masterpiece is the closest thing to what I think people imagine when they idolize fast food chains like In-N-Out Burger, Whataburger or Five Guys.
Simplicity can be both a blessing and a curse. Keeping such a narrow focus allows NFA Burger at Avalon to serve burgers with quality, consistency, efficiency and at a good value. But a full-service restaurant needs more than one menu item, and every additional dish, drink and layer of service adds complexity.
As a standalone sandwich, the NFA Burger is a triumph; as a full-service restaurant, it’s very good but not quite great.
NFA Burger - Avalon
2 out of 4 stars (very good)
Food: hamburgers and hot dogs
Service: mostly efficient, if a little inexperienced
Noise level: moderate
Recommended dishes:
Vegetarian dishes:
Alcohol: full bar
Price range: $25 or less per person, excluding drinks
Hours: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 12-8 p.m. Sundays
Accessibility: fully ADA-accessible
Parking: free deck parking at Avalon
Nearest MARTA station: none
Reservations: no
Outdoor dining: yes
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 3180 Avalon Blvd., Alpharetta. 770-272-2735
Website: nfaburger.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s dining critics conduct reviews anonymously. Reservations are not made in their name, nor do they provide restaurants with advance notice about their visits. Our critics always make multiple visits, sample the full range of the menu and pay for all of their meals. AJC dining critics wait at least one month after a new restaurant has opened before visiting.
About the Author
Henri Hollis is a reporter and restaurant critic for the Food & Dining team. Formerly a freelance writer and photographer with a focus on food and restaurants, he joined the AJC full-time in January 2021, first covering breaking news. He is a lifelong Atlantan and a graduate of Georgia Tech.
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