Credit: flickr.com/photos/rockdoggydogThis is one of those $11 burgers at Lunchbox Laboratory.Seattle Burger

Credit: flickr.com/photos/rockdoggydogThis is one of those $11 burgers at Lunchbox Laboratory.Seattle Burger Company is the third burger-focused joint to open recently in Ballard, after Lunchbox Laboratory and The Counter. Co-owned by William Wen and Van Phung, the latest entry opened quietly on Friday, Feb. 19 at 2008 N.W. 56th St., and will offer “fresh beef patties, nice cuts of meat, and fresh lettuce, onion, and tomatoes, with house sauce,” explains Wen. “It’s a pretty darn good burger, and we are pretty price-aggressive. The rest of the other places, a lot of them are good too, with $11 and $12 burgers. In terms of taste, my burger can compete with those.”Company burgers range from a $3.85 quarter-pounder with lettuce and mayo to a $6.49 burger topped with Anaheim peppers, pepper-jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and house mayo on a Kaiser bun. The burgers are made with a “never-been-frozen chuck patty from MacDonald Meat Company in Seattle,” said Phung. The beef itself, however, is sourced from the Midwest. Unlike Lunchbox Lab, Seattle Burger Company does offer veggie burgers, and, explains Wen, “the ice-cream shakes are all hand-dipped, with hard ice cream from a subsidiary dairy of Tillamook.”Follow up: Lunchbox Laboratory (two words, now) does in fact have a bean patty, made in house, with pinto and black beans. I visited them less than a week ago, with a die-hard veggie, but we missed this on the menu. I just called to confirm the anonymous commenter’s post. Yes, it’s true, in this haven of meat, there is a veggie burger option, which has been on the menu for about a month. Sorry for the oversight there – and thanks Anonymous, for letting me know!