"YESTERDAY"                    "TODAY"

It seems like just yesterday, when I was in the mood for a juicy cheeseburger I would go to Bennigan's,
and then before I knew it the chain closed down. The building just
stood there for awhile and then before you knew it it was being
completely gutted and rebuilt. The new restaurant opened this week and we tried it for lunch today.

J.
Mark's original location is a few miles north in Pompano Beach and this
is their second. The inside is completely finished but there is some
work left outside such as the patio where they plan to have live music
on the weekends and seating will be doubled.

We
were greeted and seated immediately by the hostess and just as quickly a
server asked us what we wanted to drink. As she walked away our server
came over, introduced himself and also asked us what we wanted to drink
and quickly brought them. I had coffee ($2.79) while Allen, who has
recently switched from diet soda, had iced tea ($2.99.)

Usually
when I try a new restaurant at lunch time I order a cheeseburger as I
have found that a good way to judge the cooking and  the quality of the
kitchen. Allen had the 'fresh fish sandwich of the day' which was Mahi-Mahi (12.99) which he opted for grill instead of blackened while I had the
Blue Peppercorn Burger ($10.99) which is topped with cracked pepper,
crumbled blue chesee and crispy fried red onion rings.  We both opted to have sweet potat6o fries.

We
are still trying to figure out why we were served rolls since we were
having sandwiches but Allen said they were good. Our server was alert
refilling our drinks and brought our food in appropriate time. Allen
wasn't thrilled with his sandwich feeling the fish was too thick a slice
to hold together for a sandwich.

The server did 'warn' me that J. Mark's burgers are 'pattied daily in house using fresh ground chuck, minced onion and apple wood
bacon' so adding the blue cheese, peppercorns and fried onion rings just
made the burger a jumble of non-blended tastes. It is now almost 8 hours later and I am still 'tasting' the burger and not in a good way.

Our check, including tax and tip, came to $38 which is too expensive for lunch and most of the items on the menu were more expensive than what we ordered. The service was excellent--in fact when Allen accidently dropped his glass of iced tea (over me, not him!) teh server immediately moved us to another table.
The restaurant itself is all dark and light woods, the booths roomy
and, for a change, not overloaded with TVs, having only 3  above the bar
area. The food was mediocre and didn't bode good for going there for dinner.