american style

...is the name of a mini-chain of burger places here in Iceland. E and I decided to go for Saturday dinner, after a hike in Heiðmörk and a dip in the K2 swimming pool. I stepped up to the counter and in my best booming broad American accent said, "I'm here for the 'style' please." It didn't go over so well with the teenage order-taker, but the other ladies scooping fries got a chuckle. The place is set up to feel like an American restaurant, with all the tables as booths, pictures of stars on the walls, and low comfy lighting. It feels a bit like the old Lums restaurant on Route 3A in Billerica, but much, much cleaner. The burgers were decent, too.

But there are many things there that are definitely not "American Style", and we chronicled them as we ate:

• The odd combination of ordering at a counter and then servers bringing out the food to the table on nice plates confused and bewildered us.
• Free soda refills were American-style, but 6-oz. juice glasses were not.
• Nor was the pasta-spoon to scoop single ice cubes out of a bin anything we had ever seen in the States. (True "American style" would be an ice machine capable of cranking out a square foot of ice per second into a huge disposable cup.)
• People all around us ate their burgers with a knife and fork.
• We were convinced, as always, to pay more for the ever-present Icelandic cocktail-sauce fry-dipping option.
• Cucumbers and red peppers come as standard burger toppings.
• $32 for two burgers and sodas is considered a "good deal".
• Last but not least, "Andskotinn, er ekki fuckin sæti!" is not something the local burger-shack rednecks are wont to say in the US of A.