Bumping into Nils Lofgren and eating the burger at The Barn, Gothenburg, Sweden

I ate four burgers on my Bruce Springsteen weekend in Gothenburg, Sweden. Oops.

But I’m just going to tell you about one of them – partly because it was the best, and also because Nils Lofgren was there having a burger too! (More on that in a sec.)

With Steve (@GreasyLake on Twitter) and Nils

Anyway, The Barn. This place has a location in the town centre, but also has a very nice outdoor garden spot by the water if you’re visiting in the summer. The burger I tried was the standard cheeseburger, and it was spot on. Chunky patty, lovely onion chutney, awesome crispy chips (I went for the sweet potato version and recommend you do the same). Oooh, and a a big truffle mayo dipping sauce is included. 

It’s spenny – I mean, Gothenburg is the place to burn through money. But I went to The Barn the day after the whole Brexit shit show, and with the bad conversion rate meant I was looking at an £18 burger (I’d say £15 is the absolute limit in my life, and I expect gold sprinkles for that price). 

Let’s call this the Brexit Burger.

Nevertheless, we went back the next day (it was late, and it’s open late – that’s handy). I rarely write about veggie burgers, so I thought I’d try the halloumi burger, which comes with avocado. It was nice, but lacking some lube. All a bit claggy (get the truffle mayo and that could help).

And then there’s the other great thing about The Barn – Nils Lofgren and his wife Amy were there. I didn’t actually see them eat a burger as they were finishing up, but they did stop for a chat with us. Nils was talking about the previous night’s inclusion of Tunnel of Love on the setlist (the band hadn’t played it for eight years), and how he’d been practising it back before one of the Brooklyn dates. Apparently Bruce had walked in and said “that’s a good one.”

“It’s not a good one,” Nils replied. “It’s a fucking GREAT one.” 

Damn right, Nils! 

Does Nils like burgers, too? He said he doesn’t eat them that much (they were there as a recommendation from their son), and that he much prefers pizza. MMMMM, PIZZA.

Nils would as you’d hope and expect – kind, quiet, gracious.

Here’s one of the other burgers I had in Gothenburg; after the Springsteen concert when I was mega hungry. It’s from sort of healthier Swedish version of McDo called Max. It did the job. The spicy honey/curry/mustard sauce was a bit of an odd one though.

Go to the Barn in Gothenburg. Even better, go to see Springsteen and the E Street Band in Gothenburg. More on that to come.