An overstuffed burger, filled with lettuce, tomato, and a thick patty, sits on a wooden table top next to a small heap of thick cut fries with a pint of lager in the background.
Food + Drink

I Broke My Fast at Square Boy on the Danforth: Why a Burger Was My First Meal in Months

Being told you can’t eat something is unpleasant. If the reason for the restriction is a dietary sensitivity (as in it does not agree with you) or an allergy (as in it might kill you), then this unpleasantness becomes bearable. Acceptable, even. But when the reason is dental surgery—uncomfortable, painful, unwanted dental implants—then it’s considerably less acceptable. And when all you’re allowed to eat are soft foods (translation: anything with a consistency equal to, or lesser than, an egg salad), it’s awful. Really, really awful.

I should know, because this is my story.

Once upon a time, there lived two second molars who decided not to grow. Yep, you guessed it: I’m talking about my would-be second molars. The lazy duo never showed, leaving four empty spaces inside my mouth. Strangely, this didn’t bother me—in fact, I was rather attached to these spaces. But my dentist was not. Which meant that I had to get dental implants to fill in those ever so lovely spaces. I shuddered as my doctor walked me through the procedure. I nearly cried when he listed all the foods I wouldn’t be able to eat. No more popcorn, no more burgers, no more nachos…nothing.

All soft food and no fun makes Heather very, very cranky. I had to live like this for six whole weeks. Can you imagine? Don’t even bother, because what you imagine isn’t even close to what it felt like. Here’s what kept me going: knowing at the end of this process, I’d be able to eat whatever I wanted. I spent a lot of time thinking about food. Part of this is because I kept getting asked what the first thing I’d eat as my “welcome back” meal.  So when those horrible six weeks were over, and I got the green light from my doctor, there was only one thing that I wanted to put in my mouth: a big, juicy burger.

Luckily, the Danforth was able to make that dream come true. After extensive research, my perfect burger was waiting for me at a little place called Square Boy. By little, I mean my family room was bigger than this place.

Oh, but the burger was so worth it. Served on a nice, toasty bun with a patty that was large in circumference but not in thickness made it gentle on my nicely healed implants giving me the confidence to truly go to town on that burger. Not only that, I was able to pair it with golden onion rings that had that perfect crispness to them. I had waited six long weeks to eat something as delicious as this burger and it was so unbelievably worth it. My takeaway from this experience: I’m a simple person. I don’t ask for too much in life, or in burgers. All I need is a good bun, a juicy patty, tasty toppings, and onion rings. Square Boy was able to give me that and continues to share my personal burger dream with the rest of the Danforth. They not only managed to fill the spaces between my teeth, but they filled the burger-less space in my heart.

Image from Wikimedia Commons—no copyright infringement intended


Heather is an avid bookworm, wannabe blogger, Disney enthusiast, makeup addict, and suffering baseball fan.

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