One look at the menu and the awe-inspiring space, including a copper pizza oven that looks like it gave birth to C3PO and the stylishly illustrated wall of wine on tap, and you might think there’s little restraint at Sixty Vines. The menu promises a “cabernet-smothered local Akaushi patty,” caramelized onions, Worcestershire, mayo, tomato and raclette cheese on an everything bun.

After reading the description, I had some soon-to-be misconceptions whirling around in my head: Are they going to do that thing where they hot-sear a halved wheel of raclette cheese, then avalanche the melted cheese over on my burger with a scraper tableside? Will an everything bun be overwhelming? The answer is no to all of it. Turns out, Sixty Vines is, in fact, restrained — and this place knows what’s delicious.

I’m at the bar, flipping through the leather-bound menu. They tell me the chef prefers to cook the burger to medium rare, which cued a two-minute applause track in my head. The burger arrives, and my misgivings disappear. It isn’t showing off; it’s just a great beef sandwich with a big, beautiful tomato.

The Akaushi beef patty is a book-thick slab of juicy, dripping beef. The onions are cooked down into a salty-sweet jam and spread over the bottom bun. The raclette cheese is sliced thin, not the intense lava flow I had imagined, with a slice of tomato and spread of mayo above the patty.

Everything is subtle but complementary and damn delicious. The beef, when I slice it down the middle, reveals a good medium rare pinkness even though it was cooked on the grill (where it’s easy to overcook a burger). With the grill-cooked double cheeseburger at On the Lamb, that makes two excellent grilled burgers in the area.

Sixty Vines has the kind of burger that you want to cough up more dough for — and you will cough up some money, since it's $17. But it's a great burger. The focus, ultimately, is on the hunk of tender, fatty, wonderful beef. The meat is the hero. This is happiness in a sandwich that clocks in over 12 bucks. The construction ends up being a bit of an issue; my burger slip-slides around beneath the tomato slice (it's best to dive in without slicing it down the center).

But the everything bun isn't overpowering with teeth-destroying seeds. The duck fat-sizzled potatoes have a rich crispy-meets-softness, and like the burger, they're humble. In other words, I’m devouring my sandwich and enjoying the hell out of it. My misconceptions were wrong, and Plano’s got a new contender for a best burger.

Sixty Vines, 3701 Dallas Parkway, Plano

