Looking for a mouth-watering, juicy burger in downtown Lawrence? This is the spot. It is here that  the humble burger rises to new heights, with upscale options like bison, kobe beef and falfel burgers, and duckfat and truffle fries.  The Burger Stand is in the back of Dempsey’s Irish Pub, an unusual arrangement that works well for Dempsey’s,  as well as Burger Stand’s culinary team of  Robert and Molly Krause, and Simon and Codi Bates. The Krauses are the owners of the soon-to-close Krause Dining and a soon-to-open casual Latin American venue on Mass Ave.

No trend has been more predominant in Kansas City than the gourmet burger, and in Lawrence it is pulling in customers to Dempsey’s that would otherwise never know the place existed. It’s a welcoming bar that now has good food to go along with all those beers on tap.

My favorite is the bison burger, unfortunately not a regular menu item. I have also enjoyed the vegetarian burger, an unlikely combination that features green beans and romesco sauce atop a robust lentil patty. Even the classic is prepared as a burger should be, with a top quality blend of meat.  A recent special featured a Mexican pork burger with housemade mole sauce. In fact, all of the sauces, from cherry-pepper ketchup to a guajillo-chile dip are made in house. I enjoyed the fries, though I have yet to find duckfat fries as memorable as those I had at Duckfat in Portland, Maine. So I stick to the traditional or sweet potato fries at the Burger Stand, no hardship to be sure.

The Burger Stand offers  friendly service with those burgers, so for a quick bite before a KU game, put this on your list.