One of my favorite parts of summer in Portland hits right as the weather really starts to heat up and the calendar turns over to the month of July… because that’s when Burgerville brings back their Walla Walla onion rings and raspberry lemonade. (though they need to update their website, as their Seasonal Menu page still lists strawberry items from the spring/early summer.

On Sunday, my wife and I got burgers, split a huge order of onion rings — so wonderful and greasy that you could nearly feel the fat coagulate in your arteries the second you swallowed — and washed it all down with the perfect summer drink that is the raspberry lemonade, on certain sips of which, raspberry bits shoot up the straw and explode in your mouth. Damn, but I’d like a gallon-sized jug of that by my desk today as the temperature continues to rise. It certainly didn’t hurt that we had our lunch at a nearly empty Cathedral Park and let the dog run around for a bit after we ate. (We didn’t quite walk the suggested 45 minutes to offset the fat intake, but were probably pretty close).

Yes, it’s fast food, and yes, maybe I sound like a corporate shill, but I just don’t care ’cause I just like it so damn much. It’s actually a good thing it’s seasonal just to give my heart a chance to recuperate from the onslaught during July and August.