This bordello-style burger den in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is named for the temperature difference between medium-rare and well-done.

Tourist families fresh from the Chinese Theatre courtyard mix with band members and local lovelies en route to the hotel's poolside Tropicana Bar to open wide for the $12 challenge, a half-pound of beef topped with blue cheese, bacon, arugula and caramelized onions. An order of the crisp, thin fries are a must for the table, if only to sample the dipping sauces like tarragon remoulade, lemon dill and garlic aioli. Milkshakes, bottled sodas (including Squirt!) and a large selection of wines by the half-bottle complete the decadent meal. Between bites at the bar or in one of the half-circle oxblood leather booths, diners shout over piped-in chords from The Killers to marvel at the decor, cloaked in patterned red velvet wallpaper, darkness, chrome mirrors and, behind the bar, flat-screen TVs programmed with fare like Napoleon Dynamite. The only flaw in the look is the we-don't-wear-uniforms uniforms forced upon the staff, which include jeans (sure, fine) and Ed Hardy T-shirts (sigh). —Lonny Pugh