I&rsquo;m not sure a hamburger needs to go gourmet.</p><p>A carelessly tended yard burger, charred and flavored with grill gunk, can come as close to culinary heaven in my book as seared foie gras in Calvados.</p><p>But let&rsquo;s assume, in fact, you want a gourmet burger. You&rsquo;ve come to the right place at the <strong>Burger Stand at Dempsey&rsquo;s </strong>in downtown Lawrence. Your mouth is watering in anticipation before you walk in because the Stand is co-owned by acclaimed chef Robert Krause of the spectacularly expensive and excellent Krause Dining.</p><p>Krause and his partner, former sous chef and longtime friend Simon Bates, opened the Burger Stand in February, running the operation out of a corner of an existing Irish pub, Dempsey&rsquo;s.</p><p>The restaurant-without-a-dining-room concept only adds to the Burger Stand&rsquo;s cachet initially, as you make your way past college kids drinking Guinness to a small cash register and chalkboard at the back of a long wooden bar. </p><p>But the thrill wanes rapidly after you place your order and discover you&rsquo;re on your own to jockey for one of the bar&rsquo;s booths or tall tables. The Burger Stand&rsquo;s prices are low compared to other gourmet burger places, and you don&rsquo;t get what you don&rsquo;t pay for &mdash; table service and comfortable seating, in this case. </p><p>Tip No. 1: Order carryout and have a picnic at Riverfront Park.</p><p>All the hamburgers at the Burger Stand (except the Kobe) are made from a ground mix of tenderloin, strip steak and rib eye. Not surprisingly, those lean cuts yield a lean burger. My companions and I all found the burgers tasty but on the dry side, and not from overcooking. </p><p>The chalkboard says burgers are cooked to &ldquo;medium&rdquo; unless otherwise specified. Judging from the four we tried, &ldquo;medium&rdquo; at the Burger Stand means really, really pink inside. I like my steak rare, but ground beef that is not cooked all the way through has a mushy texture none of us cared for.</p><p>Tip No. 2: Order your burgers well-done.</p><p>As for toppings, the Classic was the winner. Straightforward with Vermont cheddar on a toasted brioche bun, it was a pleasing combination, although the flavor of the sprinkling of microgreens was lost under the beef, bread and cheese.</p><p>More tragically, we couldn&rsquo;t taste the cheese in the Black & Blue. The burger was delicious, but the blackening spice and apple chutney masked the mild Danish blue entirely. </p><p>We liked the pickled red onion and truffle butter on the Kobe burger, but the Pancetta & Mozzarella burger was better deconstructed than eaten as assembled.</p><p>The sweet potato fries, truffle fries and regular fries were all hot and crispy and good. But the duck fat fries, which I&rsquo;d been looking forward to, having feasted on goose fat pommes frites when I lived in France, were disappointing: soggy with an overly assertive duck fat flavor.</p><p>I was also let down when we didn&rsquo;t get the trio of house-made dipping sauces I&rsquo;d heard raves about. The menu says &ldquo;baskets&rdquo; of fries are served with three sauces: cherry-pepper ketchup, guadillo-chili dip and parmesan-roasted garlic aioli. I failed to get the fact that individual sides of fries don&rsquo;t come with the sauce trio. I hate weird menu conditions like that. If I&rsquo;m paying $12 or more for a burger, fries and a drink, just throw in the sauces.</p><p>Tip No. 3: Share a basket of fries instead of ordering them individually. </p><p>When we were finished eating, we were sated and ready to romp around campus and Massachusetts Street. But later, the conversation turned curiously to really good greasy burger joints, and I decided we needed to check out a couple more to see how they compared to the worthy offerings at the Burger Stand.