Long, hot days on the beach, and booze-infused nights call for serious nutrient replenishment. Enter the cheeseburger - all five food groups stacked to perfection in one delicious bite. For our latest SoWal list, we took on the painstaking task of narrowing down some of our top burgers. And yes…we tried them all!
If we missed your favorite, say your piece in the comments below. Whatever you do, grab a good burger and help save millions of innocent plants from slaughter. Except potatoes. They go with the burgers in the form of glorious fries (no corn starch coatings please)!
Marie’s Bistro
Marie’s All-American Cheeseburger is a ½ lb of hand pattied Black Angus beef that’s best grilled to order at medium or medium-rare temperature. The good basic burger is topped with tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle. Or you can fancy it up and get Marie’s Bistro Burger topped with a blend of feta, tomato and Kalamata olives. Blue Mountain Beach
The Bay
The Bay's classic Bay Burger is made with two 3 oz. patties of 80% lean chuck and a 20% blend of pork and beef fat to keep it light, as opposed to a dense, heavy burger. Keep it simple with lettuce, tomato and onion, or opt to make it a bacon cheeseburger.
If you want to kick it up a notch, order the Bomber Burger that was featured on Emeril’s Florida. Chef Jim Shirley’s Super and Street sauces are simple with a couple of secret ingredients that bring out the key flavors in the burger. Santa Rosa Beach
Seagrove Village Market Café
Seagrove Village Market Café is a perfect hole-in-the-wall lunchtime spot that’s been slingin’ burgers since 1949. Their Famous Market Burger is a low fat brisket blend grilled on a flat top so there’s practically zero shrinkage. That makes for a true ½ lb. burger bomb.
Owners George and Ann Hartley are marvelous storytellers. Legend has it that on one fateful day George cooked 4-5 different kinds of fries and took the baskets out for the customers to try. In a near unanimous decision, the customers picked the fries that Seagrove Village Market Café serves to this day, and George wouldn’t have it any other way.
Seagrove Village Market Café gives you opportunities galore to embrace your inner glutton, hence the Southern Burger topped with homemade jalapeno pimento cheese, the BBQ Bacon Burger topped with coleslaw or you can make your own burger topped with anything from avocado to mushroom Swiss. Seagrove Beach
Destin Diner
This truly absorbent phenomenon is a novelty at the Destin Diner and tops the list as one of the best burgers in town. The lean, dense burger made with all natural beef is slow cooked to medium well and never squished so it holds all those juices that run down your hands when you take that first bite. The old fashioned cheeseburger - served with awesome fries and topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and a pickle on a sesame seed bun - is similar to the version that has sobered up many a Red Bar patron at the diner's sister location in Grayton Beach.
The iconic silver diner serves handmade milkshakes, with booze or without, that complement the classic burger perfectly. Swing by for local’s night every Tuesday for 1/2 off drinks and 20% off food. Or stop in late on Friday and Saturday nights, from 10 pm-2 am, and build your own burger with all the toppings you want for $1 more. Destin
Johnny McTighe’s Irish Pub
McTighe’s is loaded with kitschy charm and just happens to serve one of the most ridiculously delicious cheeseburgers in SoWal. The Pub Burger is 100% Irish/American Angus Beef served with a kosher dill pickle spear and seasoned shoestring fries that make the meal. People watching at McTighe’s should be an Olympic sport. Word to the wise: DO NOT order decaf coffee at an Irish Pub, lest you be laughed at and treated with sarcasm. Blue Mountain Beach
