Burger Dive @ Bay Street – St. Paul, MN

I’m not going to try to explain Burger Dive’s business model in detail, but I’ll explain it as well as I can. There’s a couple of guys that love burgers and they’ve set up some sort of burger operation in the kitchens of multiple dive bars. They’ve got one in Potluck in the Rosedale Mall and they’ve got another in Bay Street in St. Paul. I don’t know the ins and outs, but I do know they know their way around a burger. 

D and SalsaSandwich were having a sister day, so they invited me to come along and have a burger with them, since SalsaSandwich loves a monumental burger. The choices on the menu were challenging, so some decisions had to be made. To buy us some time, we ordered some jalapeno cheese curds, which ended up being the right call. Plenty of jalapenos on top, and potentially inside the curds, as well. Hard to tell since it was dark in the dive bar that is the lovely Bay Street Bar. These folks clearly know their way around a deep fryer, as well, so we had high hopes for the burgers.

 

Once I had decided, the server came back and told me about the special of the month – a grilled cheese burger. Well that ruined everything since now all I could think about was the burger he described to me. I caved and had to go with the special, mainly because any of the other burgers, I could just come back and get them whenever I wanted to. I made my decision and had to stick with it.

 

The grilled cheese burger is two smashed patties on buttered toast with American cheese, cheddar cheese, cheddar aioli, and sliced tomato. All of this served with a little cup of tomato soup to dip it in. This thing was killer. Crispy edges on the burger patties and the right amount of cheese – not even a sloppy amount – just nailed it. The soup was really quite delicious to dip the burger into and the whole thing really came together even better than I expected it to. If they ever offer this burger again, I’ll be the first in line to get one. Super good. 

My apologies for not taking any other pics of burgers, since as soon as they hit the table, they were smashed directly into faces (we were a little hungry this particular day). But the fact that SalsaSandwich ate absolutely every bite of burger and every french fry and didn’t bring anything home was a testament to how good these monstrous burgers were. We’ll be back!

Top 5 things about Burger Dive at Bay Street

1. Grilled Cheese Burger

2. Very robust menu

3. Jalapeno Cheese Curds

4. They have pull tabs!

5. Outside seating area for the warmer days

 

Bottom 5 things

1. It’s hard to explain that it’s a restaurant inside a dive bar, that’s called something different

2. It’s a dive bar, so set your expectations accordingly (it’s perfectly safe to go there, I promise)

3. There’s really not anything bad about this place, honestly

4. 

5.

 

www.burgerdivemn.com