May is such a great month! I mean we have so many great things to celebrate and be excited about in May: we are well into spring, beach weather starts to roll in, dolphin starts running off Florida’s east coast, baseball is in full swing, NBA playoffs, Mother’s Day….and Floored by Food’s favorite.…May is National Hamburger Month. This May I am going to take you to four of the best places in South Florida to find ground beef masterpieces. Kicking off my Hamburger Month honors is a place with a name that is simply irresistible to any self proclaimed food lover. It’s a place called GREASE Burger Bar….and it is AWESOME!!!!
GREASE Burger Bar is proof that Big Time Restaurant Group knows how to consistently deliver a good product. They are experts at serving really good food in an environment that is always great fun. Their portfolio of restaurants includes Rocco’s Taco’s, City Cellar, Big City Tavern and City Oyster Bar. Most of these are spread out across southeast Florida. Big Time’s restaurants are the types of places where just the excitement of sharing the overall experience with a group of friends, will keep bringing you back.
This Place is really easy to find. As you drive down Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach you cannot help but be attracted to the sight of a full size longhorn steer standing atop an outstretched ledge, behind a big, bright neon marquee that simply reads GREASE.
West Palm Beach is a good sized city with a nice little downtown area, but it’s no Boston, New York or Chicago. GREASE Burger Bar, however, transports you into a big city pub right away. The place is long and slender with a Chicago brick covered wall, adorned by nostalgic black and white photos, running down one side, of the restaurant. The other side has a long wood topped bar that stands in front of a wall covered in rich fire-engine red columns that frame out mirrored sections of hanging flat screens and well stocked shelves of spirits. Along the back wall you find a panoramic chalk board that displays the well over 100 different craft beers they serve. Their bartender Gabriel said it best, “This place has a real northeast-pub type feel.” Being that Gabriel is from Boston, and I grew up in Miami, I’m going to bow to his better knowledge.
West Palm Beach is a good sized city with a nice little downtown area, but it’s no Boston, New York or Chicago. GREASE Burger Bar, however, transports you into a big city pub right away. The place is long and slender with a Chicago brick covered wall, adorned by nostalgic black and white photos, running down one side, of the restaurant. The other side has a long wood topped bar that stands in front of a wall covered in rich fire-engine red columns that frame out mirrored sections of hanging flat screens and well stocked shelves of spirits. Along the back wall you find a panoramic chalk board that displays the well over 100 different craft beers they serve. Their bartender Gabriel said it best, “This place has a real northeast-pub type feel.” Being that Gabriel is from Boston, and I grew up in Miami, I’m going to bow to his better knowledge.
I started to review the GREASE menu while enjoying a pint of Arrogant Bastard, a rich American red ale that is served on tap. Making a decision on what to have was not going to be easy. GREASE starts off by freshly grinding their beef daily, and hand forming it into perfect 10 oz. patties. This means even the Classic Burger is going to be a good burger. They offer a Chili Burger, BBQ Burger, Turkey Burger, even a Veggie Burger. Then there are the burgers that have a lot going on like the Black and Blue Burger or the PB Illustrated “A-List” Burger that is piled with fresh mozzarella, red and yellow tomatoes, radicchio, red onions and pesto. I was just about sold on the A-List when my jaw dropped as I read about “The GREASE Beast.” It was a no brainer at that point. Give me a minute here and I’ll make your jaw drop too.
Should you be one of those rare individuals (I’m convinced these people are all possessed by aliens) who do not like burgers, there is plenty on the menu to keep you happy as well. You can opt for a bowl of chili, Greek salad, Classic Rueben, a Honey-Mustard Chicken Breast Sandwich, or a Blackened Mahi-Mahi Sandwich served with grilled pineapple and a homemade creole mayo. Truthfully, if I wasn’t honoring National Burger Month I likely would have steered to one of their Bratwurst plates. These brats are cooked in Arrogant Bastard Ale with onions and butter. GREASE serves the brats a variety of different ways, but I have to say the “Hey Dere!” Wisconsin Style Brat, plated with bacon, mushrooms, onions and pickles, definitely caught my eye.
Now it was time to order….Gabriel….get back over here, I’ve made up my mind. I went for the GREASE Beast (was there ever any doubt) and had an order of BBQ spiced chips while I waited for my beast to arrive. By this time, I had made it to the bottom of the pint and was looking over the long list of beers on the back side of the menu.
Most places have a wine list, GREASE has a craft beer list. Their list includes amber ales, Belgian wheats, fruit flavored beers, IPAs, porters, pilsners, stouts, bocks….the list goes on and on. I settled on a Flying Dog IPA called Raging Bitch. I took one sip and thought, “That beer’s F*#@ing Awesome!” Turns out, Flying Dog, is a small brewer in Maryland that works damn hard at cranking out a wide selection of phenomenal, full flavored craft beers.
Moments later my warm BBQ spiced chips arrived. These are homemade potato chips dusted with Rocco’s secret BBQ seasoning. Now I’m not really a betting man, but I’m willing to wager it’s the same sprinkling of awesomeness that they put on the tortilla chips at Rocco’s Taco’s. This stuff will have you fighting your friends for every last little crumb. GREASE serves these with a side of super chunky and creamy blue cheese dressing for dipping.
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| Let Me Reinsert My Eyeballs!!! |
After a few more sips of my Raging Bitch and downing a hand full of blue cheese dipped chips, Gabriel pulls up with a colossal display of gastronomic beauty. To quote the late Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich, I simply thought “Let me reinsert my eyeballs!” Sitting before me was a tower at least 10 inches tall that dared to call itself a burger, but decided to go by the name of “Beast.” The Beast took one look at a hamburger bun and said in a weekend-late-night-show-skit Austrian accent, “you little girly man, you’re not pumped-up enough to hold up my tower of taste!” You see The Beast takes two bacon grilled cheese sandwiches and uses them as buns. Between the two bacon grilled cheeses you find a mountain of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, a perfectly cooked juicy 10oz burger patty, French fries and onion rings. Wait, we’`re not done yet. GREASE then takes its own cheese sauce to the Beast, generously drizzles it with ranch dressing and tops it off with a crisp pickle spear.
When Big Time Restaurant Group decided to open up their GREASE Burger Bar, the Hamburger God’s were certainly smiling down on them. I have to say, after being Floored by Food at the mercy of The Grease Beast, I can’t wait to see what other great burgers lie in front of me as I continue to share with you my celebration of National Hamburger Month.
