Burger Photo Gallery (click pictures to enlarge)

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THE JOINT

Bix is an upscale restaurant in the Jackson Square area of San Francisco, CA. It features a lavish interior straight from the 1930’s and has been serving award winning dishes since its opening in 1988.

I heard about Bix from the 7×7 Magazine‘s list of the top 10 burgers in San Francisco that I follow on Foodspotting. On this burger trip I happened to be in the city for a conference, and as soon as a booked the conference ticket, I scoped out the closest burger on my “to eat” list. Luckily, Bix was only a few blocks from the conference location and I had my car with handy navigation to help me get to where I needed to go.

When the nice navigation lady told me to take a left on Gold St I didn’t exactly believe her since Gold Street looked more like Gold “Alley”. I drove past and as I saw the “Bix” sign down the alley, I realized that once again, Navigation Lady knows best.

After a trip around the block I miraculously found a parking space right next to the Gold Street entrance. As I walked down the alley, with the full moon lighting the way to the door, I just knew this would be a burger experience to remember. Walking from the alleystreet and through the door into Bix was like walking into a time warp into a beautiful dining past where bars where made of mahogany, laughter filled the air, and the energy of the jazz music matched the energy of the diners sitting around their white clothed tables.

THE BURGER

After the maitre’d showed me to my table, I looked over the menu, pretending to deliberate on my dining choices. It’s funny, whenever I go to a fancy burger place, I feel like I have to hem and haw over the menu when all I want is try their fancy take on the great American burger.

It was actually good that I checked over the menu, because I saw a tasty looking salad on the menu as well as some truffled fries that seemed to be calling my name. The good thing about places with a fancy burger is that they usually have good drinks, so I ordered a spicy bloody mary as I waited for my meal to arrive.

You can get your Bix Club Bacon Cheeseburger cooked however you like, and since I’m a fan of “medium” for my steaks and burgers, that’s what I went with. I think this was most perfectly cooked medium burger I’ve tried so far. The burger had that nice, freshly formed, not-from-a-patty-stack, shape that I love with just a hint of brown around the medium pink center. They pan seared the burger to give it the outside crust. It took all the will power I could muster to cut into the burger to get the cross section photograph I posted above :)

I don’t know if they added any extra spice to this burger, but if they didn’t, they sure didn’t have to. Because the burger was so perfectly cooked, I could taste the complexity of the beef blend used to make up the hamburger. I’m not sure if I captured the juices in my photos, but I can assure you this cheesy burger was mouthwateringly good. It was so good that after my meal, I asked the waiter about the beef and he told me that it was a custom blend that Bix sourced locally from 4504 Meats in San Francisco. I didn’t ask about the bacon, but my guess is that it was hickory smoked, because unlike most bacon cheeseburgers where the bacon just adds texture, I could actually taste the distinct bacony flavor on top of the beefiness of the burger. The used a quality poppyseed bun for the burger holder, but since I’m not a big fan of poppyseeds, I can’t give extra points there.

I got the truffled fries as a side dish and it came out with a trio of dipping sauces including ketchup, a house sauce mixture that had marrow mixed in for flavor and a mayo aioli dip. The fries didn’t need either sauce because not only were they crisp and chewy, the truffle flavor was outstanding its own. The bloody mary was the only shadow in this shining meal. It was small and a little too simple for my tastes…but this is a burger blog and not bloodymarys.me, so that’s probably neither here nor there :)

THE VERDICT

It’s easy to see why the burger at Bix was rated one of the best burgers in San Francisco. Although it hits your wallet for almost $20 ($16.50 during happy hour), you really feel like you get your money’s worth when you dig into this fancy burger. I call it fancy because of the restaurant it was in, but this was truly a simple bacon cheeseburger that was done right.

I can’t wait to return to Bix on the next date night my wife and I take in the city. I’ll definitely have the burger again, but there were a few other items on the menu that I may have to sample off of her plate.

Tags: 7x7, bacon, best burger, featured