Santa Clara’s new Texas-inspired Grub Burger Bar
Unofficial slogan: Do you want Shiner Bock onion rings with your order?
The newest player in the Bay Area burger scene is Grub Burger Bar, a Texas-born cult favorite making headway in Southern California and finally the Bay Area.
At the new location in Santa Clara, wild and saucy burgers (think scorpion sauce or absinthe-sauteed mushrooms) and beerbattered onion rings (Shiner Bock, naturally) share the menu with chicken and salmon sandwiches and bowls.
We braved the lunchtime lines to check it out.
THE VIBE >> A modern, lively take on fast-casual cuisine, with high tables, a large central bar, patio, flat-screen TVs and a loud soundtrack. You order at the counter and your order is delivered to you; or you can skip the line if you eat at the bar. Since it opened, Grub has been swamped, particularly with employees from nearby Apple and the Kaiser Santa Clara medical center across the street. (Don’t judge: Maybe your cardiologist is there ordering the wild salmon salad and not the Mac N Cheese Burger.)
THE FOOD >> What differentiates this burger place from others are the house-made sauces at the help-yourself sauce bar — and the onion rings. Seriously, this is Onion Ring Central, with the Shiner Bock for the beer batter going straight from the taps at the bar to the kitchen. Some burgers come with stacks of piping-hot onion rings. Even if you don’t order a burger with rings you get one — it will be speared to the top of your sandwich with a knife.
Best-selling burgers include the Lockhart Legend ($9.50), with applewoodsmoked bacon, cheddar cheese, onion rings and Dr Pepper barbecue sauce, and the Guacapotle ($9.25) with homemade guacamole, chipotle aioli and cheddar. And the foodies of Silicon Valley have made the wagyu burger ($15.95, includes onion rings) way more popular here than at other locations, we’re told, so pat yourselves on your sophisticated backs for that choice.
At the sauce bar you’ll find that sweet barbecue one (it’s served warm) along with a fairly tame chipotle ketchup and Grub Sauce, which is special sauce jacked up with black pepper.
Besides beer and cocktails, the bar serves spiked milkshakes ($8.95). There’s the Bourbon & Caramel, the Boozy Mint Chocolate Chip and the hilariously named ET Drunk Dial, which is pretty much what that implies: Chocolate vodka, Reese’s Pieces, peanut butter, chocolate and a peanut butter cookie.
PERFECT FOR … >> Lunch or dinner with coworkers. A quick bite if you can’t tolerate the commute traffic on Lawrence Expressway — or if you spent an hour searching for parking at Kaiser.
DETAILS >> Open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until 11 p.m. FridaySaturday. 785 Lawrence Expressway, Santa Clara; 408-400-3374; www.grubburgerbar.com.