Good Time Charlie’s burgers score

Chicken-fried steak is also top-notch

Throw in a band and a few battling rednecks, and Good Time Charlie’s could be the set of Patrick Swayze’s “Roadhouse.” It’s packed and loud, the draft beer’s domestic, and light the color of a hangover spills across walls covered with 40 years’ worth of barroom memorabilia.

Good Time Charlie’s used to be a rowdier place when it opened in 1979 and hosted live music to get people in the door. But the owners toned things down in 1985 to concentrate on food, and readers of the Express-News gave Good Time Charlie’s the Burger Madness crown in a tournament-style throwdown in 2012.

Solid burgers, diner-style friendliness and a mean chickenfried steak keep things going at Good Time Charlie’s, all the way to midnight seven days a week.

Best burger: Steak con queso is one of those oddball San Antonio specialties, and here it’s chunks of sirloin smothered in the stuff. That same aesthetic applies to the jalapeño queso burger ($8.95), with a compact patty of fresh beef cooked until it’s gray, then reanimated with hot cheese, chiles and tomatoes and an avalanche of pickled jalapeño, starting from a baseline of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles on a toasted sesame bun.

Other burgers: The kitchen shows respect for another San Antonio standard, the bean burger ($7.25). With a fat slab of

cheddar, the same fresh beef, a thick layer of salsa, crumbled tortilla chips and a schmear of refried beans, it’s a celebration of Tex-Mex textures and flavors.

A straightforward bacon cheeseburger ($8.25) didn’t give its overcooked patty anywhere to hide. But the kitchen dialed back on a patty melt with a little pink showing, helped further along with sweet grilled onions and cheddar on rye bread. With fries for $9.25, it’s one of the cafe’s best values.

Fried sides: An order of thin fries with a little skin in the game costs $3.95, and they’ll satisfy your need for something hot, crunchy, shiny and salty. But the big show belongs to a $10.25 basket poetically called Nuts, Bolts & Rings. It’s a sampler of shaggy hand-breaded onion rings, zucchini and mushrooms with sides of ranch and cream gravy for slam-dunking.

Mavericks: Good Time Charlie’s other big draw is a classic Texas chicken-fried steak ($10.95), pounded out big and fried to a golden-brown shale on the outside with some pull and chew left on the beef inside. The cream gravy’s as thick as the mashed potatoes on the side.

Mike Sutter / Staff Good Time Charlie’s can load the table with burgers, steaks and an array of fried sides.