Gunslingers shoots to top of best burgers list

The arms race to build a bigger, more beastly and flat-out bonkers hamburger has reached new heights in San Antonio with the opening of Gunslingers at

Los Patios on the North Side near Loop 410 and Harry Wurzbach Road.

The restaurant’s “Monte Cristo Burger AKA Doc Holliday” ($13), is an over-the-top lunch vs. brunch shootout featuring a half-pound patty cooked to order and topped with two fat slabs of nicely griddled ham piled onto a bun that’s been dunked in waffle batter and fried to a golden crisp.

Oodles of cheddar cheese, chipotle mayo, strawberry jam and powdered sugar help this swaggering burger hit the Monte Cristo mark.

I recently gave the Doc Holliday a try, and with beef juice, grease from the bun and spicy mayo running past my wrists and defiling a herd of napkins, I swear I could hear that burger whispering, “I’m your huckleberry” a la “Tombstone.” This newcomer quickly shot down all the previous burger-of-the-year contenders I’ve tasted in 2021.

I couldn’t finish it, and apparently this hedonistic hamburger beats most appetites. My server said many customers cut it in half before they even get started, saving the remainder for a midnight snack.

Gunslingers serves seven burgers, many of them similarly larger-than-life, such as the Bacon Mac Burger AKA Wyatt Earp, topped with bacon, and mac and cheese, and the Concha Burger AKA Sally Scull served on a colorful concha as the bun.

While the burgers are obviously Gunslinger’s stars, the menu’s supporting cast of sides turned in fine performances as

well. The Coffee Blackened Wings AKA Jim Roberts ($12) had a pleasing note of caffeine punctuated with tons of funky black garlic. Black garlic stole the spotlight again in an outrageously oversize order of Black Garlic Curly Fries ($7), which are shoestring thin and fried to a perfectly addictive crisp.

Gunslingers is the first dine-in

restaurant from the team of chefs Stephen Paprocki, who also owns Texas Black Gold Garlic (hence that ingredient’s prominence on the menu), and Adrian Cruz. The two have been running the delivery- and pick-uponly Ghost Kitchens SA out of the property since January.

The new effort is sort of a merger of concepts in practice,

resulting in a low-contact environment that still feels hospitable. You seat yourself wherever you like, scan a QR code at the table (both indoor and patio seating are available), then order and pay from your phone.

That order goes straight to the kitchen, and when it’s ready, a server will appear with the goods. While it may not feel

exactly like a full-service eatery, I promise it’s a shot worth taking.

Gunslingers, 2015 NE Loop 410 in Los Patios, 210-854-4479, gunslingerssa.com, Facebook: @Gunslingers2021.

Paul Stephen / Staff The Monte Cristo Burger AKA Doc Holliday features a half-pound beef patty, slabs of griddled ham and cheddar cheese on a bun dipped in waffle batter and fried.