So you say that you have a car that needs cleaning, and you really need to get some laundry done before work tomorrow, but you would like to go grab a beer and listen to some live music and keep tabs on your child playing outside while you eat an organically acceptable burger? Wow, I have the place for you then!
Located in Five Points (the place in San Antonio where five streets come together), is the Cove and they fit the bill for everything mentioned above. Recently hailed by Texas Monthly as having one of the best burgers in the state, I had to go check them out.
I went on a Friday night, and let me just say that the place was absolutely jumpin’! The restaurant is separated into three unique areas: (1) the place where you order (you can see through to the people at the Laundromat), (2) a bar area where you can eat and listen to live music, and (3) an outside area with a playground that made my inner 7 year old jealous! The line was pretty long and you have to wait in it a while before getting to order your food; it winds inside this little room where you finally get to order your food. That and the fact that your soda refills are also in that little room would be my only knock on the place.
After getting finally getting to order, I opted for the SOB Burger which has Grilled Ham, Avacado, Jack Cheese, and Spicy Mustard. I didn’t know if they replaced the burger with the grilled ham, or if they just added it on top, but in either case, I asked them to hold that off my hamburger. I got a side of organic sweet potato fries for a buck more. While waiting in line, I saw this organic soda fountain that made their sodas with real imperial sugar instead of corn syrup. I knew that I absolutely had to try this out, so I got a cup and filled it up with the Black Cherry soda. I highly recommend this as it was the perfect drink to quench your thirst after a hot summer day.
We went to find a place to sit, but the bar area was absolutely bumpin’ it (read: it was packed!)! There was absolutely no place for us to sit, so while some band was covering Bob Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street,” we made our way outside to the picnic tables. You could still hear the band and it was a nice area to sit and talk.
The burger was pretty good, the avocado and spicy mustard blended together to make a really good sauce. While it wasn’t all that greasy, it did have a nice taste to it. But what really stole the show were the sweet potato fries! I really really really love sweet potato fries and they are always a treat when you can find some good ones! Normally, I like them with a brown sugar type sauce, but they had a different sauce that complimented them nicely. I also had to fight my way through the line to get another refill of my Black Cherry soda 😉
Lastly, I would like to talk about the randomness of people who were there: you had young people, old people, middle aged people, and little kids; there were straight laced folks and the new rockabilly crowd that were tatted up; there were healthy eaters and those just looking for a good burger; the one commonality was that people were there for a good time and most were sitting side by side. The Cove is almost like a little utopia of humanity.
This is a great venue for food and fun; next time your car has “Wash Me” written on it, grab some quarters for the car wash and an appetite for some good food.
Value: 7/10 (the organic stuff gets a little expensive, but $12 (sans beer) for dinner is not outrageous)
Atmosphere: 10/10 (if you go outside and see the playground, you’ll wish you were a kid again (don’t worry there are some ping pong tables for the big kids); if you stay inside your ear will be treated to some good tunes; and how can you knock a place where you see people doing laundry as you order?)
Service: 9/10 (I think that the service was spectacular, however, I think that they need to get their whole ordering process ironed out – expect to wait in line for a while instead of ordering at your table)
Taste: 8.5/10 (burgers were good but not slap your mama, the sweet potato fries and imperial sugar fountain drinks really brought it through)
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