The Wine Bar on Palafox

16 Palafox Place, Pensacola, FL 32502

Cheeseburger: $10.50

The Rules of the Pensacola Burger Tour are clear (see The Rules):

“The Panel evaluates each burger based on one criterion: TASTE.  They’re not concerned with ambiance, courtesy of the wait staff or the cleanliness of the restroom.”

In short, we’ll eat a burger anywhere.  The place doesn’t have to be fancy.

But wait.  What if the place IS fancy?  What if the place is called “The Wine Bar?”

What then?

Simple.  We eat the burger.  We score the burger.

I’m not going to lie- we’re most comfortable alongside blue collar folks on their lunch break; construction workers, truck drivers and used car salesmen.

We were definitely outside our element at the Wine Bar- elbow to elbow with Pensacola’s socially elite; bankers, attorneys and used car salesmen.

We’re not used to eating at places that offer a $40 cheese tray.  But we didn’t let that intimidate us.

We spoke of poetry, yachts and tennis club- trying desperately to fit in.  We let the Accountant and the Banker do all the talking.

Besides, we only came here for one reason; the burger.

The burger at The Wine Bar arrives fully dressed with the top bun in place.

Our Computer Whiz had it right when he said “One look at the kaiser roll and you think they got the bun wrong.  But after one bite you realize- they got the bun right.”  Usually kaiser rolls receive low scores from our panel- but this kaiser roll was the best we’ve had; perfect in size, smaller than most Kaiser rolls and soft.  While it received mixed reviews from our panel- most praised the way it functioned as a sponge, holding the burger together and soaking up all the delicious burger juice that drips from the generous patty.

The patty is a 1/2 lb. hand formed mixture of sirloin, ribeye and chuck cooked to order.  The beef is rich in true beef flavor and falls apart in your mouth.  Several Panel Members labeled the beef “Best of the Tour so far.”

The produce (lettuce, tomato, onion) was average and the condiments are only presented upon request.

The burger is topped with mild Tillamook cheddar cheese (research Tillamook here www.tillamook.com) It was melted perfectly but thought by many to be too mild in flavor.

While consistency may be a challenge for The Wine Bar, it finished with pocket 9s which was good enough to give it a final score of 7.83 (See Full Results HERE.)

That’s good enough to land it in first place (for now) but we still have plenty of stops left this Summer.

So, check out the Wine Bar.  Order the burger.  Let us know what you think.

Then check back next week as the Pensacola Burger Tour rolls on.