B.O.M.B. Awards: Best Burger

If mullet and grouper are our local delicacies in Manatee County, the cheeseburger in paradise is a close third. Manatee may well have more top-shelf, iconic burger joints per capita than any place in Florida, maybe even the United States for that matter. Picking the best isn’t easy and locals tend to be fiercely loyal to their favorites, but we think one stands out above the rest.

Shake Pit on Manatee Avenue has been in business in its original location since 1959. It is a living piece of history, a prime example of the roadside burger stands that once littered the landscape of Americana but have become an endangered species at the hands of fast food and sit-down chains. Their burger isn’t exotic, and it isn’t the biggest and juiciest in town, but it’s a perfect example of the American standard: a thin, cooked all the way through patty on a moist bun with a little lettuce, a slice of tomato, pickle and fresh onion–add bacon and/or cheese if you please. The beef comes fresh daily from just up the street at the Chop Shop, where quality always counts.

You can take up an indoor seat at the lunch counter or small tables when available, or take your burger al fresco, opting for the picnic benches on the open air patio and watching cars pass by on Manatee Avenue. A favorite of both Manatee High and St. Stephen’s students, the Shake Pit is a popular after school hang out and the place to be after sporting events for either of the nearby schools. In a city filled with great burgers, this is our favorite by a narrow and much debated margin.

Honorable Mention

Council’s Recreation: Council’s is the hands-down favorite of the downtown business crowd and on any given day, you will find businessmen, lawyers, judges and politicians, sitting next to all manners of laborers and service employees in this iconic burger joint. It looked like Council’s might be lost to history earlier this year when third-generation burgermeister Lawton Smith decided to hang up his spatula, but new owners Kimberly Duffy and Sandi Wagner came to the rescue and are continuing the tradition with expanded hours and the same historic griddle Lawton’s grandaddy used to flip beef on.

A Council’s burger is delicious in its own right and hasn’t lost a thing under the restaurant's new ownership. As Lawton always said, the magic is in his granddaddy’s griddle. We’ll concede that the preference between any of these top burgers is a matter of personal taste, and there are certainly a lot of people in Manatee County who would put Council’s in the top spot (indeed it is the favorite of TBT publisher Joe McClash). Opened in 1936 and in the same spot since 1954, this pool hall with a burger counter is also an indelible part of Manatee County history.

Skinny’s: The Holmes Beach landmark makes a big, juicy burger that never fails to hit the spot after a long day of soaking up rays in the sand and surf. Throw in the ice-cold beers, glass bottle sodas and occasional availability of tater-tots and this old-Florida cracker shack is another burger joint that would be number one in a walk in most towns.