There’s just something about a small town on a pretty spring day.

This time, Burger Bounce took us to Billy G’s, right in the heart of downtown Kirkwood , a place that feels equal parts charming and busy, especially on a Saturday when the weather is just right.

Parking was… an adventure. Between the sunshine and the weekend crowd, spots were hard to come by, but I eventually parked in the 2 hour lot tucked behind everything and made my way in.

The building itself is hard to miss, tall and full of that classic brick charm that fits perfectly with the feel of the town.

We started with toasted ravioli (because when you’re in St. Louis, you kind of have to). They were good overall… crispy, hot, and exactly what you expect… but the meat inside could’ve used a little more flavor. Not bad at all, just missing that extra something. The kind of thing you notice but still keep eating anyway.

For my burger, I decided to build my own. I kept it simple: a classic patty with pepper jack cheese and caramelized onions. I skipped the jalapeños this time because I really wanted to taste the burger itself. It was good, solid. The caramelized onions and cheese added nice flavor, but I’ll admit, I found myself wishing I had added a sauce or something to bring it all together. Not dry exactly, just… missing that extra layer. The burger itself was also a little thicker than I usually prefer, and like the ravioli, it could’ve used a bit more seasoning. Even just a touch more salt and pepper would’ve gone a long way.

Side note: I ordered the sweet potato fries instead of regular… they did not disappoint!

But here’s the thing…

Not every stop has to be perfect to be enjoyable.

The atmosphere was steady and lively without being overwhelming. The outdoor seating looked inviting (especially on a day like that), and the whole place just had a really good energy to it.

Jake’s take:

Billy G’s in downtown Kirkwood is a sweet spot. This isn’t the type of area that I visit often, if ever, but I’m glad we got the chance. Even if the parking wasn’t necessarily perfect, with us having to find a lot to get situated in and that lot having a time limit of ~2 hours, we couldn’t sit about and gab as much as we normally do. Quite alright, no issues there I supposed. There was quite a large, open area outside with spacious patio seating, and we would’ve opted for that given the weather being nice and all, but things were packed and constrained at the time. We instead found ourselves at a high-top table inside, back by their large selection of wine and right underneath a television playing a golf match. Not my ideal seating, but again, things were hopping.

​For our appetizer, we went with the old standby of toasted ravioli. We tend to gravitate towards newer options to try, but plenty on the menu were either allergen-prone or not really suiting our tastes. So, ravioli it was. And it was fine; the marinara dip was the real star of the show here. The ravioli itself was a bit bland; you could tell that they either didn’t season their meat or maybe the oil in the fryer was starting to stale? Though you can usually tell when it’s the latter. The marinara covered this up well, so I was basically eating extremely hot tortilla chips and dipping them in red sauce. Just fine.

The burger I ordered was the Smokehouse. Two things I overlooked (because apparently this past year, I’ve just forgotten how to read): the burger comes with bacon and it has a “fried onion”, not crispy onion straws which I had completely made up when I ordered. It wasn’t bad, usually burgers like this that have a whole onion ring will end up being much taller than I can stand. And if a burger has bacon, I need to tell them to start cutting back on it because it’s overpowering. At least in this case, the barbeque sauce and the soft cheddar combined took control of the burger’s other tastes, and I had an enjoyable experience! The burger was a good one, that I can deny, and the bun had more give than I’m used to with a brioche as well. It was more of a medium well than a medium, but now I’m splitting hairs. I had a good meal, nevertheless.

At the end of the day, the best part wasn’t the burger anyway.

It was the time. The conversation. The memories we’re building in between all of these little stops.

And that part? Always delivers.

With love, 

Mindy