Address: 3500 4th St N, St Petersburg, FL 33704
Phone:(727) 521-1314
Hours: Daily 11:00am - 11:00 pm
Extras: Outdoor seating that is dog and smoker friendly
Website: N/A El Cap FB Page (unofficial)
(Scroll to the bottom for a quick rating/review)
Summer break just started. The Rays are doing pretty damn well so far (yeah, I know it’s only June) and the Bolts are fighting for the Stanley Cup. Live is good!
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| courtesy of TB Rays - instagram.com/raysbaseball |
So I’m driving home from Tampa with my 15 year old son and we’re starving. It’s 3pm and we didn’t eat lunch. I try to persuade him into going to the drive thru at PDQ on the way home, but the boy wants a burger. Truly, my boy ALWAYS wants a burger. I was in no way interested in drive thru burger… BLECH!
As we’re crossing the Gandy Bridge, I start racking my brain for burger joints on 4th street…and it hits me - EL CAP!! I hadn’t’ been to El Cap in YEARS, about 6 to be exact. Immediately my son starts quizzing me about El Cap. This is a kid who use to believe that Five Guys burgers were truly ‘world famous’. I wasn’t quite sure how describe El Cap in a way that a 15 year old kid might understand and then it hit me. “Well, you know that show, Diners-Drive Ins and Dives?” My son says, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, I’m fairly certain that Guy Fieri would go to El Cap if he was in town. It’s one of those places he would call a dive.” Just when I was certain he’d start to complain and want to go to Checkers, he blurts out, “Yeah, lets go there!” My sales pitch worked!!
We walk in and El Cap is exactly how it was 6 years ago. That’s the beauty of dives, they don’t try to reinvent themselves and become something they’re not. El Cap is a neighborhood joint that is a gathering place for regulars along with a consistent smattering of those of us who heard the rumors about this joint with deliciously sloppy burgers.
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| The southern 'wing' - a.k.a main enterance |
El Cap has been around almost 30 years and I’ve been told they grind their own meat. It’s a family own establishment and you’ll be treated like family when you’re there and here’s what I mean any that …. You likely won’t be greeted at the door when you arrive, just look around and find a seat. You’ll hear friendly bantering between the employees and customers, along with some heated sports talk and some local gossip too. You may need to repeat your order a second time just to make sure it’s understood. You might need to give your waitress a friendly reminder that you’ve order x, y or z to go with your burger. Oh, and you can feel free to grab any waitress to help you out as they all seem to tag team tables, at least they did the afternoon we were there. But hey, you’re at the neighborhood dive, don’t expect garçon with a towel thrown over his wrist!
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| the drink selection |
My son ordered a double bacon cheese burger (medium well with american cheese) catchup only and a side to tater tots! Yes, TOTS! I ordered the same burger (medium rare with cheddar) with all the fixings except onion (should have gotten grilled onions, but I wasn’t thinking!) and tomato, plus a side of onion rings.
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| my son's burger |
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| my burger after it was 'fixed' |
The menu is mainly burgers, but there are some old school favorites like fish sticks, a BLT, ham & cheese and chili or kraut dogs. There is even liverwurst on the menu. As a child of the 70’s, just promise me you’ll eat that liverwurst on white bread as it’s meant to be eaten! Better yet, El Cap should consider serving it with Fritos!
When our burgers arrived, I could tell that my son got cheddar and I got american (I loath american, reminds me of overly processed plastic). Mine was also missing the bacon. I kindly point it out to the waitress and she quickly took my burger back to the kitchen, I promptly got a slice of unmelted cheddar and some bacon thrown on the burger. I was thinking, eh, what should I expect, it’s a dive. I also had to remind the waitress that we were waiting on onion rings and tots. They arrived a few minutes later.
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| Give me those tots, Napoleon! |
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| Crunchy, battery, deep fried goodness |
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| supposed to be medium rare - tasted more like medium though |
We dug into our burgers and the were deliciously sloppy. El Cap uses length wise cut dill pickle slices which I found surprisingly exotic. My son loved the tots, however I wish I would have ordered the fries as my onion rings were all batter, little onion. Mind you, I ate them ALL anyway since I’m a closeted fried food junkie and the batter was pretty darn good. But I’ve heard the fries are nice and crispy… I’ll know better next time.
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| there is onion in there somewhere... |
Just remember people, when you go to El Cap, expect a dive, which means it’s rough around the edges. You won’t get five star service, but you will get good conversation, a few beers and a deliciously sloppy burger, regardless of what they may forget to put on it! My son enjoyed his first dive burger and I’m a better mom for teaching him the finer points of eating deliciously sloppy food!
RATING: 5 best / 1 worst
Food ***
The menu is basic 1970s eats. Mainly burgers, cold sandwiches, liverwurst sammie, fish sticks, chili and chili or kraut dogs plus sides. A large selection of the domestic beers, some pitchers and a few cans of craft beers. Big bottle cheap wine- I ordered a glass, asking for the most recently opened bottle (fresher, duh!) and I thoroughly confused the waitress.
The look: Dive bar that serves dive burgers that are deliciously sloppy. Leave your expectations at home. Like I’ve always told my kids, “you get why you get and you don’t throw a fit.” This applies at El Cap as well.
The crowd: Hipsters, 30 something day drinkers, hood regulars and sports enthusiasts of all ages.
The bathroom: questionable but not filthy.
And: Outside seating that is dog and smoker friendly.
Don’t expect much and you will not be disappointed. I had to remind/ask again and grab someone for refills, but hey, it’s about the burger, not the service!
I paid $34 bucks for two burgers, two sides (tots and O-rings), one adult beverage (cheap wine, I’m not a beer drinker), one speciality soda (my Harry Potter teen likes cream soda since it’s in butter beer) and a second fountain soda. I would say it’s about what I’d pay at Five Guys and it tastes a hell of a lot better!
OVERALL: 2 but the burgers are good!
I will likely stumble in there every five years or so for deliciously sloppy burger.
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