the chattaway
mattLast Saturday my bride-to-be Traci and I stopped at The Chattaway on 4th Street in southeast St. Pete for lunch. If you’ve never passed by the Chattaway or eaten at the place before it sort of reminds me of a tree house without the tree and the ladder - if that is possible for a restaurant - with its likable ramshackle-and-homey look.
How can I not like a place that wryly announces on its menu that it is “the alternative to the Don” as in the luxurious Don CeSar resort on St. Pete Beach. The Chattaway has been going strong now for 55+ years, and regularly makes the list of best burger places in Tampa Bay. Of course, this meant I had to put the place to the test.
We sat outside up at the bar, and in addition to ordering a Chattaburger for myself (Traci ordered the “big red”- a spicy chicken sandwich), we decided to get an order of onion rings, too. I’m glad that we did. The onion rings were a meal in themselves, and the batter and taste reminded me of hush puppies. Traci enjoyed the “big red” (it was spicy and dripping with hot sauce which always wins points in our book).
I now understand why The Chattaway is praised for their burgers. This wasn’t the biggest cheeseburger I’ve ever had, but it was one of the tastiest. When your burger is such a dripping mess that it gets on your shirt (this does happen fairly often for me) you know it’s good. Service was friendly, the food is great, prices are inexpensive, just come prepared for cash-only.
Bottom-line: For dripping-good burgers and lots of great-tasting compliments in a cool, laid-back outdoor garden, the Chattaway in St. Pete is the ticket. Not for health nuts!
Inspection Scorecard: Last inspection April 2006 violations Critical (0), Non-critical (1).
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July 7th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
i give the chattaway big points just for the idea of the place. gotta love the atmosphere. only ate there once, but i came away thinking it wd be a good place to drink beer.
July 9th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Hey Matt,
Not to take the shine from Tommy (whom I know understands there is plenty of shine to go around and therefore wouldn’t begrudge you any and NO, that is not sarcastic)but you need to get your own site because it just totally seems like you could get big bucks from advertisers and click-throughs.
Also, your writing isn’t jerky like on that NOLA-foodie site.
Just a thought.
July 10th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Hi Rachel-
Thanks for the nice comments. I actually do have my own blog at: http://tastetampabay.blogspot.com - which I have no immediate plans to get rich with
Tommy was nice enough to invite me to contribute my little reviews to Sticks. So first they appear exclusively here for a few days and then on my own site on a delayed basis. I think everyone wins.
cheers
matt
July 10th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Dreaming,
Forgot to mention it in my review, but since we sat at the bar at Chattaway, I had no choice but to order a beer too. Came in a frosted mug, which has a way of making me happy enough to order another ha
cheers
matt
February 7th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
[...] favorite local burger remains the Chattaburger at The Chattaway in St. Pete, but in terms of fast-food burger joints (and I sort of hate to even put Five Guys in this [...]