Burger Quest is drawing to a close. There are only a few venues left and this project will be wrapped up by early next month.
Today, November 19, was a sunny fall day and the perfect day to take the short drive to Dayton to visit the By-Pass Bar & Grill which is located at 400 Ferry Street right across from the church, San Martin De Porres (I am told that this chruch was started by Mexican migrants in the Dayton area who converted an old theater to a new use. The outside is unchanged from the theater days, but the inside is a replica of the traditional churches that can be found across Mexico.)
Onto the venue and the burger. I have spent very little time in Dayton. At noon on a Sunday, street parking is no problem and I got a spot right in front of the building. On entry it is a smaller space, with a pool table just inside the front door, a bar at the back, an alcove for music (there was live music while I was there), and a few tables and some bar stools. There were two TVs playing football games.
There is a good selection of pub fare on the menu and a selection of beers, most of them seem to be IPAs and there are a couple of light beer options. I don't like IPAs and avoid if I can. I ended up with one here, called "Rusty." For the burger, I got the mushroom bacon and swiss. You can chose between tots and fries and one of the rules I have developed in my nearly 50 years on this planet is tots over fries.
I was really impressed with this burger. It is one of the best bar burgers I have had. It came hot off the grill. The patty was excellent and mushrooms were sauteed and flavorful. Sometimes swiss can be too mild and get lost in the other flavors. That is not the case here. It added to the mix nicely and the bacon did not overwhelm anything. The burger comes with all the standard garnish: lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. All of them are good. The burger is quite big and starts to come apart after a while, so my tip to you would be to take the lettuce, tomato and pickles off, and the thing will hold together a little bit better.
The tots were solid. Super crispy on the outside just like God intended. They come with a ranch dip which is good enought that I did not feel the need to grab the bottle of ketchup on the table.
Now to Rusty, the IPA. Like, I said, I don't like IPAs so, I am going to do my best to be objective here. The beer is smooth, it has the hop-y flavor that all IPAs do. As IPAs go this is a good one and, if you like IPAs I think you'd be happy with it.
I give the following grades:
Burger: B+/A-
Tots: B+
Beer: B+
Burger and beer came to $21 and with tip it was $25. It is a lower than average price for a much better than average burger.
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