Gott’s Roadside – St. Helena and Napa, CA | Burgers, Barbecue and Everything Else

Opened as Taylor’s Refresher in St. Helena in 1949, the restaurant was bought from the Taylor family by the Gott brothers and the named was changed to Gott’s Roadside a few years back. We stopped for a late lunch on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the original location in St. Helena. At 2:00, there were about forty folks in line for this walk-up restaurant. While the menu was pretty fancy for a burger joint, it was not overly broad.

I had read in the Hamburger America book that the Espresso Bean milkshake was not to be missed. Not being a big coffee fan, I wasn’t sure what the big deal would be, but as I live with a coffee fan, while Jo waited and held our place in the food order line, I went to the bar and ordered an Espresso Bean shake for her. She said it was a winner (more about that later).

On to the burgers: Jo went with a turkey burger (still on a beef-high from the visit to Joe’s the day before). I chose a cheeseburger. Yep, a cheeseburger. I know that’s hard for y’all to believe. Nonetheless, 20 minutes later they called our number and my burger arrived:

All burgers are Niman ranch beef and ground fresh daily. This one was expertly prepared, with the cheddar melted ever so slightly. Really tasty – I ate every bite.

On Monday, after lunch in San Francisco I asked Jo if she wanted to split a dessert and she said, “you know, what I’d really like is another one of those Espresso Bean milkshakes….”

Conveniently, there was a Gott’s Roadside outpost about 5 miles from our hotel back in Napa. This one had inside seating, which was critical as it had started to rain one of those niggling Seattle-type drizzles just as we were leaving SF.

When we got to Gott’s (ha!) I decided I ought to sample a shake, too. Being a man of simple tastes I chose strawberry. And, since we hadn’t had anything to eat in over ninety minutes, I sampled their daily special – a tomato and mozzarella sandwich.