Get a Taste of a Great Cookout

I owed a friend dinner. As a restaurant reviewer, she asked me to take her to some place unique to Florissant. My first instinct was the amazing Thai food at Pearl Cafe. Then I decided to try something notorious in Florissant: .

I’ve passed it a million times without pulling up. People either worship their burgers or spit firey hate at them. There are no in-between opinions.

Any place that can generate such strong feelings must offer something special. Plus, since it was my turn to buy, rumor had it I could get away cheap.

White Barn is a tiny white rectangle tucked into the parking lot on Lindbergh. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. Plain white tile accented with red, a hand printed “Open” sign, two lanes to drive up in the back and no indoor seating. It feels like something from another era.

The prices certainly seem a couple decades out of date. The combo meals ranged from $4.20 for a hamburger, fries and a drink to $4.65 for a cheeseburger, cheese fries and a beverage.  In fact, the most expensive thing on the menu was 30 shrimp and fries for $5.20.

All of the substitute $2 sides were all fried, but being from Oklahoma, it warmed my heart to see okra on the list. In addition to the usual fries and onion rings, White Barn also offered cauliflower, mushrooms and jalapeño poppers. If you weren’t in the mood for a hamburger, your other sandwich choices included cod, catfish, meatloaf, bologna or a sloppy joe, all under $3.

I literally had no idea what I was getting us into. Were we buying overpriced sliders or full-sized meal burgers? At these prices, it was hard to tell.

She chose the cheeseburger and fries combo meal. Since I’ve heard White Barn’s burgers compared to meatloaf, I decided to get the actual meatloaf sandwich, so we could compare.

This isn’t the fastest food you’ll enjoy. They make everything from scratch when you order.

We waited in our air conditioned car, feeling increasingly sorry for the man who worked inside the unairconditioned concrete box to prepare our food. Eventually, a heavily tattooed man handed us our plain brown paper bags.

“Are you sure we didn’t just buy drugs?” she asked.

“Drugs aren’t this cheap,” I said. Plus, I could see a spot of grease spreading along the side of my bag.

There are a couple of hard plastic tables outside White Barn, but we decided our sandwiches would best be enjoyed somewhere air conditioned.

Her burger was a real surprise. The patty was more than one-inch thick, the edges as wide as the bun itself, with an unusual texture she couldn’t quite place. I snagged my half.

It was meat. Just meat, with no filler. If you close your eyes, these days,  a Burger King or McDonald’s hamburger patty feels like a slightly greasy veggie burger inside your mouth. This felt like something I’d make at a cookout. I’m not sure I’ve ever been served a solid meat burger this thick from a drive-thru, though.

My meatloaf sandwich was a little thinner, maybe only ¾-inch, but the edges stretched well past the boundary of the bun. We took the top off to get a good look at it. You could see large pieces of onions and tomatoes cooked right in. The crumbly texture showed evidence of bread crumbs in the mix. It made the all-meat hamburger patty feel even more like something cooked by human beings instead of a mysterious substance extruded in a lab.

The thick cut french fries looked almost exactly like Wendy’s before they switched to the new skin-on variety. The main difference was, unlike Wendy’s, these were all crisp and firm.

The onion rings had a crunchy batter that was pleasantly ungreasy. They tasted great on top of the meatloaf.

This might seem a little gushy for fast food. The thing is, when was the last time you got a one-inch thick burger made of solid meat? These weren’t the holy grail of hamburgers, but they did taste almost exactly like what I’m normally served at a cookout. The fries were made of potatoes, the burgers were made of meat, and the combo meal cost only $5. This place deserves the love it gets here in Florissant.

It might seem odd to give a fast food drive-thru an A, but the thing is, this is an incredibly honest restaurant.

White Barn doesn’t dress anything up or pretend to be anything other than what it is. You’ll get meat on a bun with something breaded and fried on the side, and that’s all.

Their meat on a bun is hands down the best you’re going to get at any drive-thru. Heck, it’s better than what I’ve been served at a few sit-down restaurants. The next time you’re in the mood for a good, simple burger, give White Barn a try. Worst case scenario you’re only out $5.