Saint Bibiana Has Great Burgers

Saint Bibiana. Photo taken by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

Saint Bibiana is known for its Saint Bibiana burger and rightly so. It is either a hot mess with a lot going on inside its sesame bun or a fantastical concoction that features two three-ounce hand formed burgers, or both. It depends on how you like your burger. It drips umami thanks to melting American cheese, thick-sliced dill pickles, grilled onions, and a tasty Saint Bibiana house sauce. If that is not enough to send you into burger heaven, then do as I did and add two crisp slices of bacon.

Saint Bibiana is mainly a bar that also happens to serve good food. It is located in a building on Brady Street that formerly housed Waterford Wine before its move to Farwell Avenue. Opened in 2021, it was the brainchild of Jeno and Lorenzo Cataldo, the owners of Jo-Cats Pub and Dorsia, immediately next door. For Saint Bibiana they opened the ceiling and the rest of the building and created something that according to our server was intended to resemble a church. When you look up, at one end you will see a second floor balcony, also known as the choir loft, and at the other end above the door, the altar. On weekends there is music, occasionally live, and the owners open a bar in the loft where people dance. A bar with a church-y atmosphere seems appropriate combo since Saint Bibiana is reputed to be the patron saint of hangovers.

In the restaurant, or the nave, there are five high-tops and a long bar. That is all. It is a small place where they serve mighty good food including that Bibiana burger.

They call the buttermilk fried chicken breast thing # 2, a juicy piece of deep-fried white meat served on a sesame bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and house-made black pepper aioli. Like the burger, this sandwich was made with the finest choice meat said my lunch companion.

For the ooey gooey brie grilled cheese, the chef added a few extras to this basic grilled cheese sandwich. Sliced apples, caramelized onion jam, arugula, bacon, and balsamic aioli gave it a delicious sweet, salty, piquant personality. Toasted sourdough was the perfect choice for this unique grilled cheese.

From shareables, the pickle chips left no doubt that when you batter and deep fry dill pickles, the result will be a basket of chips waiting for a dip to balance the sour flavor of the pickles. The accompanying dip was a bit too sour so we switched to the house ranch, a good complement to the sour chips and all was well. Two of us devoured the large basket which was meant to be shared.

Also a shareable, the onion rings were special because they held tightly to their crisp coating when we bit into them unlike many rings where the onion slides out and you are left with a naked crust. The onions were sweet and made a happy pairing with the house Saint sauce.

The restaurant has a brief menu with four mains: the Saint Bibiana burger; the chicken sandwich; the brie grilled cheese; and the Beezlebub BLT, a basic BLT on a brioche with house made dijonnaise. You can also order an all-day breakfast. There are four choices: biscuits and gravy; easy morning sammy, a fried egg with lettuce, tomato, red onion and hash browns on the side; the basic with eggs, hash browns, toast, and meat; and the Saint Benedict, a mouthwatering combination of fried chicken and a poached egg topped with hollandaise served on a house made buttermilk biscuit.

There are more shareables to check out including cheese curds, chicken wings, chicken tenders, pretzel bites, and the decadent loaded tater tots topped with bacon and melted cheese.

Saint Bibiana offers a brief and tasty menu in a bar in an historic building. It is a good place to pop in for a quick lunch if you are in the neighborhood. That is how friends and I found it and we were delighted with our meal.

The Rundown

• Location: 1327 E. Brady St.
• Phone: 414-988-4629
• Hours: 11 a.m. to as a.m. Sun-Tue, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Wed-Sat
• Neighborhood: Lower East Side
• Website: https://saintbibiana.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaintBibianaMKE
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaintBibiana

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