Bay Area Burger Co. — Restaurant in Green Bay

TLDR: Great, attentive service. Mediocre food at a reasonable price in a location that needs proper ventilation.

Service: The server was very attentive, ensuring our drinks were always filled and our order placed straight away. Got our food in less than 10 min. Pay the bill right at the table which I prefer.

Food: Mediocre. I came in for lunch. The hamburger was on the drier side. Could have been cooked a couple of minutes less since it's a smash burger. The fries tasted like they came from a bag cooked from frozen. The chicken tenders I tried were the same case. Ok. Not special, not good, sufficient for some food. I would not get them again.

I did not try a Malt/Shake but should have, they looked like the best thing on the menu.

Atmosphere: Odd. You walk in and it looks like you should seat yourself but you don't. The bathroom uses a barn door for closing, odd. The decore is ok. The varnish on the brick wall makes it look greasy.

The worst is their ventilation for their grill. There is an updraft but no duct work connecting the grill vent to the exterior exhaust so inevitably the smell comes into the entire eatery. I smelled of hamburgers for several hours afterwards. Not ideal in the professional setting where I work. I had a client make a comment on it. Not ideal.

Overall: If this place irons out some of the wrinkles it could be a great place to eat. I would suggest making your own fries and chicken tenders. Until...

First things first. This is a great smash burger. I can't quite give it the crown for best burger in town but I can absolutely say this is the best smash burger in town. I think it goes toe-to-toe with many of the local favorites (Joe Rouer's, The Settlement (before Chuck passed away, haven't tried it since it reopened), Kroll's east, Basil's II, Al's Hamburgers) Fries are great and they also have a pretty good fish sandwich too.

Next, shoutout to the owner for what he does for the community. I'm a military vet and the guy offered a free burger per day, for every day in the month of November. What a deal.

Lastly, and this is mostly aimed towards the subset of people in Green Bay that don't touch grass and only exist on social media (I'm looking at you, Facebook.). You guys need to stop being so weird. I saw a post about the new Starbucks going in over off of Finger Rd./E. Mason area and everyone is like, "Man, Green Bay is all the same, another Starbucks going in, more crappy coffee places, why can't we ever get any diversity?" Then the same group turns around and decides they don't like a truly local place, unlike any in the area, because of some AI use in his marketing campaign? Wild. You guys need to find more productive things to be upset about.

That's really all I came to say. You guys deserve the 5...

Overall an amazing experience. Service was good. Burger, malts, fries, and onions rings were awesome. Environment was very fitting.

Taste 4.5/5: the burger was one of the better burgers I have had. Our table got the single and double smash and it was delicious. Crisp burgers with the perfect amount of cheese. It was a little greasy and the bun was thinner, but those come down to preference. The vanilla malt was fantastic, it tastes like real pure vanilla and I couldn’t get enough of it!

Environment 4.5/5: loved the music and writing on the walls. With the amount of space they have it’s understandable that they don’t have enough seating. But they do well with what’s given. Lighting was good and the bathroom doors were cool. There was some clutter in the back. But that shows it’s a work in progress.

Service 5/5: the owner talked to us for a bit and he is definitely a hard working man considering how far the place has come. There were photos on a tv showing their construction of the building, which is not something most businesses show, but it very much has a small business vibe. The waitress was very nice and polite.

I have no complaints except that it’s not close...