Columbia's Grill Marks

Man, you look away for two seconds and another new restaurant pops up in the Vista! I've got no complaints about Grill Marks joining the line up, though.

 

Last Wednesday night, Patrick and I decided to have an impromptu midweek date night here.

 

Grill Marks is housed in the Old City Market building on Gervais {across the street from Tsunami/Rocket Man Piano Bar} and the atmosphere there is spectacular. We had barely even walked in when I nudged Patrick and told him I thought that this new place was great. This was prior to trying any of the food or even speaking to the hostesses! But I couldn't help it. I'm a sucker for old buildings that are renovated to house a new business and restaurants with big garage doors that they can open when the weather is nice.

 

When you walk "in", you're actually walking into their outdoor patio area which isn't really outdoors. It's just an area that's completely covered and has huge, wide open window bays. There's a massive heater hanging from the ceiling, ready for those cooold Columbia nights {ha!} but for the summertime, they have misters lining the entire patio area. How awesome is that?

We opted for sitting inside though because we didn't know about the misters when we walked in.

 

They have a happy hour every day Monday - Friday from 4:30 - 6:30pm with half price bottles of wine {!!!} and $4 draft beers. I'm positive that I'll be back for the half price bottle of wine but I chose to get a River Rat American Kolsch Story instead. Delicious, as always.

 

One thing to note about the menu is that everything is a la carte. So when you order a burger, it doesn't automatically come with a side. That's fine because they have side orders for you to choose from but they've combined the side orders / appetizers into one list. Be specific when you're ordering! Otherwise your side order might come out as an appetizer.

 

Patrick and I got the Three Way appetizer {meant to have it as a side} and chose the skinny fries, the parmesan truffle fries, and the fried pickles. I could easily devour several little mini baskets of the skinny fries! Hot, crispy, and perfectly seasoned. Yes, please.

 

But let's get to the burger.

 

I got a naked burger {which means no bun} with tomato, pimento cheese, and bacon. Heaven. Getting my burger without a bun was a fantastic choice, too. It was so much easier to eat!

 

Patrick got the BOW {burger of the week} which was "Soda Ya Know We're Open?"... lettuce, tomato, bacon, pimento cheese, grilled local peaches, and cola reduction drizzle. Doesn't sound like the most appealing burger to me but Patrick loved it.

 

We'll be back for sure. & knowing us, that means this weekend because once we find a place we like, we tend to put it on repeat ;)

... PS, we definitely went again on Friday night & would add these three things to our list of excellent menu items:
Bleu Cheese & Pimento Cheese Fries
Fat Fries
Firehouse Burger