Cheap Eats: Banging burgers for 76 years at Council's Bradenton Recreation

Eating Companion (EC) and I are up in downtown Bradenton, trying to find Council’s Bradenton Recreation, walking past law firm and attorney’s office after law firm and attorney’s office, past a place called Big Johnson’s Bail Bonds. Where are we?

Council’s has been a downtown institution since 1926. It changed owners a few times, but has been owned by the same family since the '30s, and has operated out of the same space on Old Main Street since 1954. We have been enthusiastically told to come here by 1) a young girl who lives on a boat in Twin Dolphins Marina, 2) a Bradenton community leader who knows what’s what downtown, and 3) a man who knows a thing or two about cheeseburgers, claims Council’s has some of the best anywhere.

For as busy as downtown Bradenton is on this sunny weekday, I’m impressed at the ease with which we found a parking spot. There are a ton of people outside, walking around, people in suits and ties, others clearly retired, flip-flop clad, others perhaps coming from Big Johnson’s Bail Bonds.

Council’s is basically one big pool hall, with seven tables in the back, and a dining counter up front and a picnic table to the side where currently a very large family are devouring burgers. There are three septuagenarians sipping root beers, chatting up the waitress, who claim they are on their way to the Ritz to do some golfing and had to stop in for some real food.

Council’s does hot dogs and chili (and, of course, chili dogs), in addition to the famed hamburgers and cheeseburgers, which come as singles or doubles ($4.25–$5.50), and are made fresh right in front of you on an absolutely gorgeous old Garland grill, original to the restaurant. The second a group walks in the place, Lawton Smith, owner and grillmaster, throws a couple patties on the grill. A sign hangs on the wall that says: We were making hamburgers when McDonald's was still a farm.

We’re tempted to try the hot dogs, but no one else in the place seems to be, so we accept the wisdom of the crowd and order some burgers — a single and double-cheeseburger with everything — a bowl of chili, and some root beers, then post up at the counter. We’re almost tempted to go play some pool. A neighboring diner says the tables are the best around, though EC and I don’t know an eight-ball from a cue-ball when it comes to pool tables, despite my own Pops being kind of a pool shark.

The root beer tastes eerily like Dr Pepper, which is totally fine. They have Budweiser on draft, which several fellow diners are partaking in, sipping it out of chilled glass mugs.

The burgers and chili are out in a flash. They don’t use plates at Council’s; they serve 'em on napkins, a toothpick holding the behemoth burgs together. They do serve the chili — which is pretty delicious, not terribly spicy, but flavorful and smooth — in a bowl, though. The burgers are stunning little beasts, served on toasted Merita buns, the lettuce and tomato fresh-cut, the patties with a flavor only really well-seasoned grills can offer. Lawton says there are days where it’s three-deep at the counter, everyone holding burgers, chowing down. I believe it. It’s easy to see how a cheeseburger this good could sustain a small business for 76 years.

We are impressed. We are blown away. We are coming back soon, at night, with a posse, eating burgers and shooting pool and drinking cold Buds until they kick us out. You have to see this place. All of you.