On Sunday evening Sidney and I finished up a hot and competitive round of putt putt golf and then walked across the street to a small burger shop oozing with personality. Called River City Café the place has a pristine reputation for the best hamburgers in Myrtle Beach. In fact the reputation is so solid and the burgers so tasty that the Myrtle Beach area now has five total locations. Sidney assured me though that we were going to the best one out of the five.

The sign of the River City Cafe

The place fit the definition of your typical dive to a T. License plates lined the walls, peanut shells covered the floors, and paper towel dispensers sat on the tables. The party of six in front us received word that it would be 35 minutes until they got a table. Luckily for my girlfriend and I, we got seated right away in an open spot in the corner of the crowded restaurant. As I ate way too many peanuts I debated long and hard between two hamburgers on the menu. After putting in way too much thought coming in second place was the mac and cheese burger. I felt very tempted to order it but I have had a couple of macaroni and cheese burgers at various other restaurants before and although I really enjoyed them I was feeling adventurous this particular night. It was time to try something new!

This place had “dive” written all over it.

I bravely told our server that I wanted to try the peanut butter hamburger. As I told the server my decision thinking he might take me as a weirdo for ordering it he muttered that a lot of people had requested the same thing that night. I guess maybe I wasn’t as unique as I thought. But so what if everyone else in the joint had already devoured a PB hamburger evening that night?! For me it was going to be a brand new experience and I was excited and maybe just a tiny bit scared.

Don’t think that ordering the peanut butter hamburger was a big shocker coming from me though. Most people know that I eat peanut butter like it is going out of style and after preferring it on my bread, pancakes, ice cream, and candy for so long it only made sense that I would eventually throw it on a hamburger as well. Questions ran through my head before it came out: How would it be spread? Crunchy or creamy? On the burger or on the bun? Peanut butter melting or not?

The front of the menu at River City Café.

Our server brought out my hamburger right next to a large mound of fries. I picked up the top half of the bun slowly and I experienced a lot of friction as the generous amount of peanut butter slopped on both the burger patty itself and the bun generated some resistance. The peanut butter had indeed melted to a degree and there was a lot of it. After eating a few fries I said “here goes nothing” and I picked up the burger and took a bite. The first thing that went through my mind was how heavy the burger was. Peanut butter is not a light substance and it definitely weighted down the whole hamburger to a degree. The second thing that went through my mind was how rich the thing was! The combination of a greasy, juicy hamburger and a generous helping of creamy peanut butter creates an impending heart attack type feeling. Thirdly I thought to myself “Man, this is actually pretty good.”

This is my peanut butter hamburger at River City Café.

No lying here, I enjoyed the peanut butter hamburger. I practically ate the whole thing but like I said it was so heavy and filling that I did leave a couple bites behind. My one complaint is that the peanut butter definitely overshadowed the taste of the burger a little bit. My taste buds kept detecting the peanut butter at a much higher rate than the burger. But when the taste of the beef did come through it was really good. I want to go back to River City Café soon! I won’t order the peanut butter burger again simply because I want to try all the other yummy and unique burgers they offer. I also want to enjoy the smell and taste of the actual burger itself.

My first experience at River City Café just validated my love for peanut butter even more. Not saying that I won’t ever have another peanut butter burger again but I will be sticking to peanut butter sandwiches instead of peanut butter buns for the time being. Don’t Blink.