- Tioli's Crazy Burger
- Cuisine: Hamburgers , American
- Neighborhood: North Park
- 4201 30th Street
- San Diego, CA 92104 (Map)
- 619-282-6044
- http://www.tioliscrazeeburger.com/
Recommended by 1 local
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One block south of the intersection with El Cajon Blvd. Parking on street or in tiny lot behind building.
Transit & Parking Info
Hours of Operation 
Sun: 11am to 9pm
Mon: 11am to 9pm
Tue: 11am to 9pm
Wed: 11am to 9pm
Thu: 11am to 9pm
Fri: 11am to 10pm
Sat: 11am to 10pm-
Updated: 01/07/07
Here’s to !
Crazy-good gourmet burgers, draft beers, and wine by the glass in a super-casual setting with a little European class.
If there is any insanity afflicting the two German gentlemen behind Tioli's Crazy Burger in North Park, it is of the variety my mother used to call “crazy like a fox.” They saw that there was a great need for an inexpensive, super-casual café that still had a little class and style. Someplace you could get a burger-and-fries without being overrun by kiddies in a dining room decorated with clowns. Someplace you could relax with a draft beer or glass of wine without getting drenched in attitude or soaked for the bill. They saw this need, and they exploited it to the hilt.
Restauranteur Wolfgang Schlicht and chef Lothar Manz acquired a sunny little exposed-brick-lined space that had previously been a neighborhood family Italian restaurant, and dressed it up a little with lots of artwork (all for sale) and a little dark wood bar. They then crafted a menu that's all about burgers. A good couple of dozen burgers, as a matter of fact, ranging from the Good Ol' Plain Burger, a purist beef patty, to burgers featuring various internationally-themed toppings, to burgers made of “gourmet” meats like ostrich and buffalo (they did have a rattlesnake burger on the menu till California game laws intervened). There are also portobello and veggie burgers for the non-carnivores, as well as a selection of salads.
The burgers are huge hand-formed patties, and are presented on soft rolls with a kaiser-like twist to their tops, open-faced so as not to wilt the generous serving of burger-vegetation (lettuce, tomato, pickles, and nice big slices of red onion). They're served a la carte, but with the basic burger starting at $3.95 and their mountain of fries going for $1.95, you won't mind. Prices for the other burgers range up to $13.95 for the Gator Burger with Curry Fruit Tapenade, but most hover around the five-to-seven dollar range. Chef Manz grills them expertly, with lots of good char on the outside; the inside of a burger ordered medium obligingly showed a nice pink inside.
Service is ultra-casual—you place your order at the counter, then take a seat at one of the tables clothed in red-checked plastic to await your meal. Casually-dressed couples, small groups, and solo diners feel free to linger in the inviting space, conversing or browsing the newspapers or following a game on the TV over the bar. If the owners aren't busy, they'll often come out from behind the counter and hang with their patrons, and even chat in German if you sprechen Deutsches. Lingering is further encouraged by the selection of seven international draft beers, plus a smallish but nice selection of domestic and imported wines by the glass or bottle.
Messrs. Schlicht and Manz also run a separate catering business, known as Schatzi's Catering. The catering menu is mainly inspired by the cuisines of the Alps, including southern Germany, Northern Italy, and Austria as well as Switzerland. The European influence is less obvious in the Crazy Burger menu, but does make its presence known by the ever-changing specials on the white-board behind the counter.
If there is one thing these Crazy Burger guys do that could qualify as identifiably crazy, though, it's the happy hour special they offer. Every day from 3 to 6pm, you can get their full-size turkey burger, usually priced at $5.50, for a mere $2.99. It comes with an intriguing orange/mustard topping that's a terrific combo of sweet and spicy, with the orange flavor really coming through. There's also a featured wine-by the-glass special as well as a beer special. Sitting in their laid-back lair with this big honkin' burger and a nice chilled glass of Riesling, I was definitely feeling like life was crazy-good.