Gables' Burger Bob's Lives to Grill for at Least Three More Years

Sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's almost gone. And if you've never eaten at Burger Bob's on the Granada Golf Course in Coral Gables, then we know two things about you. 1) You know nothing of the Gables and 2) even less about greasy spoons.

But don't kick yourself too hard, you'll have a chance to expand your repertoire for at least three more years. Burger Bob's just inked a contract extension to continue operating in the same building as the golf pro shop.

That's a bigger deal than you might think as Bob's has teetered on extinction for the past several years.

The city, which owns the Granada Golf Course and the pro-shop building, seriously thought about scrapping the diner as part of a large scale redevelopment.

Though it's always been a favorite of locals, Burger Bobs isn't exactly a cash cow for the city. And when the cash-strapped Beautiful burg (yeah, even the Gables is hurting!) had to find a developer to take over the city-owned Country Club of Coral Gables (directly across the street from Burger Bobs) initial plans showed a complete revamp of the country club, golf course, tennis courts and Burger Bob's.

In the end though, the new developers chose to open the Liberty Café and banquet facilities where the country club used to operate and leave Bob's alone. But the city still balked at giving Bob's a multi-year contract extension for until they agreed on three years last week.

What's so special about Burger Bob's-- besides the fact that you can pay less than $5 bucks for a burger while looking at million dollar homes. "It's a meeting place for everybody in the Gables. Office workers, politicians, lawyers. Everybody comes here to eat and talk business," says "Burger" Bob Maguire. The new deal assures Bob's will live to see its 20 year anniversary, even though the restaurant actually predates Maguire by at least a quarter-of-a-century.

Burger Bob's menu is classic American diner fare: egg plates and pancakes for breakfast ($3.75 with bacon, sausage, or ham and $3.25 for a short stack, respectively), and burgers, melts, and standard sandwiches for lunch. A cheeseburger with bacon is only $4.75, while a patty melt (American cheese and onions) is the most expensive item on the menu at $7.50. They also have daily specials including London Broil, grilled marinated chicken breast and, we're not making this up, Beefaroni.