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The scene: No holiday is as associated with burgers as the Fourth of July, and few restaurants in the country are as associated with burgers as Gott's Roadside, with four locations in the northern part of California. In 2006, the restaurant was designated an American Classic by the prestigious James Beard Foundation, signifying iconic status.

The flagship Gott's Roadside was originally named Taylor's Refresher, and has stood along tourist thoroughfare Main Street in the Napa Valley's popular town of St. Helena since 1949. Fifty years later, the property was taken over by the Gott family, who later changed the name and expanded with additional locations in Napa's Oxbow Public Market and the Ferry Terminal buildings in San Francisco and Palo Alto. The restaurants all have similar menus but different looks and ambiance. The original is a classic roadside burger, fries and milkshake joint with a large parking lot, where you order at a window in the all-glass front, behind which the staffers, in plain view, frenetically grill burgers and swap fry baskets. When your name is called you take your food to a picnic table or car, with large seating areas both in front of and behind the building. Along one side is a second open-air counter just for beverages. Since the line to order can get very long, many regulars grab a drink first and then get in line.

In Napa, everyone goes to Gott's, making the lot an eclectic mix of old beaters, Harleys, BMWs, Porsches, minivans and even stretch limos, while the crowd includes families, couples and larger groups of guys or gals on wine touring trips. The St. Helena location is very popular with both tourists and locals, and especially at lunchtime it can be hard to find a parking spot. There were about 100 people on line ahead of me on a recent visit, but the operation is very efficient, moves quickly, and the ordering wait was only about 15 minutes. An attendant even passed out glasses of water to those waiting on line, and despite the frenzied nature of it all, staffers are uniformly friendly and helpful.

Both the Oxbow and San Francisco locations are in food market buildings surrounded by other dining outlets. The larger Ferry Terminal location has indoor and outdoor seating and a long inside counter at which you order, with a similar '50s diner feel evoked through white tile and stainless steel. At both, burgers are wrapped tightly in brown paper, fries or onion rings scooped into cardboard boats, and the entire order is served in a metal (to stay) or cardboard (to go) tray.

Reason to visit: The experience, shakes, hot dog, garlic fries

The food: Gott's is positioned as a classic roadside burger joint updated to current culinary trends, meaning that they replicate the timeless menu with locavore twists such as using Niman Ranch vegetarian-fed Angus beef for the burgers and hot dogs, Mary's California-grown hormone-and antibiotic-free chicken, and renowned Point Reyes bleu cheese, along with organic lettuce in the salads and so on. There are also some very un-burger menu options such as the popular fish tacos, barbecue chicken sandwich and Chinese chicken salad. In addition to milkshakes, floats and fountain soda, imbibers can select from an impressively broad list of mostly California wines by the glass, half bottle and bottle, along with many draft beers served in actual glass pints plus bottled options. This is a very California take on the roadside burger experience, looking stuck in the '50s but with diners downing organic food alongside local Zinfandel.

The main event, the burger, looks beautiful, but is just okay, satisfying but not outstanding. The menu reads that all burgers are cooked "medium well, a little pink inside when served," but few burger lovers at home would ever go all the way to medium well and these had no pink at all and were a bit dried out as a result. The patty is a generous 1/3 pound, the rolls very good and the toppings fresh, so the whole is better than the sum of its parts, and the more toppings you add, the better it is. If you crave a burger, by all means have a burger, just don't expect to be floored, and there are many specialty choices such as green chile, or western with bacon, bleu cheese and barbecue sauce. From a quality perspective, the hot dog was better than the burger, a thick, meaty and tasty all-beef frank that was served on a very good roll, and can be customized with a wide range of toppings including grilled or diced onions, fresh-made sweet relish, sauerkraut, cheese, pickled jalapeños, mustard, mayo, ketchup and chili.

I also made it a point to try the fish tacos, made from griddled (not breaded or fried) mahi mahi, because they are one of the most popular and acclaimed non-burger items at Gott's. The fish itself was good and covered with lots of crispy cabbage, salsa and jalapeño sour cream, all wrapped in thick soft tortillas, but the result was a bit too messy to eat by hand, sort of a jumble of good ingredients that didn't really come together piled in a cardboard boat. Sides include fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings and garlic fries, a beloved Bay Area specialty. These take the normal fries, which are quite good, skinny, crisp, fresh and salty, and toss them with melted garlic butter and parsley. They are very addictive, unique and hard to stop eating, and good for sharing since the portions here are large. The onion rings, while just a touch too doughy and heavy, were delicious nonetheless, my favorite of all the sides.

Absolutely the best things were the shakes, which come in both basic and unusual flavors and were uniformly excellent. The chocolate is a pure expression of the genre, thick but not too thick and very chocolaty, the black and white is served with plenty of chocolate sauce clinging to the inside of the cup, and the unique white pistachio is loaded with chunks of actual nuts – if you like pistachios you will love this shake. Is Gott's a place to get a great burger? No, but it is a great place to get a burger, lots of fun, reasonably priced, friendly and both in Napa and San Francisco, very well located for visitors.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: No, but it is sort of a traditional must-visit in St. Helena and worth seeking out for milkshake lovers.



Details: Original, 933 Main Street, St. Helena; 707-963-3486;

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