Novemburger: Southtown’s Bar Loretta mixes bougie, blue-collar burgers

You might think Bar Loretta’s a bar. Like a stylized retro cocktail bar that Roger Herr opened in Southtown in 2021 to ease a case of New York homesick.

You might think Bar Loretta’s more of like a crafty Top 50 restaurant, a place for chef Paul Petersen to flex the skills he developed in Austin and New York and his own place in Buda. A place with duck confit risotto and cumin-dusted rock shrimp and brick chicken and braised lamb-neck ragout.

And you’d be right, because why can’t it be both? But Bar Loretta’s also a really good place for a burger. Whether it’s a crafty chef burger or more like a bar burger. With tater tots on the side.

And it’s also the place to mark Day 4 of my new monthlong burger series called Novemburger, featuring a new burger or burger joint every day for 30 days, leading up to a brand-new ranking of San Antonio’s Top 10 Burgers on Dec. 1.

We’ll start with the more blue-collar bar burger, the Market Burger. For $17 with fries or tots, it’s a straightforward build of medium-thick beef with a good sear and melted American cheese, finished with tangy smash sauce, a cradle of curled Bibb lettuce, sliced tomato and red onion on soft brioche bun. Not too fatty, not too lean. Just a burger from a bar that also happens to have a championship kitchen.

Here’s the kicker: That Market Burger’s also the star of the Night Owl Special, when it’s just $10 with fries or tots from from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday and one glorious hour from midnight to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

On the main menu, the cheffed-up Loretta Burger carries the name of the place. And for $18, it’s the same blissed-out beef and brioche, but this time with crispy prosciutto, Manchego cheese, sliced tomatoes, grilled onions and peppery arugula. Different textures, different twang, same satisfaction.

And because it’s Bar Loretta, I’ll also recommend a mezcal-and-rum cocktail that’s like if a margarita and an old fashioned had a love child: Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Smoky, sultry, salty and sweet, with pineapple amaro and pink salt. When you’re feeling more fancy than a burger and a beer.