Thirty years. That’s how long it had been since Don Day’s Wife and I had that first date. It was a Wednesday. The restaurant was called Epicure. We ordered the burgers au poivre with blue cheese and peppercorn sauce and a bottle of a Côtes de Rhône from the village of Rasteau.

So I know what you’re thinking. That Don Day must be one helluva romantic guy to remember all of those nitty gritty details. Naaaah! The only reason I know is because, the other night, Don Day’s Wife reminded me.

And why did she remind me? Well, we were at the relatively new restaurant San Burger and there on the menu was a burger called steak au poivre with blue cheese and peppercorns.

It wasn’t our first planned visit to San Burger. But chef Jason Malloff had postponed our first dinner when he thought the classic burger wasn’t quite ready for prime time.

“It would really do me and future clients a disservice to make much judgment or comments based on anything you see.”

Hmmmm! A perfectionist chef. I like perfectionist chefs. San Miguel needs more perfectionist chefs. The world needs more perfectionist chefs.

Then David Conte emailed me. Would we join him and his wife Suzanne? They’d love to experience what I consider the town’s best burger.

Town’s best burger? Damn, I don’t have a best burger. I have a lot of better burgers…The Restaurant, La Frontera, Hank’s, Bastardo…all better but no, no best.

So, I suggested San Burger.

“I don’t know if it has the town’s very best burger but I do know it has one of the town’s very best chefs”, I told him. “And it’s on our list of must-go’s.”

The date was inked on the calendar.

San Burger is not a totally new restaurant. Outside, the sign still says San Mezcal. In olden times, we would have called it an annex (does anyone use that word anymore?).

In simple terms, what the owners of San Mezcal have done is knock a couple of big holes through to the property next door and expanded the menu. Straight ahead is a room with the traditional menu of non-traditional dishes from Chef Malloff. To the left (look for the neon sign) is San Burger (though you can get everything from both menus in both rooms).

Though I hated to use the J word for such a cozy and comfortable room, I wanted to ask co-owner, Juan Leon de Vivero why he thought San Miguel needed another burger joint. Since the so-sad-to-lose-them disappearance of Birdie’s Burgers, no one’s attempted a restaurant risking its existence on a gourmet burger but perhaps that’s reason enough.

There are a hard-to-choose-from six different burgers on the menu: A classic cheeseburger. A Mexicana with salsa verde. A Greek with tzatziki, black olives and feta. A veggie with green goddess dressing. An Asian fish. And that burger au poivre.

David ordered the classic. Suzanne ordered the fish. Don Day’s Wife and I ordered a peppercorn and a classic (with a promise to half and half them when they arrived). Chef Jason also insisted we have a vegetarian for the table to try.

I’m not sure there’s anything that scares a restaurant more than a guy ordering a burger “rare, please” which was David Conte’s request. It, indeed, arrived rare and we liked the lean to fat content (“80% protein” Chef Jason told us).

Everything else inside the classic and the au poivre was also OK but the bun, a brioche, got three thumbs down from David, Don Day’s Wife and I. Just a little too sweet for our taste.

“Call it a work in progress”, the chef told me. “I know the brioche’s not right for everyone. I’m trying and testing, still looking for the perfect bun.”

The news was better from Suzanne and her bunless burger. She told me, “The menu may lead with beef burgers, but the Asian-fish burger deserves attention: well-seasoned, sits atop a tasty rice cake.

It pairs perfectly with the best margarita that I’ve had in San Miguel: a mezcal margarita with tamarind.”

Though it’s difficult to twist my carnivorous mind around anything vegan, I liked the veggie burger as well. Maybe a little too strong a taste of what I thought was chick pea but all of the other flavors worked nicely in harmony with it.

So does San Mezcal have the best burger in San Miguel? No, not after the first visit. And has it joined the long list of better burger places? Possibly. But we did like the ambiance, the atmosphere of the place. And we still have to try the Mexican and Greek burgers. And it did bring back sweet memories of that first date, that so important evening thirty years ago.

San Burger is located at Recreo #88 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Saturday from 3:00 to 11:00 pm; Sunday and Monday from 3:00 to 10:00 pm.