Bonair Burger, with carrots instead of fries

It’s easy to talk about a restaurant’s food. Almost too easy. Sometimes there are better stories to be told if you go a little deeper.

In the mid-‘90s, all we wanted was cold Tecate, cheap burgers, and maybe a pool table or two. Wrap that dream in tiki surf, and you’ve got The Shack Bar & Grill, named after the eponymous surf shack at Windansea.

La Jolla Tap & Grill

Fast forward a couple decades, and look at the demands of the beer-guzzling, burger-grinding consumer now. The La Jolla Tap & Grill replaced conceptually excellent (but apparently doomed) Greek restaurant Barleyanfigs sometime last summer. The replacement concept of burgers, beers, and sports on TV is virtually identical to the neighboring Shack, but the devil is in the details.

Instead of grimy surf, it’s all dolled up in This & That–style tavern chic, with lots of carefully exposed brick and plenty of Edison bulbs. $7 to $8 microbrew flows from some 30 tap handles, the better to slake a 2016-era thirst.

Coconut shrimp with tangy slaw

Burgers remain burgers, but the Tap & Grill’s rest between tender brioche buns, and the kitchen will attempt to cook them to temp if so requested. The Bonair burger takes its name from the nearby street, not the municipality of the Dutch West Indies. It has bacon, cheese, and grilled onions. The ‘90s isn’t all that far away, however. Tap & Grill also serves coconut shrimp.

You could not ask for a better vision of the past and the present within a few blocks from each other. Burgers and beer have not changed all that much, but their packaging has certainly evolved.