San Diego Reader

• Restaurant | Coronado

Danny's Palm Bar

• 965 Orange Ave , Coronado, CA 92118 | Directions
• 619-435-3171

Look, grill genius “Nacho” Madera is gone — gone to North Park and El Sol and Mexican food. But Danny’s remains, a Coronado institution under a narrow barrel roof, displaying its photos of fallen soldiers on the wall above the bar, serving up burgers and booze with an air of gruff geniality (or maybe genial gruffness). Yes, something’s been lost along the way: we detected too much steel and not enough seasoning in the tang of the grill. But the grind is good and pebbly, the lettuce is thick enough, and the American cheese gums things up the way it oughta. From top to (soggy) bottom, this is a burger that resists gentrification as stubbornly as the rest of the joint.

— Ambrose Martin