Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint is smash

The Aunt Babette burger with a side of tater tots at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint

A brick archway separates the bar and a dining area at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville.

Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville

Artwork lines a brick wall inside Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville.

Artwork lines a brick wall at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville.

The bar at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville

Restaurant critic

To answer the obvious question first: No one nicknamed Sneaky haunts Sneaky’s Bar & Burger Joint. The entrance to this 4-month-old restaurant on Main Street in downtown Edwardsville isn’t hidden or disguised. I can’t even craft a labored metaphor about Sneaky’s sneaking onto the scene. Owners Tyler Ottwein and Casey Hinman originally launched their concept in April 2022 as a food truck.

Sneaky’s truck remains in service. In fact, the truck is the brick-and-mortar location’s temporary kitchen while Ottwein and Hinman plan a permanent solution for the building. This isn’t sneaky, either, though the operation is so seamless I wouldn’t have guessed the setup based on my visits. You order from your server, just as you would at any typical sit-down restaurant, and your burger quickly arrives at your table.

The Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint food truck sits outside its back patio in Edwardsville.

That burger’s journey began in spirit in Nashville, Tennessee, where Ottwein and Hinman met and became close friends while working together in a restaurant. Their shared obsession with building the perfect burger has followed them through several other Music City restaurant gigs to Ottwein’s native Edwardsville. (Hinman calls Arlington, Texas, home, but his military family moved often during his childhood.)

The Sneaky’s storefront opened in early May in the former home of Recess Brewing. The vibe is laid-back, the beverage selection beer-intensive. A mirror ball hangs in the brick archway between the two dining areas. A mural of the late Anthony Bourdain sitting on a stool, eating a bowl of pho, graces a section of brick wall in the back. If you didn’t already want a burger when you stopped by for a drink, you will soon enough.

Casey Hinman (left) and Tyler Ottwein, owners of Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint, at their restaurant in Edwardsville

Ottwein and Hinman’s quest for the ideal burger landed on a familiar formula: a quarter-pound patty smashed very thin and served between halves of a squishy potato bun. Sneaky’s sets itself apart from the smash-burger hordes with its patty, which is made entirely from ground domestic wagyu beef.

True Japanese wagyu is coveted for its marbling, beef so rich that a portion of only 2 or 3 ounces will sate the most carnivorous diner — which is fortunate, as the price per ounce of the real deal is exorbitant. If American wagyu doesn’t achieve the dizzying lusciousness of Japanese, you don’t need to sell one of your kidneys to afford a steak, and its ground meat makes for an especially juicy, flavorful burger.

Sneaky's Classic burger with a side of tater tots at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville

That is true even with Sneaky’s smash burger. Typically, this style derives much of its flavor and pleasure from its deeply browned, lacy-edged crust. Sneaky’s smashes its patties skinny but not that skinny. The meat retains a smidge of its natural, palate-slicking fattiness, and even when the kitchen gilds the patty with American cheese or stacks, say, a fried green tomato slice atop it, you taste beef above all else.

That fried green tomato is the signature topping of the Aunt Babette, my favorite among Sneaky’s specialty burgers. The tomato’s crunch and tartness slice through the richness of the beef and a spread of pimento cheese, while the cheese cushions the bite of fresh jalapeño. The kitchen also drizzles its house Sneaky Sauce on the Aunt Babette, a deeply weird phrase to write. At any rate, pitched somewhere between ranch and remoulade on the scale of restaurant tanginess, this makes minimal impact on such a busy burger.

The Aunt Babette burger with a side of tater tots at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint

You can order a straightforward burger or cheeseburger, of course, and the Josey Wales specialty burger is a well-executed version of a classic arrangement of cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce and fried onions. The rest of the menu showcases a flair for the creativity and the occasional come-on to stoners (the Dingus, with peanut butter, cream cheese, blackberry jam and bacon).

Of these, the G.O.A.T. is the most conventionally elegant — or as elegant as a smash burger can be — with goat cheese, caramelized onion, arugula and cherry compote. Here, the pungency of the goat cheese and the sweetness of the cherry compote demand a second patty, or at least the option to add a second patty, as balance.

The G.O.A.T. burger at Sneaky's Bar & Burger Joint in Edwardsville

The Sneaky’s Classic does include a second patty by default, and it makes for a heady duo of beef. As the burger’s name suggests, the kitchen sensibly accents this with American cheese, pickles, caramelized onion and the Sneaky Sauce. Here, the sauce does supply a nudge of piquancy. It also makes a fine dipping sauce for the go-to sides here, potato or sweet-potato tots, the former crisper than the latter.

To Sneaky’s credit — and I’m sure to the relief of the kitchen staff currently maneuvering inside the food truck — the menu doesn’t extend far beyond burgers and tots. You can substitute the plant-based Impossible patty for any of the burgers, and a gluten-free bun is also available. For dessert, Sneaky’s looks to the state fair, with small pieces of fried Snickers or Three Musketeers candy bars on sticks. It won’t surprise you to learn these bites are searingly hot, but the molten nougat still finds a way of sneaking up on you.

Recommended • The Post-Dispatch evaluates restaurants on the following scale, lowest to highest: not recommended, recommended, highly recommended, essential. The rating reflects how the restaurant succeeds on its own terms — and how it meets a diner's good-faith expectations of quality food and hospitality — regardless of cuisine, location or cost.

Plain burger • $8.99

Aunt Babette • $11.99

Sneaky’s Classic • $14.99

Where Sneaky’s Bar & Burger Joint, 307 North Main Street, Edwardsville • More info 618-307-5201; sneakysburgerjoint.com • Menu Smash burgers and tots • Hours Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

If your love language is food, you might be interested in knowing how to make it. Yair Ben-Dor has more on making the perfect burger.

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