While we were in Winston-Salem, N.C. for a relative's wedding, we did some roaming around town to check things out. When it came to lunch, we found a burger joint on the west side, but then we found out that it was a chain. My wife remembered a burger place that we had passed a couple times that morning that looked interesting. We doubled back to the place and found Cin Cin Burger Bar on W. 1st Street just off the Highway 421 Expressway near the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. (see map)
Christakis "Chris" Michael was born and raised on the island of Cyprus and his parents ran one of the more upscale resorts on the island. The young Chris hobnobbed with the rich and famous of Europe learning the hospitality trade while growing up. Zoe Rizos was born in Pennsylvania and literally grew up in her parent's restaurant in Ellwood City, PA, a high-volume family-style restaurant where nearly everything was made from scratch. So you could say that restaurants and hospitality were in the blood of the two before they even met.
After Zoe graduated from college with a dual degree in business administration and food service management, she met Chris Michael who had emigrated to the United States a few years before. The couple married in 1984 and settled in Southwest Florida opening their first restaurant Plaka II the same year. The Michael's eventually sold Plaka II and opened four more restaurants in the Fort Myers area over the next 20 years culminating with a Mediterranean restaurant by the name of Cin Cin Bar and Grille in 2004. However, in 2007 plunging land values foreshadowed the beginning of the recession in Florida prompting the family to move to Winston-Salem to seek new opportunities.
Along with their son, Vasili, the Michael's opened Mama Zoe's in 2008 which featured down-home Southern-style cooking. The family opened Mama Zoe's Seafood Shack in Wilkesboro, NC (about 50 miles west of Winston-Salem) in 2011, but closed that down after they opened up Waldo's Wings, Burgers and Brews in Winston-Salem in 2015. While he was working on a new concoction for a burger at Waldo's, Chris Michael came up with the concept for an upscale burger restaurant. They cut the "burgers and brews" out of the name and their restaurant simply became Waldo's Wings in 2016. When the former Twin City Diner closed in 2015 after 28 years in business, the Michael's leased the space to put in their new concept Cin Cin (pronounced "chin chin", the Italian phrase for "cheers") Burger Bar.
We got into Cin Cin just after the noon rush hour and we were able to get a seat in a booth in the main dining area of the restaurant. There was a nice patio out in front that was full, but we wanted to sit inside in the air conditioning on a hot Carolina day. The dining room featured a number of booths with tables interspersed throughout the place. The restaurant had a combination of contemporary and Prohibition-era decor.
The bar area featured a step up area with a long bar with flat panel television along the back wall. The bar features a number of rotating craft beers on tap and a list of "Speakeasy-style" mixed speciality drinks.
Cin Cin Burger Bar had a dedicated Prohibition-era motif to the place. Signs and posters recreated from just before the beginning of Prohibition in 1919 through the ratification of the 21st Amendment in 1933 were all throughout the restaurant. On a shelf along a wall were the antique products and utensils used to make homemade "moonshine" whisky during - well, actually, also before and after - Prohibition.
Our server for the day was a lady by the name of Jennifer who gave us a couple menus to look over after we sat down. Beer was the first order of the day, however, and I got a Bell's Two Hearted pale ale while my wife got the Jade IPA from Winston-Salem's Foothills Brewing Company.
There's much more than just burgers on the menu at Cin Cin Burger Bar. They feature a number of appetizers and sharable plates, salads, sandwiches and entrees such as bourbon molasses-glazed meatloaf, cherry-chipotle salmon, and a 12 ounce ribeye topped with a garlic herb butter.
But we had burgers on our mind and my wife went with a "topless" burger adorned with aged Vermont cheddar cheese, garlic aioli, cucumbers and arugula. She got a side salad with a housemade lemon vinaigrette dressing.
The burgers at Cin Cin Burger Bar are pure Black Angus beef, ground in house and flat-grilled. Her burger was cooked to a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle. She thought it was very good.
They have about a dozen specialty burgers on the menu, all with Prohibition-era or gangster-phrase names. The Speakeasy burger was topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato and red onion slices and a champagne burger sauce. The Juice-Joint Dipper was topped with gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, a fried onion ring, scallions, and finished with a roasted garlic aioli with some au jus sauce for dipping the burger into. But they also had a "Build-Your-Own" burger with a long list of toppings, buns and cheese that you can add to a burger.
And that's the route I took. I got the Black Angus burger on a brioche bun. I had it topped with gruyere cheese, pickled red pepper slices, sautéed mushrooms, bacon slices, dill pickles and a sliced red onion. I went with the onion rings for a side. The burger was thick, juicy and very tasty. Even with all the stuff on top of it, I could still taste the big beefy flavor of the burger with nearly every bite.
The onion rings were also very good. They were a little overcooked, but still very delicious. They came with a side of a spicy sauce that was simply outstanding. It was so good that I put some of the sauce on my burger. It had a creamy and spicy bite to the palate. I would have bought a jar of that sauce had they had it available.
The Cin Cin Burger Bar was an excellent find in our quest for a good burger for lunch. It was an interesting place with interesting decor, the booth we had was spacious and comfortable, the service was fine, and the burgers we both had were very good. I especially liked the onion rings with the spicy sauce that came with them, and they had a pretty good selection of beers at Cin Cin. We were more than happy with our visit to Cin Cin Burger Bar. (Photo courtesy Trip Advisor.)
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