St. Maarten Cafe

Order your burger Tony rare. It’s a uva institution, you go there because others have before you. Skip the nachos, stay for the shooters

I would have never wandered into this windowless restaurant if a friend hadn’t taken us there, but once I did, it’s now become my regular place to go whenever I’m in Charlottesville. I’m comfortable in there either alone or with a crowd. They have good food, and great local brews and wine. The service is good too. My only complaint is that sometimes it gets a bit too loud, but that’s what you get when you’re one block from a huge University.

There are a lot of fine establishments in Charlottesville, but none quite as fine as st. Maartens. The windowless facility makes for a cozy atmosphere, and the cheese fries warm the soul. The Marlins on the wall are as good a companion as one could find anywhere, and the ever chancing weeknight deals make every dollar worth it. From «sex with aliens» to «dr jones love juice,» the drink specials are extraordinarily satisfying. Highly recommend Sunday nights.

been going to St, Maartens for 30 years. It has had its ups and downs,(mostly ups), but it has a cheers like atmosphere. If you are a regular, everyone really does know your name. New people are generally greeted warmly. The regulars do not tend to be clickish. The food is decent, as is the beer selection. They are very diligent about carding people, so you don’t get as many stupid drunks.

My personal favorite bar on the Corner. Chill, reasonably-​priced, open late. Loud, but not so much that you can’t hear the people at your table. Burgers aren’t really anything special, but they’re fine. The wings are pretty good – I believe they have Wing Wednesdays, where the wings are 10 for the price of 5, 20 for the price of 10.
But the real deal: bacon cheese fries. Ohhhh man.
Imagine you’ve been bar-​hopping around the Corner, had a few drinks, it’s around 1am. Let me tell you, St. Maarten’s bacon cheese fries feel freaking fantastic. Waffle fries served with plenty of melted cheese on top and lots of little bacon bits. You can ask for ranch or honey mustard or BBQ sauce for dipping. Best. Thing. Ever.
Also, trivia on Tuesdays is pretty fun! Geeks who Drink run it. My friends and I have made it basically a weekly activity, since Mellow’s gets a little crowded for us. And when St. Maarten’s has donuts, the Grillswith is great too.

Phenomenal wings. Wednesday get 20 for 11 $ in the fall/​mid winter time. They are huge and delicious. Their burgers are unique and VERY good. Extensive list of cocktails are nice. Def will come again.

St. Maarten Café, a respite away from the corner crowds. Delicious wings and cheese fries. It’s sorta dim, there’s probably classic rock playing.

Wow, the wings are excellent here. Very crispy and extremely well-​flavored… especially loved the Dragon and Spicy Garlic wings. The Texas Fire and Cajun Dry Rub wings also deserve a nod. As for sides, I enjoyed the chili cheese crisscut fries, not so much the onion rings. All paired with a nice IPA, and I was one happy girl.

Came here for a burger, beer, and wings. Everything was good, but nothing blew me away. Typical bar food with a very good drink selection for a college bar.

I visited St. Maarten’s last night after a friend told me that it was a pretty fun spot, I am thankful they gave me the recommendation! The bartender Shannon told me to have a seat and Axelle was my server. I ordered a margarita and it was fabulous. I also had a double order of wings as it was their special wing night. I mixed flavors of ½ Jack Daniel’s and ½ Dragon… both were some of the best I’ve had in Charlottesville.
I thought Axelle did a great job and was very attentive to my needs. Service and atmosphere were great… I certainly intend on returning.
Thanks

quiet bar to chat

Last night my roommate and I were in town for a concert and decided to stop by afterwards for a drink. I had never been to St Maarten, but she had been talking all night about taking me there to try some special mixed drink you guys have that she loves. We walked in to the already empty bar (no more than two other patrons sitting inside) and after being carded by the female bartender were told that she wouldn’t serve us because she «wasn’t comfortable» accepting our ID’s. While I’m well aware that she has every right to do this, there was never any further explanation — she just denied us service and walked away. All of my personal experience formerly working in restaurants and retail has given me a great appreciation for businesses that provide quality customer service, and I’m happy to give a raving review and make a lot of noise about a place that makes me excited to visit again. I’ll also make a lot of noise about places that do the opposite of that and wrongfully deny serving two 25 and 27 year old females with totally normal VA issued drivers licenses. We were so shocked and confused that we didn’t know what else to do besides walk out the door. It worked out for us in the end, since we went to another bar down the street that was happy to accept our money. You would think someone that works at a bar in a college town would be able to recognize a legitimate ID from a fake one. Retrain her.
*I would give it zero stars if that were an option. Completely unacceptable treatment towards two potential customers. I would almost understand her dismissive logic if we were belligerent college kids trying to grab a drink at last call (which is still awful to do to people that are willing to leave you a tip) but that was not at all the case.

When the Corner is packed, this is the place to be if you don’t want to be crushed into a bar where you can’t move without shoving through a horde of people. At other times, it’s often sparsely populated with the occasional busy night.
The draft beer selection is decent (though not as good as Boylan or 3) but not terribly cheap compared to most other bars on the Corner. While it certainly could be a dive bar (the lack of windows definitely contributes to that feel), it’s a bit too bright, the drinks are a bit too pricey, and the drinks are served in too much glass for it to be a true dive.
One major plus is that it serves food pretty late, so you can drink and eat at the same time (which can’t really happen on the Corner except at maybe Littlejohn’s if you get a bottle of beer from their fridge).

I usually scoff at dive bars, but the regular bartenders know all the regulars and the food is good enough for the price. Service is great.
Burgers are okay. But get the BBQ platter. It’s just a superior product.
The beer selection is top notch for a bar that pretenses to be a dive bar with the requisite PBR on tap for the hipsters. The liquor selection is good enough and the bartenders are good at what they do. Serve booze.
Late night, end of the day, it’s the weekend, and you have nothing better to do when all of the nice restaurants are closed — you go to Maarten’s and have a drink or three. I don’t live in Cville anymore, but after 9PM, really no where to go but down… to St. Maarten.

I’m on a search for the best burger in C’ville, not including chains. Nothing wrong with some of the chains, but a local restaurant ought to be able to do a good burger. I’m only ordering cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato & mayo — my favorite. I used to eat at St. Maarten’s a lot and liked their food and atmosphere, but it’s been a couple of years and a change in management, so I went yesterday hoping for a really good burger based on the other reviews.
Unfortunately, the place isn’t what it used to be. I appreciate the «dive» look, but the restaurant needs a cleaning and some new ceiling tiles at least. There’s a leftover smell from when smoking used to be allowed. The hamburger was okay, but even though it was hand-​made, it wasn’t anywhere near as big as the bun. I won’t be going back.

I’ll qualify my 5 stars by saying as dive bars go Maarten is as good as it gets. It has a great close atmosphere, a strong cast of locals (of which I consider myself one), a decent tap list, and tasty pub grub.
It was terrible when Maarten down last Winter but it’s been a blessing in disguise as they brought in some new bar tenders and servers, added more TVs and lighting, and got rid of some of the more garish stuff on the walls.
I especially want to give a shout out to Paul. Friendly, knows a lot about his craft, and is always willing to shoot the sh*t.
If you live in C’ville especially around the Corner check out St. Maarten and keep coming back cause that’s the only way you’ll get your mug.

Excellent food and service. They make a wicked vegetarian patty that you can substitute on all their burgers. And it’s not one of those awful soy versions. House music is classic rock: a welcome change from the yuppie pop at other nearby burger joints.

As a restaurant, St. Maarten is decent. The food have been not the greatest but also not the worst. The service is very quick, mostly because it is tucked away in the corner and not many people venture out there. As a a bar, it is a very chill place to have a bear with a friend. The best thing and the worst thing about St. Maarten is it’s location.

Would give higher but burger was raw. They replaced with fresh fries so i’d come back. Service was good even during busy friday nite.

Good beer selection and good burgers. I had the Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout and a medium Voodoo Burger (hot sauce, jalapenos, sour cream) with cajun cheese fries. The burger was a perfect medium and very juicy. The fries were amazing – definitely get them with cajun seasoning and cheese.