Chris McDonald’s favorite hamburger at Mugshots Grill and Bar is, not surprisingly, the McDonald burger.
It’s named after him.
The 25-year-old owner of the bar started serving the bacon, cheese, ranch and barbecue-sauce-loaded burger to Starkvillians Thursday.
McDonald decided to open a Starkville version of the Hattiesburg-based bar and restaurant in early August. He said he liked the building on Main Street that housed the Courthouse Grill last year and decided to try it. For a little over a month, he has worked to get the building ready for Mugshots.
Wednesday night, McDonald was getting a taste of what he hopes is to come. Dozens of friends and acquaintances piled onto the upstairs floor of the building for a preview the night before the bar opened to the public.
Every stool upstairs was taken. About 60 college-aged people were drinking pitchers of free beer and snacking on some of the beer-battered appetizers that Mugshots serves.
“This will be my bar of choice,” junior Lauren Hughes said.
Mugshots does not look radically different from what the Courthouse Grill looked like.
The green neon sign that circled the top of the two-story building is still there, sans the “Courthouse Grill” sign. The Golden Tee arcade game that stood in the corner of the old restaurant is still there. Tables and chairs still dot the balcony, the building’s most distinguishing feature.
“I saw the building and fell in love with it,” McDonald said. “It’s a good, New Orleans-style place.”
The bar’s interior walls are covered partly with a crŠme-colored plaster. Lime-washed brick shows through where the plaster is gone. Mississippi State sports memorabilia is hung around the bar, paintings of big games like 2000’s “Snow Bowl” against Texas A&M and baseball jerseys from famous alumni.
What will distinguish Mugshots from other bars in town is the food and drink policy, McDonald said.
The hamburgers at Mugshots are the staple of the menu. All of the burgers bear the namesakes of employees. The Gamble, named for employee Tray Gamble, is topped with chili, cheese sauce, jalapenos, sour cream and lettuce.
As heavy as the Gamble sounds, it’s not the biggest burger on the menu. That award goes to The Mugshot, a mass of beef, pork, cheese and fried vegetables. The hamburger has three patties, six strips of bacon and two cheeses. French fries, an onion ring and a fried pickle come on the side. If a customer can finish the plate in 15 minutes or less, it’s on the house.
McDonald said four people out of 60 in Hattiesburg who have tried have finished it in 15 minutes.
Hughes said the burgers are pretty good. “I just took a bite of one tonight from a guy and it was fantastic,” she said.
Junior Becky Bass said they’re the best in the Southeast, though she admitted that she had only tried the chicken sandwich.
Hamburgers aren’t the only item on the menu. Mugshots also serves other sandwiches, salads and fried, beer-battered cheese, jalapenos, pickles and onions.
One section of the menu reads: “Beer + Appetizers = Good,” an indication of one of the bar’s other staples: beer.
Draft and bottled, domestic and imported, Mugshots serves beer. For now, the bar and restaurant is not serving liquor.
Sunday night, McDonald was working on assembling cooking equipment outside the bar at about 11. Wednesday, everything was in place.
McDonald is expecting to start with a bang. He said he anticipates a big crowd at the restaurant with Mississippi State’s opening football game with Tulane slated for Saturday.
“I think this weekend is gonna be crazy,” he said.