Lisa's Burgers at Swallow's Inn Named Best in San Juan Capistrano

Readers voted the burgers from the Swallow's Inn the best in town, but only when they're cooked by Lisa Towles.

By day, Towles works in finance for NetSource Technology, an allocated electronic and computer component products manufacturer in Rancho Santa Margarita.

That may sound a little dry, but her hamburgers most are certainly not, say San Juan Capistrano Patch readers. They're often a six-napkin affair.

Twice a week, Thursday nights from 6 to 10 and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m., she comes to the  to cook up her brand of burger.

“Lisa's burgers by far are the best. If I am going to go all out and have a burger, it will [be] Lisa's burgers at Swallows Inn,” commented Susie Estrada on the . 

Patch’s poll was open for five days last week and netted 1,338 votes, of which Towles and her burgers received 64 percent. Only the burgers at the challenged, clinching 32 percent of the vote. No one else came close.

In addition to comments posted on the  and poll story, Editor Penny Arévalo received numerous personal emails extolling the virtues of Lisa’s Kitchen, as it is known on the nights Towles is at the helm.

As Gary Dalton put it: “No question...It's gotta be Lisa's Kitchen @ Swallow's Inn. We love her and love her food....What's not to Swallow?”

“I’m so very flattered,” Towles wrote of her nomination. ”What fun this is.”

Come June, Towles will have been working her magic and flipping those burgers for 10 years.