Notable Sandwiches #83: The Hamburger
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the bizarre and ever-mutating document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week: the sandwich, the myth, the legend… the hamburger.
One of the joys of this recurring feature is that I get to explore a lot of sandwiches I’ve never heard of, and you probably haven’t either (I don’t know where all of you come from, but rare is the man who has eaten a fischbrötchen and a donkey burger and a dyrlægens natmad and can rattle them off unruffled). It’s a dive into the unknown, a kickflip into history and information, into travel blogs and stories that are sometimes trivial, sometimes false, and sometimes bloodstained. Other sandwiches—the hamburger being prime among them—are different, and intimidating in different ways. They are ubiquitous, at least in the US, and our century of cultural hegemony has placed them everywhere; Big Macs in Moscow, after all, were some of the first and most potent symbols that the Iron Curtain had fallen for good.
By their own ubiquity, burgers both erase themselves (have you ever thought really hard about hamburgers before?) and also make themselves tricky to write about, because everyone has a platonic ideal in their heads of a burger, whether that’s comprised of the impossibly juicy-looking creations in TV ads for fast-food chains, or mom’s home patties, or so many encounters with the burger they blur into one uberburger of piercing clarity. There are, too, so many variations: veggie and turkey and lentil patties; a broad array of chichi toppings or no-nonsense straight-off-the-grill grease; regional variants, like the Southwestern green chile burger, the Minnesotan Juicy Lucy, the Floridian frita cubana. And so on. In other words, to write anything concrete about the burger is to compete, impossibly, with the ideal in your head, the memories you’ve made, your geography and your lifetime.
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The actual history of the sandwich has a similar nebulous, shimmering quality. According to Andrew Smith’s Hamburger: A Global History, minced-beef patties started appearing in Europe and North America in the back half of the nineteenth century. Germany has always had a succulent reputation for fleisch, Hamburg in particular. And because there were a lot of German immigrants to the U.S. in the nineteenth century, and as on-the-go sandwiches became increasingly popular during the rapid industrialization of the country’s workforce, somehow, at some point—and with a lot of ferocious disputants to firstdom and no clear material evidence to support any—the hamburger was quietly born and succeeded on a breathtaking journey of conquest.
“Who really invented the hamburger sandwich—strictly defined as a hot ground-beef patty served between two pieces of bread—will probably never be known,” Smith writes. It’s elusive, it’s something to everyone, even if that something is only a refusal. It’s anonymous and ubiquitous, but it has tracked its juicy trail into all our lives, at one time or another.
So for this titan of a sandwich, I decided to turn to my followers on Bluesky (Twitter is dead and I haven’t figured out Threads yet) to ask them what their best and most memorable burger had ever been.
@swordsjew.bsky.social on Bluesky
what is the best and most memorable hamburger you've ever had asking for column inspiration, but i might quote you
The effulgence of the replies proved my point: everyone has their own most succulent and best-remembered burger, some combination of nostalgia, nostalgie de la boue, life circumstance, particular hunger, or gourmand delight that’s burnt that patty right into their hearts. Far be it from me to wrest yours from you. Here are a few descriptions—not written by me—of some really good and really well-loved burgers, and may you salivate until the cows come home to slaughter.
So without further ado, a sampler platter of what happened when I asked more than twenty thousand people what their best and most memorable burger had been.
Vidoqo @vidoqo.bsky.social
Raised vegetarian, when I was 9 I saved up allowance money, biked across town to the Burger King, then rode home and ate it in secret in my backyard fort.
Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social
A Big Mac in Helsinki after two weeks in the USSR, 1987. And I don't even like Big Macs.
Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
It was a cheeseburger. In 1980.
It was a drive-in movie-theater cheeseburger. Objectively it was probably horrific. But my dad took me to see The Empire Strikes Back at the drive-in so we could see it opening night, and it was magic.
Dr. ShinyGoth @ghostingdani.bsky.social
I still think about this burger they served in a burlesque bar in Tucson owned by a lesbian called the Surly Wench: nacho cheese and jalapenos, impossible to eat with a clean face, named the Cooter.
Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com
I rarely eat red meat anymore so this feels extra memorable—in the lounge of the bar at The Driskill in Austin, this great old hotel, with a dry gin martini and a book. Maybe I don’t remember the burger itself. But that situation is apex joyously going out alone. Are burgers best at the bar alone?
Sedna51 @sedna51.bsky.social
this is cheating but: I was 16, it was a few days after my kidney transplant, and I finally had my appetite back after eighteen months of kidney failure. All I wanted was a McDonald’s cheeseburger; my dad made it a mission to find one ASAP & hand-delivered it to my room. God it was so good.
Jonathan A Neufeld @jneuf.bsky.social
Janousek's cafe in Hutchinson, MN sitting at a counter with my dad when I was 6 or 7. They gave us raw ground beef on rye and raw onion while we waited. Guy convinced me to try pickles on my burger (I thought I didn't like them). Transformative.
Michael Metivier @grousehollow.bsky.social
When I was a kid, McDonald’s had a limited-run burger called the Cheddar Melt on a rye bun, and I think it was responsible for me trying and liking onions. Have had plenty of better burgers (and patty melts) since then, but for memorability, that might be the one.
Kat @katriddell.bsky.social
I’d spent a week driving around rural Illinois for work, living off of gas station chips and Diet Coke bc none of the small towns had GF restaurants, and on my way home I finally hit a Culver’s, and Talia, that burger was so good I actually cried.
David, Host of The Cold War @coldwarhost.bsky.social
It was bison, with real cheddar on it, lettuce, tomato and red onion. Ate it on the patio of a place overlooking the harbour in Tobermory, Ontario on Lake Huron after hiking all day.
Super simple but my wife and I STILL talk about just how good that burger was, years later.
CZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social
There was a local place, Conway’s Red Top, in Colorado Springs when I first moved there. Family owned, everything local, including beef raised just down the road on the plains. They had 3-4 storefronts. Griddled, not broiled. The fanciest topping was caramelized onions, but they were perfect.
Jeff Feldstein @jefffeldstein.bsky.social
My first Bacon Blue Burger at Mac N Joe’s in Oxford, OH. It was a slimy, drippy, glorious event.
This was in ‘87, when the place was still just a cinder block one-red-door with a single light bulb hanging over the door carved wooden tables joint with a killer jukebox. It’s a sports bar now…
Justin (He/Them) @ingot.bsky.social
A good burger is what introduced and hooked me on goat cheese. A high quality burger patty, stuffed with honeyed goat cheese, topped with extra crispy bacon, just a perfect, simple combination.
bobby @bobbylewis.bsky.social
best burger i’ve ever had was at longman & eagle in chicago, ~8 years ago. our 1st and 2nd choices were closd, as were many restaurants, but this place wasn’t. menu looked meh so i got the burger, which looked small when it came, but the flavors, the juiciness, the crisp of the sear, it was perfect
Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social
the McMenamins Kennedy School in Portland had an elk burger with coffee-bacon jam, sharp white cheddar and black garlic aioli which was the first restaurant meal I ate with my sister once outdoor dining opened up again in Portland and in that moment it was the best thing I’d ever tasted
your sibling in dice @mxmarkargent.bsky.social
from the Jewish Mother deli in Virginia Beach, VA, the least Kosher hamburger ever: a bacon cheeseburger topped with backfin crabmeat
Giknowbili @giknowbili.bsky.social
From Spiral Diner in Denton, TX. I had no business being this reckless. I have a family. But I ate it in one sitting in all its maximalist glory. And despite its veganness, I've never felt more American (derogatory).
Mary Huntimer @mary-huntimer.bsky.social
The rose bowl parade. Getting up at 3 in the morning, marching 7 miles, and at the end of the parade they give you 2 In & Out burgers. No burger has ever tasted better.
Kristy Puchko @kristypuchko.bsky.social
On a beach resort in Mexico. Maybe it was that it was the last vacation where my parents paid for everything. Free food just tastes better. But maybe it was that the patty was studded with pepper and onions, and the inside was stuffed with nacho cheese. Like a lava cake. But CHEESE.
It’s been twenty some years. My mouth still waters when I remember it.
calamity jim @calamityjim.bsky.social
1967, age 15, with my brothers who were both in danger of getting sent to Vietnam. We were at J & S Hamburger in Traverse City, MI, where the hamburgers were juicy and served on great buns with mayo and chopped green olives.
My mouth waters remembering it.
Luminosity @luminosity.bsky.social
Bud's Broiler, City Park, NOLA, 1988.
Elly @ellyzoe.bsky.social
I was on my HS swim team (early 90s) and ate ... a lot… to sustain growth/sports. After one very long meet, the team went to Fuddrucker’s, where I’d never been, and I got the hugest, juiciest burger on a fried crispy brioche bun and my eyes rolled back in my head. Best thing I ever ate, maybe.
The Freewheelin’ Bob Vila @toomanyrichies.bsky.social
The au poivre burger at Raoul’s in NYC. I’ve had a lot of burgers on peoples’ “Best of New York” lists (JG Melon, Emily, etc.) and they’ve all been great. Raoul’s is the best. And it’s not even close.
It was revelatory. I’ve been chasing that dragon ever since.
Kate @ckatoj.bsky.social
The most memorable is a maui wowie burger (grilled pineapple, hamburger, hot dog, and teriyaki sauce) on a boat in maui watching the humpbacks breach in between dives. The best burger I've ever had is the one my mom makes me whenever I come to visit because she's worried my iron levels are too low
Adderall Kablammo 🐀🐀🐀 @acekatana.bsky.social
Burgers are best in context. Astro Burger in West Hollywood? Fine. Astro Burger in West Hollywood while taking a break from medic duty during the uprising? Much more interesting
sundene 🇳🇴 @sundene.bsky.social
I was about 13, after my parent's divorce. My dad took me to Alfie's Inn (suburban Chicago) by myself. Just us. No questions or comments on any of our pain, just a dad and a teen daughter sharing something we both loved.
I still go there. I think of Dad every time, though he's been gone 41 yrs.
Jacob Pomrenke @buckweaver.bsky.social
My first green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe. Changed my life (and so did the New Mexican girl who introduced me to it. We’re still together, 18 years later.)
c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
It was at a little place in Norman, OK that doesn't exist anymore, I think.
It had a fried egg (a first for me), the meat was fried with embedded thin-sliced onions with smashy-crispy edges on the meat & a homemade bun with a thick slice of melted jack cheese.
I ate it for dinner on 9/10/2001
from the Jewish Mother deli in Virginia Beach, VA, the least Kosher hamburger ever: a bacon cheeseburger topped with backfin crabmeat