Stan's Wagon Wheel in Sikeston, Missouri, is offering a 7-pound "Frankenstein" burger for free, plus a $100 prize, if the customer can eat the whole thing in one sitting under an hour. The $20 burger only contains four pounds of meat, but the 14-inch buns, condiments, and fries add up to seven. The restaurant isn't about to go bankrupt from this challenge; only one person has completed it. "I didn't make it impossible for someone, but I think it's going to take an awfully skinny person to do it," said owner Frank Stanley.
Hayes Hamburgers and Chili in Kansas City, Missouri, is quite a throwback. In business since 1955, the small roadside shack is known for its grilled-onion–laden burgers and hot bowls of chili.
Patrons crowd in to the diner and sit on swivel stools at the counter or in two-seater blue vinyl booths along the windows. There are seats for, maybe, 24 people, and if you're near the register at the counter, prepare for the brisk trade in take-out burgers and chili that will go on over your shoulder as money and to-go sacks trade hands between you and your neighboring stool squatter.
Editor's note: A short time ago, Serious Eater Ann Lemons contacted me about contributing some burger intel to A Hamburger Today/Serious Eats. "Sure thing!" I said. Here's the result. For more on St. Louis–area food, check out Lemons's blog: St. Louis Eats and Drinks. Enjoy! —Adam
Some fine hamburgers can be found in extremely humble surroundings. Others have emerged from surprisingly elegant environments, such as Palena in Washington, D.C. One of the nation's great burgers can be found in a near-perfect middle, O'Connell's Pub in St. Louis.
This is a fat hamburger, cooked over a flame and delivered, with a Bermuda onion slice and a pickle spear, on a thick, oval paper plate. Not surprisingly, they're cooked to order, and as big as these fellows are (10 ounces), this is not fast food.
The impatient may spend the waiting time with one of the housemade soups that change from day to day, and those who are burger-averse can consider the other specialty, a fine, freshly carved roast beef sandwich. O'Connell's is—and always has been—a place for eating and conversation. A TV set is used rarely except for the World Series. No music.
Editor's note: A short time ago, Serious Eater Lemons contacted me about contributing some burger intel to A Hamburger Today/Serious Eats. "Sure thing!" I said. Here's the result. For more on St. Louis–area food, check out Lemons's blog: St. Louis Eats and Drinks. Enjoy! —Adam
The secret at Carl’s Drive Inn is speed. Owner Frank Cunetto knows his burgers are at their best fresh off the grill. These flat-grilled babies, available as singles, doubles or triples, arrive crisp around the edges and dressed to order. (Doubles offer the perfect ratio of meat to bun, I’d say.)
Cunetto is a stickler for how much fat and moisture is in his meat, and in the infrequent times he’s not manning the grill is happy to tell you why. He also makes his own root beer, which arrives, of course, in frosty mugs.
TOWN TOPIC Address: 2121 Broadway Street, Kansas City MO 64108 and1900 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City MO 64108 Short Order: Smallish burgers with a salty crust and grilled onions embedded in the meat. A single is a snack; get a double if you're hungry. Want Fries With That? I've never really gotten fries at Town Topic. Do they even have them?
Went to one of my favorite burger joints in Kansas City over my Christmas trip back home.
Town Topic makes some seriously good little burgers. Fresh-not-frozen beef, coarse grind, and salted just enough. They start with a fairly small meatball (looked to be about 3 ounces, so I'd recommend getting a double burger) which they place on the grill and smash down with the spatula. After salting the patty, they throw some sliced onions on top, smash those in a bit, and let it sit a while.
After a couple minutes, it's flip and press, to embed the onion in a bit further. Yeah, yeah, I know. Smashing is bad. Supposedly. But it sure yields a nice crisp crust.
The burger is served on a nice squishy bun with plenty of cool, crisp pickles. Pictured is a cheeseburger, with American, of course. (You have no other choice -- as it should be!)
Dear AHT,
I'm in St. Louis. The heartland as you politely call it. (Seriously.) Come to think of it, that in itself is pretty funny because we're apparently one of the fattest cities in one of the fattest states, so apparently our hearts aren't to great. Not to cruise off topic, I've a bone to pick with AHT.
Sure I could chastise you on the lack of local/regional burger joints left off your lists or reviews. It is us after all, in the heartland, who raise the cattle for many of your eastern and western burger delights. Being understanding of your lack of a coronary heartland reporter, however, what I can fairly chastise you for is your omittance of the finest of the regional chain burger spots in the Midwest, the little slice of crispy heaven in every bite: Steak 'n Shake.
Geez,
Bill B.
Saint Louis
Dear Bill,
You're right. We're a bit thin in the middle when it comes to burger coverage for lack of regional burger correspondents from the Midwest, South, and mountain states. We're working on rectifying that. As far as Steak 'n Shake goes, we've mentioned it in passing on several best-of lists from some of our friends in burgerdom (though, true, not in an actual field report).
Mr. Cutlets rated Steak 'n Shake No. 1 on his national burger list in May.
Burger documentarian George Motz also placed it on his list, which raised the hackles of AHT reader Nick Butler: "Steak 'n Shake?? Are you kidding me?"
Though I grew up in the Midwest (aka the heartland), I've never had the pleasure of trying one—the chain didn't have a location in suburban Kansas City when I lived there. Now, however, I see that there are two locations near Ma and Pa Burger's house. I'll put S'nS on my dining agenda (along with awesome barbecue) for my visit home at Christmas.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to serve you a new treat. We call it Grilled. Each week, A Hamburger Today will sit down with a notable burger lover and run him or her through the grinder. The result, we hope, is a meaty blend of fun and information. I'm proud to say that this, the inaugural installment of Grilled, features my very own sister. She's the general manager of Sonic Drive-In No. 3454 in Spring Hill, Kansas. Without further ado, let's get Grillin' ... —Ed.
Name: Krista Kuban Location: Overland Park, Kansas Occupation: General manager of Sonic Drive-In No. 3454; Spring Hill, Kansas [map]
How long have you worked at Sonic and in what capacities?
This June marked my ten-year anniversary. I started when I was 15; it was my first part-time job. I began as a carhop to earn extra money and continued carhopping throughout college. After graduating, I carhopped while looking for a job using my degree. Nothing suited me or even came close to what I enjoyed doing, which was Sonic.
When I moved to Arizona, I transferred to a store there. They saw what a super Sonic employee I was and asked me to try management. In less than a year, I was promoted from regular employee to assistant manager, to contract manager. At that point, I was ready to become a general manager. I returned to Kansas, where my original boss, who now supervises my store, offered me a location to manage. Now here I am, general manager of a Sonic Drive-In.
How often do you eat burgers?
This may sound gross, but probably at least three or four times a week. [Um, that's nothing in AHT-World. —Ed. ]
Where did you eat your most recent one?
At work, Sonic, of course!
And how would you like that done, miss?
Slightly pink, medium.
Would you do us the favor of describing your perfect burger? Price and ingredients are no object.
I may be small, but I like giant burgers. Slap another patty on there, and make it a double! A thick, juicy hamburger, with a slice of American cheese below the patty, a slice of American cheese on top. I eat my burgers with ketchup, but instead of putting the ketchup on the burger, I dip the burger in the ketchup. That's it, nothing else. Like I said, I'm a picky eater.
What topping or condiment, in your opinion, should never grace a burger?
I'm not a burger snob. Whatever makes you and your stomach happy. And if you're one of my customers, ask and ye shall receive!
What's the most unusual burger you've ever eaten? (Or most unusual burger experience you've had?)
Picky is as picky does—no strange burgers for me, but Sonic comes up with some unique burgers. There was the popular Island Fire Burger with spicy habanero sauce and pepper Jack cheese. Right now we're featuring the Spicy Southwest SuperSonic Cheeseburger with creamy chipotle sauce and pepper Jack cheese, topped with crunchy breaded jalepeño strips. [I've been intrigued by the commercials for this one. Breaded pepper strips ... mmm. —Ed.]
At Sonic, you started off as carhop. Did you ever wear rollerskates?
I sure did and sometimes still do! They had to coax me at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was nearly impossible to get me outta those things! When I worked in Arizona, I was a certified trainer, meaning I was paid to travel and open new stores, training employees to be skating carhops. You could say that's my specialty!
Does Sonic bring the food to your car on trays that clip to the vehicle window? If so, how do you signal to the carhop that you're done eating?
Sonic does still use the "red curb trays" that hook onto your vehicle's window. If the customer desires, the carhop will place the tray on the window for them. It's not a frequent request, but one we will fill. Customers are encouraged to press the red speaker button if they are in need of anything, but we also have our "Smile Tray" (a courtesy-type deal with extra condiments and such), which circles the building in the hands of a smiling carhop every ten minutes. Many times, customer requests are filled by that carhop.
What's the most overrated burger in your city? Most underrated?
I know that Town Topic supposedly has great hamburgers, though I've never eaten there. It's always packed, no matter what time of day it is. Fred P. Ott's gets quite a few votes, but I'm not a big fan; the ambiance fizzles rather than sizzles.
###
BURGER JOINTS REFERENCED Sonic Drive-In: Various locations nationwide; sonicdrivein.com Town Topic: Two locations—2021 Broadway, Kansas City MO; and 1900 Baltimore Ave., Kansas City MO Fred P. Ott's: 1111 Main St., Kansas City MO; fredpotts.com
Speaking of chain burgers yesterday (Burger-Mad Bruni's trip to Houston's), let's refocus on what makes burgerdom in America (and the world) truly great: the mom-and-pop shops. The final quote in this excerpt spells success:
Thousands and thousands of orders and 40 years ago this week, Pete Luetkenhaus bought a root beer stand that has since become a landmark at Pearce Boulevard and Highway 61 in Wentzville.
Farther west where Pearce Boulevard meets the parkway, the street is flooded with almost any fast food fare your stomach desires. Yet Pete's Drive-In has stayed afloat and intends to keep on going.
"A lot of our customers are repeat. That's how we survived with all the new restaurants in town," said Marsha Perotti, Luetkenhaus' daughter who helps him manage the restaurant. "It takes good customer service and a hometown feel."
Early last month, we blogged about a family whose trip to the nearest White Castle (400 miles away) was sponsored by Globat.com as part of a promotional stunt. Conditions of the sponsorship were that the family of three had to eat 100 Slyders before leaving the restaurant. Video is now up here.
Say it ain't so. The Wheel Inn, home of the Guber Burger, may be forced to close after the Missouri Department of Transportation widens the intersection it sits at.
The street changes will close the main entrances to the Wheel Inn as well as place 300-foot-long medians in the road that will prevent left turns into the Wheel Inn's lot. A widened intersection will also make it more difficult for cars to navigate the lot.
"It looks to me like it's the end of the Wheel Inn," said Jack Hawkins, who co-owns the building with his wife, Ruth Ann.
The Wheel Inn is one of the eight burger joints profiled in George Motz's Hamburger America burger biopic, featured for its unusual use of hot peanut butter as a topping on its burgers. Is there anything that can be done to save the Wheel Inn? It would be a shame if this Missouri icon died a slow death at the hands of street strangulation. At what price progress?!?
In similar fashion to the movie, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," the participants, Terri Scott, a longtime eBay'er, daughter Kerri Gomez, and Kerri's boyfriend GW Whitfield, wanted to taste and experience the infamous sliders so badly that they created an auction on eBay to finance the trip. Each will be required to finish all 100 hamburgers without leaving the restaurant until they do so.
The trio will drive 400 miles from Schulenburg, Texas, to Saint Louis for the burgers.
My pal Andy in The KC sent me a link earlier this week that had me raising my greasy hands to heaven. The Westport Flea Market and Bar & Grill—a Kansas City burger favorite—will not be bounced out by a Hooter's, as had been expected.
On Monday, retiring restaurateur Mel Kleb will “pass the hamburger” at the Westport Flea Market and Bar & Grill to Joe Zwillenberg, owner of two food establishments on Main Street.
Zwillenberg already has established his devotion to midtown — plus his ability to cook a good burger. He says he’ll keep the Flea Market’s menu and funky atmosphere the same as it has been for 25 years.
Andy visited the Flea Market about a month ago to write an appreciation piece for AHT. I'll see if I can scare that up from him. In the meantime, take a look at his Flickr photo set on the joint: Westport Flea Market
There's very little the intrepid reporters at A Hamburger Today wouldn't do for our readers, just as there's very little I wouldn't do just to spend a minute or two with the gorgeous though notoriously less photogenic AHT editrix Honey P. When I caught wind that Honey P. was spending her Memorial Day weekend in Kansas City, I immediately set out to the shoulder of the 101 freeway with my thumb out in hopes of meeting her there for just one burger.
After a cross-country hitchhike filled with trials, tribulations, and increasingly anti-evolutionary zealots, I finally arrived on Honey P's second-to-last day in The K.C. to catch her working her way to Winstead's, one of Kansas City's oldest and most famous burger spots.
Winstead's is as classic a burger joint as Kansas City has. An albino diner complete with jukebox, counter, and leather-clad booths, it's in the '50s style, evoking that treasured golden age of burgers, though the chain dates back to the '40's.
I liked what Winstead's was cookin'. To start off, Honey P. recommended a cherry limeade, her beautiful light-brown eyes catching the Midwest sunlight like the fields of wheat that surrounded us. Skyscraper shakes that can satisfy 5 or 6 people were also available, but alas, two is the second loneliest number that there ever was. After placing our order for burgers, the limeades arrived like nothing I've ever seen before; an unnatural
light-green elixir topped with sherbet and a bright-red maraschino cherry (right). Delish, I must proclaim, but not too soon, as it was quickly burgertime. Our burgers were slid in front of our eager mouths along with the kick-butt option of half-fries, half-onion rings. The rings were excellent, but the fries just ho-hum, Kansas speak for sucked.
But those burgers—what a trip! Emerging with a look like that of any other burger, closer inspection revealed that the Winstead burger's all-steak patty was paper-thin. It was lightly crisp and spread itself over the generic bun. Almost resembling some sort of hash brown, this coarsely ground patty looked like a sandwich with thinly sliced meat resting between the breaded sheets.
Stunningly lovely Honey P. wondered if Earth's original burgers wer more akin to Winstead's than the huge greasy meat sponges we've come to expect, and I surely felt the unique blend of jive she was talkin'. Biting into the thin burger, I was pleasantly surprised that the taste was not affected by these dimensions. My razor-thin cheeseburger, with grilled onions, pickles, lettuce (though, yes, we have no tomaters), and the usual condiments, was as delicious as any regular burger I've had, leaving me without the typical guilt of having eaten half a heifer for lunch. The beef was crisp on the outside, but soft in the middle, with a great grilled flavor permeating its slightly juicy being. I could have gone for another even, so light and delicious was Winstead's offering.
After hitting the solid movie Crash (featuring several star-studded, intertwining vignettes on Angeleno race relations) in the afternoon to bridge our two disparate (and in my case desperate) worlds of New Yorker and Californian, Desi and Irish-Pollock, we celebrated our common bond of burger lovin'. Though the incomparable good looking lass that is Honey P did not approve of my loudly calling out that Toby Keith is a redneck to the packed theater as his ignorant brand of hate-tunes played overhead, I am hopeful that my dedication to the burger cause, as embodied by my long haul to Kansas, has burrowed a small place in what I know is her perfectly shaped heart. Hitting the flat Kansas highway with my thumb out for multiple rides back to the West Coast, I had a heart full of honey and a belly full of the heartland.
WINSTEAD'S Location reviewed:103rd and Metcalf; locations throughout the KC Metro region. Short Order: Exceptionally thin, coarsely ground sirloin burgers. Some patrons may want to make theirs a double.
KANSAS CITY Welcome to the The K.C., bitch! Now slide those sliders over, and join us for some super-thin, perfect-in-your-palm burgers whose size and taste would make Wimpy weak in the knees. Slice fans will remember Adam K.'s pizza expedition through the Heartland earlier this year, but that just wasn't enough. After getting punched in the face by bad pizza, the same way Ryan did when Luke famously welcomed him to that other initialled town, I knew justice had to be served. Maybe they can't get that New York–style slice right, but if there's one thing the Kansas City knows, it's beef.
And they've got a local chain there that's refreshingly simple, sweet, and so damn special that I just had to get me a burger from Winstead's over this past Memorial Day weekend.
On learning of my indulgent plan, our resident Hamburglar, Hadley, who, despite his fabulous taste in burgers has off-putting stalkerlike tendencies, decided to show up for my date with a "single Winstead" and medium cherry limeade. (You'll get his take on Winstead's when his entry posts later today.) Being the polite and generous soul that I am and knowing that H.H. just loves a partner in crime, even during the most sinless act of eating hamburgers, I kindly welcomed him to my little slice of burger heaven. Silently, I lamented the private moment me and my Winstead might have shared.
Now don't get it twisted (as my lil' sis, "Money P.," would say), I am not proclaiming this the best burger in the K.C. metro area. Although, you should know that K.C. Citysearch readers have voted this the best burger countless years in a row. I'm just sharing a burger treat with y'all that I find delicious and worth the trip. And, Winstead's has been operating since 1940, when the chain issued its simple mission statement, which still rings true today: "We grind U.S. Choice Steak daily for the sandwich." Hence the name "Steakburger," which you'll see all over the mellow green menu.
This is not your thick-cut, juices-dripping-down-your-hands, char-grilled giant of a burger. Like I said before, think Wimpy—a cartoonish version that he could polish off in a few giant bites. This is the fresh and flavorful direction McDonald's should have taken. The composition, a soft golden bun and meat so thin that its outer edges cook to a nearly deep-fried crispness, is a winning combo.
I chose mine with "everything," which includes mustard, ketchup, raw onion slices, and pickles of the Vlasic kind rather than Klausen brand, sliced lengthwise to cover the span of the patty. However, Winstead's aims to please, which is why it also offers cheese, lettuce, tomato, and bacon for a few extra cents and mayo or grilled onion at no extra charge. Make it a "double" or "triple" and you're still under $4.
I'll let H.H. get into the sides and soda fountain drinks, but before I leave you with a craving, you should also know that no burger here is complete without an order of onion rings. No signs of grease, just crispy morsels of crunch surrounding a mere shave of onion. I'm still dreaming about them. Joined by such creative frozen concoctions as banana split or mint-chocolate-chip milkshakes, you'd be hard pressed to find a more balanced meal.
My satiated self and an overwhelmed H.H. marveled at the lip-smacking lunch we had just shared. In the end I didn't regret his intrusion. After all, what kind of person would I be if I kept such treasures to myself?
WINSTEAD'S Location reviewed:103rd and Metcalf; locations throughout the KC Metro region. Short Order: Exceptionally thin, coarsely ground sirloin burgers. Some patrons may want to make theirs a double.
Name: Krista Kuban
After a cross-country hitchhike filled with trials, tribulations, and increasingly anti-evolutionary zealots, I finally arrived on Honey P's second-to-last day in The K.C. to catch her working her way to Winstead's, one of Kansas City's oldest and most famous burger spots. 
But those burgers—what a trip! Emerging with a look like that of any other burger, closer inspection revealed that the Winstead burger's all-steak patty was paper-thin. It was lightly crisp and spread itself over the generic bun. Almost resembling some sort of hash brown, this coarsely ground patty looked like a sandwich with thinly sliced meat resting between the breaded sheets. 
Welcome to the The K.C., bitch! Now slide those 
On learning of my indulgent plan, our resident Hamburglar, Hadley, who, despite his fabulous taste in burgers has off-putting stalkerlike tendencies, decided to show up for my date with a "single Winstead" and medium cherry limeade. (You'll get his take on Winstead's when his entry posts later today.) Being the polite and generous soul that I am and knowing that H.H. just loves a partner in crime, even during the most sinless act of eating hamburgers, I kindly welcomed him to my little slice of burger heaven. Silently, I lamented the private moment me and my Winstead might have shared.
