Posted by Robyn Lee, October 10, 2008 at 6:30 PM
The Slowburger at Slow Bar in Portland, Oregon, made the cover of Portland Monthly back in June (hey, better late than never) as one of the 25 best meals for under $25.
The Slowburger, which will only set you back $9, consists of a griddled eight-ounce patty of Strawberry Mountain natural beef, gruyère, two onion rings, butter lettuce, and pickle relish in a brioche bun. How do you eat such an insanely tall burger? Portland Monthly recommends taking out an onion ring and eating it separately; "Leave the second ring in the burger to provide crunchy texture and sweet flavor to the peerless ensemble." [Tip 'o the hat to: Larry Fire]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 13, 2008 at 3:00 PM
I'm going to kill two birds with one stone with this post. First bird: I've been meaning to give a shout-out to the awesome blog Portland Hamburgers for a while now and don't know what's stopped me. It's a cool addition (though it's now been around since August 2007) to the burger-blogging scene. Sorry for sleepin' on the shout-out, PDX Burgers!
Photograph from Vintage Roadside
Second: Check out this cool photo that Portland Hamburgers dug up of a "family" of burger mascot people that happens to be sitting in the back yard of the folks who run Vintage Roadside—a Portland business that sells the ephemera of bygone roadside America. What an amazing collection to have! Could you imagine the total and ultimate cred this array would lend you while hosting grill-outs? Here's a link to a full set of "family" photos.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 18, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Yesterday, we used a photograph of a farmer eating a burger at a cornhusking contest in Marshall County, Iowa, to illustrate an entry here. It's from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. Below, we offer a look at other noteworthy burger photos we dug up from the available online collection.
Most of the photos here were taken by Russell Lee (right; 1903–1986), who was invited to join the federally funded Farm Security Administration as part of a team of photographers charged with documenting the plight of the rural poor during the Depression. (Esther Bubley, Jack Delano, and Arthur Rothstein, whose photos are also represented below, were members of the project as well.)
These photos are truly a fascinating scrapbook of hamburger—and American—history, and they're available for reproduction online at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room (search the catalog for "hamburger"). Dig in!
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 1, 2006 at 5:00 PM
AOL Cityguide has done it again. In late March, the good folks there brought you the best burgers in New York. Now they've compiled the "15 Burgers to Try Before You Die" (hmm ... strange echo of Alan Richman's piece in GQ last year, "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.") Without further ado, they are ...
- All-American Drive-In, Massapequa, New York
- Chris Madrid's, San Antonio
- CityGrille, Denver
- Dick's Drive-In, Seattle
- Goldyburgers, Chicago
- In-N-Out Burgers, Los Angeles [AHT's 2¢]
- Jack's Old Fashion Hamburger, Oakland Park, Florida
- O'Connell's Pub, Saint Louis
- Peter Luger, New York [AHT's 2¢]
- Roaring Fork, Phoenix
- Stanich's, Portland, Oregon
- Tessaro's, Pittsburgh
- Thurman Cafe, Columbus, Ohio
- Val's Burgers, San Francisco
- 96th Street Steakburgers, Indianapolis
15 Burgers to Try Before You Die [AOL Cityguide]
The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die [GQ]
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 5, 2005 at 1:40 PM
Hey ho, hamburger hermanos y hermanas! I hope your Fourth of July was a good one, that you didn't blow off any fingers, and that you had some tasty burgers at the cookouts you attended.
Speaking of grilling hamburgers over Independence Day weekend, did you know that's when Americans buy the most beef? That's what I heard on a broadcast yesterday afternoon on American Public Media's Marketplace show. Not surprising, eh? That factoid was in the intro to a very nice piece on Burgerville (listen here), a small 39-store chain in Washington and Oregon.
If you live in the Northwest, you know Burgerville does it right. Special items on the menu vary from month to month, according to what's in season. This month, for instance, Walla Walla onion rings and raspberry milkshakes and shortcakes are the thing. Chocolate-hazelnut* milkshakes were available earlier this year.
More important to this site, however, is Burgerville's beef. The meat for its burgers comes from Oregon cattle raised by sustainable methods, and it is always fresh–never frozen. Moreover, the small Vancouver, Washington–based chain has been using this meat in all its stores since February 2004. According to the Marketplace story, it only costs Burgerville 5¢ more per patty. And that's pretty cheap, considering that customers get healthier meat and that ranchers have further incentive to raise cattle in a more earth-friendly way.
Like In-N-Out, Burgerville is an exemplary model of what fast-food burgers can be but too often, sadly, aren't. Anyone within a short hop of Burgerville would be well-advised to take up temporary residence there as opposed to McDonaldland or the shoddily run realm of the Burger King.
A Nice Visit to Burgerville [Marketplace]
Photo by Polaricecap
* Or, as they call them in Oregon, "filberts."
