Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger, Ann Arbor, MI (August 2011)

Stop number four.

After Motz's, I don't know that I could have a BETTER burger, but I still had two hours before I flied, so I could have a DIFFERENT burger.

Looking at the map, where I was, and the Hamburger America app, I realize that I can make it to Ann Arbor in time for a stop at Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger and still get to the airport in time for my flight.  I was looking for a different burger and I had heard that Krazy Jim's was a different kind of burger joint.

The menu was daunting, particularly compared to the rest of the menus for the day.  And the format was very different.  No pleasant waitress who has worked there for twenty plus years.  Three young guys, who took  the order cafeteria-style and did so in the manner of an interrogation.   You didn't volunteer what kind of burger you wanted, you waited to answer the questions as they were asked.

The Menu at Krazy Jim's

How many patties?  Double?  Triple?  Quadruple?  Quintuple?   What kind of bun?  Regular?  Onion?  Kaiser?  Pumpernickel?  Anything grilled?  Onions?  Banana peppers?  Sauteed mushrooms?  Black or green olives?  Fried egg?  Bacon?  Hard salami?  

That was the first round of questions.   And don't talk to them about cheese, until they ask you what kind you want.   After the cheese, they slap it on a bun and hand it to the last guy who puts on the condiments and rings you up.   

The two most interesting exchanges that I heard from behind the counter:

Exchange 1, to the lady behind me: "What kind of burger do you want?"

"Two doubles."

"They both for you?"

"No.  One's for [points behind her] him."

"Can he not talk?"

"[Obviously flustered] No."

"You know, we have deaf folks in here.  We have blind folks in here.  They all manage to order for themselves."

It actually worsened for him when he tried to order his own cheese and the line cook told him to tell the woman what he wanted so she could tell him.

Exhange 2, overheard from my table:

"Hey, guy - you do know that you've got a really big burger on a really small bun.  You sure you don't want to change that to a Kaiser roll?"

I paid attention and knew what I wanted.  So I ordered confidently.  

Double

On a Kaiser roll

With grilled Salami

[pause]

Feta Cheese

[pause]

Mayonnaise and tomato

It was a novel combination.  And a good burger.   

But I did wonder, on the way to the airport, if I had time to get to Motz's for another double.

Motz's Hamburgers, Detroit Michigan (August 2011)

Stop number three.

I was highly disappointed at Hunter House and still had more than two hours before my plane home, so I pulled up the address and headed over to Motz's.   

Motz's is south of the ballparks downtown, which are very close to Canada.  I had no idea that the closest point to Canada in Detroit was on the southeast corner.   

When I got to Motz's it was 5:30 and they closed at 6:00.  I had the place to myself.  About ten stools in front of a long counter.  The waitress asks me what I want, so I go with a double, no onions.  While this is cooking, we start talking.   

I tell her that I'm from Atlanta, and I'm here on the Hamburger America trail.  She says, "So you know George!  He's the NICEST guy."  I ask her how long the two of them have been working together.  She says for the entire fifteen years she's worked there she has worked this shift.  Tammy, on the grill, has been there twenty-seven.  The girl that makes the burgers on the morning shift?  Forty-three.  

You know, there's a lot to be said about working in a diner for THAT long.  You get to know each other.  You get to know your customers (several other folks came in while I was there and Tammy knew their orders and their names).   And you really get to know how to make a burger.   The burger?

This was one of the best burgers I've ever had, in its simplicity.   Two eighth pound patties.  Steamed bun.  Mustard.  Ketchup.  It was incredible.  

I left out an ingredient.  I asked Tammy what made her burgers so good.  "I add a secret ingredient."   What is it, you ask?  "I put a little love in each burger."  Then she laughs. 

I did, too.  Then I ordered another burger, for dessert.

Hunter House Hamburgers, Birmingham, MI (August 2011)

Stop number two.

Open since 1952, Hunter House Hamburgers had a big sign out front that they had been named the best burgers in Michigan.  Yesterday, I took the challenge.  Like Carter's before it, and Motz's after it, it's all about the onions.

In fact, the T-shirts at Hunter House say "Onion breath is better than no breath."  I guess everyone needs a motto.  Apparently, they also take their breakfast serving hours quite seriously.  I REALLY don't like onions, but I decided if all the cool kids were eating them.....  So I ordered a double with onions and a small cheese fry.  

Check out the amount of onion on this burger!  

I'll have to say that I can't judge this burger fairly.  The onions were SO BAD, that even after I scraped them off, this burger still didn't taste good.  It also was a little pink in the center - not the best sign when the patty is only an eighth of a pound.  On top of that, the cheese fries were awful.  The fries themselves were bland and the cheese tasted worse than the sauce they pour onto nachos at the dollar movies.

The "best burgers" in Michigan were a disappointment.

Carter's Hamburgers, Dearborn, MI (August 2011)

Well, yesterday was a red letter day in burgerdom for me.  I had to be in Detroit on business and I knew I'd have a couple of hours, post-meeting, before I caught my plane.  

On my way from the airport, I had to make a U-turn when I missed my turn due to a road closing.  While I'm sitting at the light waiting to get back on M-39, I see Carter's Hamburgers out my window, on the access road.

Walking in, I see that they are open 24 hours, and I'm in luck because Thursday is $0.99 Coney Day!! 

Talking with the waitress, which is an experience until itself, I find out that Carter's has been open for 49 years and she's been working there twenty-seven, although they are not contiguous.  She has, by her own admission, "left a couple of times for greener pastures," but she's "always come back."

So I order a double with cheese, fries and, since it is Thursday, a Coney Dog.  

The burger was good, crisp edge with a moist bun.  The two things I noticed about Michigan burger joints:  they love Spanish onions (every place I went had grilled onions for the burgers and assumed you wanted them) and they're Pepsi people.   The latter could ultimately lead to a problem for me.

While the burger was fine, what was really surprising was the Coney Dog:

I asked the waitress what, exactly, makes it a "Coney Dog".  

"It's the chili."

What makes Coney chili different from regular chili?

"Regular chili has beans.  Coney chili has no beans."

After another three or four minutes of pulling answers out of Gabby Hayes, she divulges that the chili recipe is 49 years old, too.  

The chili was GOOD.  Kind of like a yellow-jacket dog, or one from the Varsity.  Maybe the key to a good chili dog IS "no beans".

Town Topic, Kansas City, MO (August 2011)

Second stop, second dinner in Kansas City.   As I left Winstead's, I headed up towards the airport and made a stopover at Town Topic.  Open for 75 years, they once had seven restaurants around town.  Now they only have three and this is the only location open 24 hours (I had driven by another that was closed).

Classic diner, stools at the long counter and along the window ledge seating, griddle at the left end.  The waitress is at the grill cooking my burger - a double with cheese.   The lady in the foreground is a freelance photographer who was working on a documentary about Town Topic.  It was an interesting crowd.   I sat at the far right end.  To my immediate left, two twenty-something, cut off army pants, Doc Martens, long hair and beards and full "sleeves".  To their left, a man in his 70s in a black guyabera shirt and tan slacks, who turns out to be a retired priest.  Beyond these three, the short order cook is eating a bowl of chili.  There is a continuing conversation between all six people there.

The food?  The burger was very good.  I'm not an onion guy, but, apparently, everyone orders their burgers with onions grilled in.   The fries were tasty - Shake N Steak - like.  The amazing thing about dinner is that I managed to leave without ordering from the dessert menu.

Winstead's Drive-Inn, Kansas City, MO (August 2011)

 On a business trip flying through Kansas City, I had a little time to kill and decided to see what the burger choices were there.  First up, Winstead's Drive-In, a Kansas City institution since 1940.    A classic American hamburger joint.  

Simple menu: burgers, sandwiches, sides fountain drinks and desserts.  I got there late in the afternoon and the crowd was diverse.   A table full of a high school kids.  A business meeting between a man and a woman.  A couple sharing a GIANT strawberry shake.  Two young women, waiting for their dates. Two older women, catching up. 

Very diverse crowd, all drawn together by the place.   I ordered a double with cheese and it was done well - two small patties, cooked to crusty, served piping hot.

The burger was very good.  But what really set the place apart was the drink. 

I ordered a cherry limeade.   This was a thing of beauty.   Lime sherbert atop chipped ice, with cherry juice, soda, a cherry and a slice of lime.  There is only one word that I can use to describe it:

Transcendent.  

This single glass transcended the glass line between drinks and dessert.  I could have drank seven - I held to one.   Absolutely amazing.

Farmstead 303, Decatur, GA (October 2010)

The restaurant landscape in Atlanta is an ever-evolving thing.  Last October we were driving through Decatur and saw a new restaurant where the Freight Room once was and decided to give it a whirl.   When I went to post this, I googled for their website and found that they've changed names.

The space itself is great inside.  It is a converted railroad station.  Being the geek that I am (that counts for architecture, too), what really caught my eye were some of the internal features.  What really caught my attention was the ceiling fan system.  Each fan was connected by a giant series of belts - the first powered by the motor and each of the rest running off the power to the first.  I talked to the hostess about it, at length to the chagrin of Jo, and she said that the system was bought for the depot in the late 30s and had never been installed.  When they took the space over, they found it, still in the boxes, and put it up.  The menu looks similar, but I can't attest to the current version.   At the time we were there, the menu was focused strongly on locally sourced ingredients. 

I had a pimiento cheese burger with a side of mac and cheese.  It was fine, but not worth a return trip.

Good thing, because I couldn't go back if I wanted to.

Miller's Bar, Dearborn, MI (June 2011)

I had the opportunity to be in Detroit earlier this summer and with some time to kill before I had to catch a plane, I realized that I had a chance to hit Miller's Bar in Dearborn.  The sign on the left is actually the outside wall, facing the cross street.  

Inside, it is a long, narrow, window-less, menu-less bar.   Wood bar lining the right wall, red leather and wood booths lining the lefts and tables in the middle.   The griddle is in the near corner as you walk in and can't be any larger than a normal stove-top.  Yet they serve up to 1,200 burgers a day.

And it is a really good burger - seven ounces of fresh beef with American cheese, served on a sheet of wax paper.

Phillips Grocery, Holly Springs, MS (July 2011)

After the disappointment in Amory, we took a series of two- and four-lane roads to Holly Springs, MS.  Bill's was the first time a burger from the book hadn't been at least "good", so I was hoping for a good experience at Phillips Grocery.

The building was built in the late 1800s and started life as a saloon, converted into a grocery store during Prohibition.  When the legal liquor dried up, they switched to dry goods and then began serving burgers in the 30s.    Across the street from a partially restored train station (see above), this place is a throwback several decades.   The menu was, again, simple, but the the burgers were executed to a much higher level of "burgitude".  These were good.   

 

Did I mention that they had fried pies, too?  This one looked so promising: pan- instead of deep-fried; fork marks where the crust was pressed together.  But it was just okay.  The filling was made with baked apples instead of dried.   That would have sealed the deal.  Because the burger:

Single cheeseburger.  Seared, crunchy crust.  Nicely cooked center.  Mississippi burgerdom was salvaged.

Bill's Hamburgers, Amory, MS (July, 2011)

So we were heading to Memphis and, lo and behold, along the future I-22 corridor between Birmingham and the birthplace of rock 'n roll, lay two burger joints on "the list".  The first was Bill's Hamburgers in Amory, MS, just across the Alabama line. 

As the sign says, it was founded in 1929.  It started as Bob's and became Bill's when it was sold to an employee in the 50s.  Inside, it is simple, a long counter and a few tables.  They open at 7:30 and start serving burgers then.  The burgers are straightforward - mustard, onion, beef and bun.  There is no lettuce or tomato available.   There also is very little tableware.   We ordered at the counter and took a seat at a table.  The waitress arrived a few minutes later with two sheets of wax paper, a bag of fries and a bag of onion rings.  A minute later she was back with a burger in each plastic-gloved hand.  No frills, for sure.

Sadly, the food didn't even approach good.  Even the apple pie was bad.   

I walked out of the restaurant with two things on my mind: how cool Paul Newman was and a ride to the next burger. *

* (this is a thinly veiled homage to the opening line of one of the favorite novels from my youth.  Guesses?

The Burger House, Dallas, TX (April 2011)

On the way back home from Oklahoma, via DFW, we had time for lunch in Dallas.   Looking at the choices, we ended up at the Burger House.  Originally Jack's Burger House, it has now turned into a Texas-based franchise.  We chose the original location on Mockingbird, near the campus of SMU.  

It is a typical burger joint, known for their fries.   But what caught my attention wasn't on the menu, but rather on a sign on the wall - the Texas Hamburdog.  In case you can't read it, this contains: 2 all beef patties, 2 slices of American cheese, 1 all beef hot dog, 2 slices of applewood bacon, 1 scoop of chili, mustard, grilled onions (which I held) and jalapenos.   How can a man turn down that opportunity?

Quite a culinary experience, but I don't know that I'd do it again.  Not that I need to.  You, on the other hand, should <g>.

Folger's Drive-Inn, Ada, OK (April 2011)

Later in April, we were in the mid-west for a visit and found out that Oklahoma is a hotbed of burger activity, at least according to Hamburger America.  In looking at the map, the closest to where we were in Davis, OK was Folger's Drive-Inn, up in Ada.

We made the 45 minutes drive and drove by the place the first time. 

Walking inside, was like stepping back in time.  There were four or five three person tables, and a 12 stool counter.  But the kitchen was the killer.

Jerry and Jim Folger took over the family business, which moved into their current location in the 50s.  All in all, they've been in business since 1935, when their parents ran a hamburger concession at the local theater.  Jerry told us that he'd only been working there 63 years, but he was his brother's senior employee by 5 years <g>.

The menu is not terribly complicated.  Burgers, hot dogs, fries and chili added to random items.  The fridge you see is about three foot beyond the counter.  To get to the bathroom, you actually have to go BEHIND the counter, at the kitchen end, walk the length of the counter and wander down a random hallway.

  

The burger, actually was mediocre, but the fries were good and the place was really cool.  My favorite picture was this one that Jo noticed of their fancy drink lid storage mechanism.

Western Steakburger, San Diego, CA (April 2011)

So we're in the car, leaving Hodad's reveling in  the glory of the burger when a thought occurs to me, "When , exactly, am I going to be THIS close to another burger joint, on my list, all the way across the country?"  How could I argue with that logic.  

So I pop the address for Western Steakburger, in nearby San Diego, into "Maps" on my iPhone and (to quote Art Carney), awa-ay we go!

As we pull into the North Park neighborhood, Jo decides that since she's just had a cheeseburger, she'll pass, so I park out back and run inside for a burger.  Once inside, I realized that this wasn't your usual burger place.   It served burgers.  And greek food.   For about a year, they were separate, then one day Gus (the owner) decided to throw some gyro meat onto a finished cheese burger.

When I was there, post lunch crowd, I had the inside to myself, so I got to chat and ask questions.  And take a picture of the grill.  

Looking over the menu, the choices were daunting, but I went with the "Wild West Burger" - a half pound burger, with gyro meat on top, barbecue sauce and bacon (I passed on the grilled onions).  This thing was AWESOME.   I stopped in the restaurant, before I went back out to the car and took a picture of this behemoth:

I decided, after the meal (approximately a pound of beef, bacon and french fries) at Hodad's, that I'd eat half.  

That didn't happen.  I was eating the first half, dropped Jo off to shop and went to park the car.  I had EVERY INTENTION of throwing the other half away and then thought, "no way."  It was the second burger of the day and the better burger of the day.  When we got back in the car, Jo asked for a bite of the burger, since I was only eating half.   Sheepishly, I turned up the radio...

Hodad's, Ocean Beach, CA (April 2011)

On a west coast swing in April of 2011,  we made the journey south from LA to Ocean Beach to visit Hodad's, a true California burger stand.  Open air, just  steps from the beach (approximately 79-82) and served in wax paper.  
(Note the bald man, in the door way wearing a blue shirt.  It is an infrequent appearance of me in my food photos.  This is a true Rod Serling / Alfred Hitchcock moment.  Or maybe Stan Lee in a modern Marvel movie.)

 
I had consulted my Hamburger Bible and targeted this as place that was "close" to where we were staying for a conference.  It was "closer" to seventy-five miles of freeway, but who's counting, in the quest for burger nirvana.    The center table is shaped like a giant surf board with benches down both side, while one of the booths is the front-end of 1966 VW Microbus. The menu is simple - singles, double and triples.  But the secret ingredient is the bacon.  I don't know what they do to it, but it is the piece de resistance atop this burger.  Mmmmmm