Well Fed On the Town

Warning: Don’t read this right before dinnertime, because your mouth will be instantly salivating and you’ll be setting off in search for the nearest burger joint. 

Although a chain, I think the best burgers in our area (say a 20 mile or so radius) are at Fuddruckers.  Ellen DeGeneres and AOL recently teamed up to put together a list of some of the best and/or more interesting burgers stateside.  Agree?  Disagree?  Your favorite missing from the list?  Do tell.

Louis’ Lunch
263 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: (203) 562-5507
Arguably the oldest hamburger joint in the United States, Louis’ Lunch opened as a lunch wagon in 1895. Burgers are broiled vertically in the original 1898 cast iron stoves and served between two slices of white toast. Ask for “corrupting” condiments like ketchup and mustard and you’ll be told “no” — in no uncertain terms.

Shake Shack
Madison Square Park
Southeast Corner of Madison and 23rd Street
New York, NY
Phone: (212) 889-6600
A “roadside” food stand in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, Shake Shack has become a warm weather tradition for New Yorkers. Their Web site features a webcam where patrons can check on how long the line is. Stick with the basic Shackburger, or go over the top and order a Shack Stack, a sandwich of two cheeseburgers and a Shroom Burger (crisp fried portobello with melted muenster), topped off with lettuce, tomato and the mysterious shack sauce. Don’t forget to order the frozen custard, or else you’ll have to wait in line all over again.

Apple Pan
10801 W. Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Phone: (310) 475-3585
You don’t expect to find white clapboard, plaid tablecloths and paper plates in L.A eateries, but the Apple Pan’s old timey décor will make you feel like you stepped back in time. Go for a hickory burger, their standard steak burger on a seedless bun with mayo, sweet relish, iceberg lettuce and Tillamook cheddar, drenched in barbecue sauce for good measure. And remember to save room for a slice of apple pie. Just don’t expect to find a seat. There are only 20 of them, and this place is usually packed.

Red Coat Tavern
1542 Woodward Avenue
Royal Oak, MI 48073
Phone: (248) 549-0300
Fans of the Red Coat Tavern put up with the dreary interior because the half-pound burgers are just that good. It’s reportedly a late night favorite of chefs — it serves food until almost 2AM. The restaurant offers an extensive menu of burger fixins’ (everything from smoked gouda to burnt onions and olives) and a huge beer list. Weight watchers might want to try the “Piedmontese” version, which only has two grams of fat, though nothing beats the classic.

Mel’s Country Café
24814 Stanolin Road
Tomball, TX 77375
Phone: (281) 255.6357
Go with a friend to Mel’s Country Café and order the Mega Mel. It’s six patties, equaling one and a half pounds of beef, a pound of bacon and a quarter pound of cheese. On second thought you might need a couple of friends to finish this oversized burger. But if you can devour it yourself, in less than two hours, you’ll be immortalized on Mel’s Wall of Fame. Ah, gluttony!

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub
1423 Dorey Street
Clearfield, PA 16830
Phone: (814) 765-7190
Home to the nation’s biggest burgers, Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub serves up a 123 pounder for the bargain price of $379. If you think it might be too much food, fear not. The burger patty is only 80 pounds. The other 43 pounds are just fixins’. Let the binge begin.

Rosebud Steakhouse
192 E. Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 397-1000
Some burger enthusiasts insist that you can’t get a great burger at a steakhouse. Is that true? Who knows? But at Rosebud you can get a great steak and a tasty 12-ounce burger of lean, juicy heaven served on chewy pretzel-roll. The hard-to-please Chicago Burger Project blog even named Rosebud’s burger tops in the town, raving it’s “a huge flavorful slab of meat, a taste that evokes a fine steak as much as it does a hamburger.” The best part? It costs less than $12.

Vincent A Restaurant
1100 Nicollet Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Phone: (612) 630-1189
The burgers at the refined Vincent A’s restaurant have depth and layers. You have to get half-way through before you can even begin to appreciate how good it is. What makes it so good? The burger is made with juicy ground beef, slow-cooked braised short ribs and gooey smoked Gouda. And it’s less than $13. No wonder it was voted “Best Gourmet Burger” of 2007 by City Pages.

The Spot
201 S. Ohio Street
Sidney, Ohio 45365
Phone: (937) 492-9181
An American legend, the Spot first started slinging burgers in 1907, and it maintains prices today that seem like they could have been valid nearly a century ago. A mini hamburger is only $1.34 and the “Big Buy,” which comes with cheese, lettuce and tartar sauce, is just $2.75. The restaurant prides itself on grinding its own meat daily, and for “using the entire beef.” We’re not sure we want to know what that means exactly, but they sure know how to make a mean burger. President George W. Bush apparently agrees: He made a pit stop at the Spot in 2004.

Dick’s Drive-In Restaurant
115 Broadway E.
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone: (206) 323-1300
A Seattle institution, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurant offers just a few items: no-frills fried burgers (never frozen, made fresh daily), good ol’ greasy fries and shakes. Established in 1954, the joint underwent something of a revolution in 1971, when they added two new burgers to the menu. Those worthwhile additions, Dick’s Special, which comes with lettuce, mayo and chopped pickles, and Dick’s Deluxe, a quarter pounder with cheese, remain today. If you’re searching for a more eclectic burger, this isn’t the place for you, but who needs choices when the basics are this unbelievable?

Photo from AOL.