Jim Benton: 40 Burgers I Have Known (including 4 hamburger steaks)

I. Just the Best Ever (and still going)

1. The Green Chili Cheese Burger at Bobcat Bite near Santa Fe
Better than the best meat and lots of it, big slices of green chilis, and Santa Fe.
This burger belongs in a category all its own. Jack cheese, grilled onions.

2. The Regular Burger at the original Kincaid’s Grocery and Market,
Camp Bowie Blvd., Ft. Worth
For lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mustard burgers, nothing is better.
Huge portions of meat! The old grocery store setting is not as great as it was when it was more nearly a reality than a decorating motif, but it still works.

II. Historic Burgers (live forever, but only in my memory)

A. They Stand Alone – These burgers could have been served anywhere and with or without side dishes and live on.

3. #2 at Twin Kitchens on Berry Street, 1950s
The sauce was everything – onions and mayo and something more!
Even a kid who didn’t like onions could fall in love with it. It was called “Twin Kitchens” because there were 2 of them, one on the West End, one on the East.

B. Best Supporting Cast – These burgers could have been served on their own, but the side dishes were just as important (maybe even more so)

4. Hickory Burger at The Smokehouse with the best potato salad in human history, Waco, TX, 1965 - 1970
These were smallish but delicious grilled burgers with onions and tasty hickory sauce, but the potato salad was the best ever. I have tried to recreate it with dill seed, sour cream, finely chopped white onion, a touch of mayo, a whisper of celery seed, and finely diced peeled potatoes diced and mixed cold. Both Waco locations were shacks, and when it later moved to a strip mall, the potato salad didn’t.

5. Burger with Special Sauce and French fries with Louisiana Hot Sauce & Ketchup, adjacent to Galveston YMCA, 1971-1973
These burgers were bigger than The Smokehouse but sauced sort of like Twin Kitchens (no mayo but a Cajuny dark red color). It was so close to the Y where I worked that it looked like a part of the building. When I ate there with Michael Merritte, one of the college students I supervised, he taught me to ccover a pile of fries with ketchup and then Louisiana Hot Sauce. And the rest is history.

6. Hickory Burger with serve-yourself fries and beans, lunch only,
Hamburger Factory and/or Store – Odessa, TX and Bartlesville, OK.
These were small operations downtown that catered to the office workers escaping the company cafeterias, cooked as your order, cafeteria style. Great, hot, fresh burgers! But the fresh-from-the-fry-basket fries! You could serve yourself as much as you were not ashamed to pile on your plate! And the baked beans were sweet and hot! And cheap.

7. Hubcap-sized burgers, over the river near England, AR, 1980s
These babies were huge portions of excellent meat (as much or more meat than Kincaid’s but pressed more flat) and the biggest buns ever. 6-7” in diameter. The burgers themselves were worth the trip, but, also like Kincaid’s, these were served in a genuine old General Store built on stilts over the Arkansas River. The supporting cast here was solely the location.

C. By Their Sides You Shall Know Them – I don’t remember the burgers themselves as much as the sides

8. Burger at The Anchor with best onion rings in the universe, Breckenridge, TX, 1980s
The burgers I do not remember at all, but the onion rings were the best ever. Not in that enough-to-feed-an-Army style that some places use to make their fresh- fried onion rings memorable. (Although that’s an acceptable approach. See #6.) These were cut think (1/2” to ¾”) and breaded thickly, and the servings were ample. But the taste was like the best fried chicken! This was the traditional stop between Wichita Falls and Camp at Lake Brownwood.

9. Hamburgers by Jamie with copper plates and pots of beans, Dallas, 1960s-70s
Jamie’s was an upscale hamburger restaurant, subdued lighting, maitre’d, tablecloths, and hammered copper plates. The appetizer was a small metal pot of pinto beans and corn chips. (They tasted like Ranch Style Beans to me, but it’s not right to suggest canned beans in such a refined environment.) It was a fun place to go when I visited Beth Ann and later.

10. Texas Burger with pepper added to ketchup in serving cups, Odessa, TX, 1980s
Absolutely nothing memorable about these burgers and frozen crinkle cuts except this: here Brian and I developed the technique of peppering the letchup and dipping the fries. The ketchup was served in tiny paper cups, and, when you pepper fries, all the pepper ends up in the wrapper beneath them.

D. Location, Location, Location – Served elsewhere these may not have been remembered

11. Any burger at “The Bird Place,” Austin, TX, 1970-71
In front of this wonderland were a nice collection of colorful tropical birds in a large, caged environment, but inside, opposite the kitchen, was a rain forest of myriad colorful species and lush greenery. They could have served feathers, and we would have loved to eat there. As it was, the hamburgers they served were overcome by the luscious setting. Carolyn and I can’t remember its name, and it is no longer in the old location. Alas.

12. Phone in from your booth burgers, Coit Rd., Richardson, TX, 1970s
At each red leather booth here, there was a red telephone. When you were ready to order, you phoned in your order to the kitchen. Steve was 5-6, Lisa 2-3, and Brian was coming soon to a family near you. The phone gimmick was fun, and the burgers tasty. It was another favorite now disappeared.

13. Old School diner burger at counter on stools, Wichita Falls, TX 1970s-80s
I remember these burgers and not all that positively: too much onion and mustard, mostly white chopped lettuce. But it was a diner with the burgers cooked behind the counter on a grill while you sat on a rotating stool and sipped a shake. Unlike the previous two memories, I could call WF and get this name. But it’s better this way.

14. Harry Biancosino’s grilled burgers at Broadway Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, 1960s
I still see Harry, the father of my friend Patti, at funerals now and again.
When the church’s new Activities Building was built (circa 1960), a kitchen was included with the same kind of behind-the-counter grill in every diner. Harry volunteered to cook burgers on Sunday nights. They were fresh and hot, heavily peppered, and 25 cents. (See below # 17.)

15. Super Health Burger, on the circle, Waco, TX, 1960s-70s
Super Health Burgers were served at the Health Camp near the famous traffic circle in Waco. The Health Camp was a small drive-up, similar to the Dairy Queens of the day, and the SHB was a precursor of the Big Mac. It’s special sauce was slightly different and maybe the sesame seeds were missing, but the rest (two beef patties, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a small three-piece bun) was identical. It was no more healthy.

16. Kip’s Big Boy, University Dr. or Camp Bowie Blvd., Ft. Worth, 1960s
Another pre-Big-Mac Big Mac. In my memory, there is no difference at all.
Either of these two locations was suitable and frequent in the high school years,
after football and basketball games or any time. Some years earlier, I went to the Camp Bowie Kip’s with the Casstevens family one Sunday after church and ordered a lunch with a salad. No French dressing available, so I tasted my first ever Thousand Island (appearing later as special sauce on the Big Boy).

E. Burgers of Infamy – Their history bears unpleasantness whether these burgers still live or not

17. Dairy Queen burger, Hemphill Ave., Ft. Worth, 1960s
When generous Harry Biancosino was cooking burgers for 25 cents at BBC,
the cool kids got rides with somebody to this Dairy Queen where virtually the same burger was 35 cents. It wasn’t the desserts and French fries that drew us there so much as the privilege. I wish someone had clued me in about the ethics of that repeated choice. I didn’t realize it until many years later. By the way, the DQ in question here was the first one and the one and only that I knew about for years.

18. White Castle, Up North
I read somewhere that Ft. Worth is getting a White Castle. Big whoop. I had my first and only White Castle on some Benton family vacation. It was like an unseasoned sausage patty on a dinner roll. I don’t care what it costs; I don’t want another one.

19. Sandy’s 15 cent burgers, Ft. Worth and Waco, 1960s
If you want a cheap burger, go back in time for one of these. They were MacDonald’s burgers before MacDonald’s and worth every penny.

20. Waxed paper wrapped burger, Lily B. Clayton cafeteria, 1950s
I remember these babies being served our of a drawer in a steam cabinet, and we were all excited that it was Hamburger Day. They were terrible gray patties with hard, crusty buns, previously used as elephant sandals. But I still might take one over a White Castle.

21. Burger at The Griddle owned by Al VonDiest who hired Frank Newport
one summer, Ft. Worth, 1960s
I know burgers were served here, and I know I ate some. This was a local chain before there were chains, a competitor of the Toddle House, stools and counter. But I think of the TH as all breakfast and the G as all burgers. Here Frank, desperate for chips and hot sauce, would put droplets of Tabasco, one at a time, on Fritos in the days before there were other corn chips except in El Chico baskets.

22. Any burger at Merry Go Round with a circular kitchen and carousel horses, Berry Street, Ft. Worth, 1960s
23. Regular burger at with Conestoga kitchen and missing K, Chuc Wagon,
Berry St., Ft. Worth, 1960s-80s
If I had more than 40 memorable burgers, these two could be grouped. Each was a visible attraction with a serving style somewhere between Sonic and Dairy Queen. The burgers were like most diner burgers. (See #19.)

III. Still cookin’ (in order of preference)

A. Unchained melodies

24. Dress your own at Khaki’s, Little Rd., Arlington, TX
As far as I know, this is not a chain. But it looks like one. The burgers are big (1/3 or ½ lb.?) charcoaled and fresh. They are served on a bare bun, and the customer spreads and dresses his or her own at a condiment bar. These days, my preference is: mayo, barbecue sauce, pickle, and onion, harkening back to my love of hickory burgers now long gone. Onion rings are good, too.

25. Home-grilled by ordinary mortals
I know there are people who have the charcoaling gene, and, truth be told, if it’s charcoaled, I like it. (A reality which led me to some trouble at the Ducks Unlimited Critter Dinner in Stuttgart, AR, some years ago.) But usually these burgers are burned and dry, and not so good as some of my favorites. Then again, they are charcoaled.

26. Hickory burger (and apricot fried pies) Goff’s, across from SMU, Dallas, TX
I think Goff’s was a local chain in its day and I thought it had perished altogether until Brian’s graduation. I found the one across from SMU, bought a burger, found it charcoaled and well-cooked (though smallish). Imagine an apricot fried pie that’s disappointing. What a heartbreak.

27. Garden Burger w/ Cheese, Garden Restaurant, Botanic Gardens, Ft. Worth
Cooked and pressed like I’d cook it in the frying pan at home. Two patties, two cheeses.
It’s still going (2007), so I couldn’t put in the historic locations category. Still, I only know of it because Olivia ordered it when we were there recently. She shared.

28. Old style at Tommy’s, originally at a Texaco Station off N Loop 820, Ft. Worth
Better than typical diner burger, and the gas station works something like

B. The Chain Gang

29. Fuddruckers – too crowded, too loud.
30. Whopper – see note at 25.
31. Super Sonic Jalapeno Burger w/cheese, anywhere but Chicago and Minnesota
My most frequent choice these days because of convenience and jalapenos.
32. Wendy’s Double – square patties?
33. Whataburger – when they’re good, they’re good
34. Quarter Pounder with Cheese – has meat
35. Big Mac – long time no eat
36. MacDonald’s Homsetyle – let diners be diners

IV. And 4 Hamburger Steaks

37. Jetton’s
Walter Jetton, LBJ’s barbecuist, opened cafeteria-like restaurants in Ft. Worth in the 1960s. For a while, they sold a lunch special – chopped steak with “au jus” and baked potato for next to nothing. I ate it often near BBC. It was Jetton who opened the enormous place off University Drive that was a later family favorite. Luby’s present day chopped steak, an occasional Steve choice, is very similar.

2. Nighthawk – Famous Austin eatery when we were there and before. It may still exist but not with the same renown. The advertised their chopped steak, and it was good. Charcoaled fast to be almost crisp on the outside.

3. KaiKai – Owner Bob Borden spread chopped white onion between two hamburger patties, pressed it all together, and broiled it. It was a favorite of Carolyn’s, but I never liked it as much as she.

4. Homemades, Then and Now – On Hawthorne, we purchased and froze (or purchased frozen) chopped sirloin the size of a thick filet mignon and somewhat coarsely ground. These steaks were broiled under the gas burner and, because they went out of the freezer and into the fire, they were always served rather rare. I think the Hawthorne family developed their taste for rare meat because of the convenience of this cooking method rather than the other way around. But if we’re talking ground patties cooked at home, the champion is pan-fried ground beef with Mushroom Soup gravy.