By Cheri Sicard
From clowns (McDonald’s) to kings (Burger King), a hamburger can be found on nearly every street corner in America. In the video below, the team from Weird History Food explores the diverse world of regional burger styles across the United States.

Northeast burgers: Steamed, smashed, and sauced

The Northeast offers some unique takes on the American staple. From steamed cheeseburgers to saucy Dominican creations, there’s something for everyone.

• Connecticut Steamed Cheeseburger: What sets the Connecticut steamed cheeseburger apart? It’s all in how it’s cooked. The burger is usually steamed inside a stainless steel cabinet with a water basin that heats up at its base. This allows the fats to melt away, leaving a lean, juicy patty with melted cheese on top.

Jack’s Lunch, a restaurant in Middletown, Connecticut, is credited with inventing this local favorite. While Jack’s closed its doors in the mid-1900s, this style has spread to other spots in nearby towns. But it has remained hard to find anywhere else.

• New Jersey Sliders: New Jersey residents might love sliders more than anyone else. In the Garden State, they follow the White Castle model. Small balls of beef are smashed onto flat top grills, allowing the heat to cook the onions.

White Mana is the most famous of New Jersey’s slider joints. It was founded in 1939 for that year’s World’s Fair. Six years later, it moved to Hackensack, New Jersey, where it has been a popular slider destination for more than seven decades. For people needing a reason to visit Hackensack, White Mana is it.

• Dominican Chimi Burger: The Chimi Burger comes from the Dominican Republic. It’s typically topped with golf sauce (ketchup and mayonnaise), tomato, and cabbage. It is always served on pan de agua, a baguette-like water roll (higher water content than usual) common in the Caribbean.

If one is looking for a Chimi Burger in the U.S., they can typically be found anywhere there are Dominican communities. This includes parts of New York City and its surrounding areas, along with parts of Baltimore and Miami.

Midwest marvels: Loose meat, olives, and cheese

The Midwest brings its own regional style to the table with burgers that feature everything from loose meat to olives. These creations are hearty, flavorful, and truly unique.

• Iowa Loose Meat Sandwich: The Iowa loose meat sandwich is like a cheeseburger and sloppy joe got married. It originated in Sioux City’s Ye Olde Tavern back in 1924. The owner, David Heglin, decided he was too cool for solid patties so he basically made a burger mixed with onion, ketchup, and pickles. But the beef is all loose, like meatloaf in a car accident. Just two years after Heglin released his creation, the nearby Maid-Rite restaurant opened up. They took Heglin’s loose meat sandwich for themselves and renamed it after the restaurant.

Today, almost a century later, the Iowa loose meat sandwich is available anywhere between Kansas and Ohio. It’s called either the Tavern Sandwich or the Maid-Rite, depending on who you ask.

• Michigan Olive Burger: QP Hamburgers is one of the oldest burger chains. Founded in Flint in 1923, the chain grew to prominence by boasting its luxurious olive burger. The burger is exactly what it sounds like: a burger with green olives on top, often with Swiss cheese. Michiganders were so taken by QP’s olive burger that putting olives or spreading olive mayo on top of burgers became commonplace in both Michigan and Northern Ohio. Olive burgers remain commonplace to this day.

While the QP chain is no longer the regional powerhouse it once was, its direct descendant can still be found. Weston’s QP Sandwich Shop, located in Lansing, Michigan, serves olive burgers in regular, king, and colossal sizes. The colossal is presumably for those who like their olives by the jarful.

• Oklahoma Burgers: Oklahoma offers a duo of burger styles born from unique circumstances. The Theta Burger and Fried Onion Burger both highlight the state’s culinary creativity. The Theta Burger emerged in the 1930s or ’40s. Oklahoma City’s Town Tavern crafted a distinctive burger for the University of Oklahoma’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. What made this burger special, and a regional favorite, is its hickory barbecue sauce, pickles, mayonnaise, and shredded cheddar cheese. Although Town Tavern has since closed, the Theta Burger lives on in local restaurants, namely The Mont and Johnny’s Charcoal Broiler.

The Fried Onion Burger is another Oklahoma favorite. It emerged during the Great Depression when Ross Davis, the owner of Hamburger Inn, sought a cheap way to beef up his restaurant’s smash burgers. Rather than using bread, Davis would smash onions into his burger patties directly on the flat iron, making the burgers bigger and more flavorful. These burgers were a hit with his customers, and competing restaurants soon adopted the practice too, eventually adding cheese, pickles, and mustard. Now, a century later, the fried onion burger remains a staple burger style all across Oklahoma.

• Minnesota’s Juicy Lucy: Juicy Lucy may sound more like a cabaret performer than a treat, but its cheesy inside is amazing. The only difference between a Juicy Lucy and a standard cheeseburger is that in a Juicy Lucy, the cheese is cooked inside the burger. This leaves a pocket of scalding deliciousness.

The Juicy Lucy originated at Matt’s Bar and Grill in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Apparently, after a startled customer explained that his burger was “one juicy Lucy,” it spread its cheesy ways across America.

• Missouri Goober Burger: The Missouri Goober Burger is a shop for those looking to eat both a hamburger and a peanut butter sandwich. While the Goober Burger was popularized in Sedalia, Missouri, by the now-closed Wheelin Drive-In, which used to apply hot, melty peanut butter sauce to its burgers, the burger has since found its way into adventurous gastropubs all across the country. So step aside, jelly. Peanut butter has a new best friend.

• Wisconsin Burgers: Wisconsin offers two unique burger experiences: the rich Butter Burger and the flavorful Poached Burger. These represent the state’s innovative approach to the American classic.

Invented for the Seymour Fair in 1885, popularized by Kroll’s Grill in 1936, and recently spread nationwide by the rapid expansion of Culver’s, the Wisconsin Butter Burger has grown from a regional secret into a nationally recognized burger style.

Butter Burgers come in many forms, but they all have one thing in common: they’re covered in a healthy serving of melted butter. Sometimes this butter is slathered directly onto the patty. Sometimes it’s dumped on top of the burger. And sometimes, as is the case with Culver’s, the butter is lightly brushed over the burger’s bun.

The Wisconsin Poached Burger was first created at Prairie du Sac’s still-open Pete’s Hamburgers in 1909. This style of burger requires a flat top grill covered in a layer of water and a boatload of onions. Balls of beef are then smashed onto this flat top, cooking the burgers in the boiling onion water until they’re ready to serve. Other businesses, such as Joe Rouer’s Bar just outside of Green Bay, have since taken up this practice too, making the Wisconsin Poached Burger an up-and-coming challenger to the Butter Burger’s success.

Southern sensations and Texan twists

The South and Texas put their own spin on the hamburger, incorporating unique ingredients and flavors that reflect the region’s culinary heritage.

• Miami Burgers: Miami’s burger scene is influenced by its vibrant Latin American culture. The Colombian Kida Rapida Burger and the Frita Cubana offer a taste of the city’s diverse flavors.

What started as a Colombian take on the American hamburger eventually found its way onto the streets of Miami. This fast food burger is frequently topped with lettuce, tomato, and onion. It also often includes melted mozzarella cheese and crushed potato chips for that after-school snack taste. But what makes this burger special is its love of sauces. Sometimes it’s covered in a simple pink sauce, a blend of ketchup and mayonnaise. Other times it’s slathered in garlic mayo, a cilantro sauce, or a sweet and tangy pineapple sauce.

The Frita Cubana is Cuban street food and can be found all over Miami. Unlike other burgers, the Frita Cubana’s patty isn’t just plain beef. It’s a ground mixture of both beef and either chorizo or pork, along with other additives like paprika, ketchup, onions, and potato sticks. Once it’s all put together, the patty is grilled evenly on a flat top. It’s then served with a hefty portion of potato sticks. There is no such thing as too many potato sticks.

• Georgia’s Luther Burger: The Luther Burger provides a calorie punch. It’s topped with bacon and sometimes a fried egg. It’s always served between two halves of a glazed donut. Legend has it that soul singer Luther Vandross first developed this 1,500-calorie burger when cobbling together a meal at home. Just one bite and he was in love. While this story may or may not be true, the burger began popping up around Decatur, Georgia, decades ago. It has since become commonplace at carnivals and fairs in both the American South and the Midwest.

• Mississippi Slug Burger: Despite its name, the Mississippi slug burger isn’t supposed to have any slugs on it at all. Instead, the burger gets its name from its old-timey price tag. Back in the day, during the first two world wars and the Great Depression, a nickel was often referred to as a slug. Slug burgers were usually sold for one nickel, making them a cheap alternative to normal burgers when times were tough.

What makes the slug burger special is its patty, loaded with breadcrumbs or flour and soy meal. This allows the meat to stretch further than normal beef patties could ever hope to go. Because of this, slug burgers are often called dough burgers. Today, the city of Corinth, Mississippi, still holds the annual Slug Burger Festival. Live music, local vendors, and the Miss Slug Burger pageant all come together to celebrate this Magnolia State staple.

• South Carolina Pimento Cheeseburger: Pimento cheese is usually a combination of cheddar cheese or American cheese, mayonnaise, and pimentos. It’s most common in the American South. Anywhere there’s pimento on the menu, especially in South Carolina, a pimento cheeseburger is sure to be around. A pimento cheeseburger is just an otherwise standard burger topped with the spreadable cheese for a burger with a bit of bite.

• Memphis’ Dyer’s Burger: Dyer’s Burgers, which opened its doors in 1912 and still stands to this day, has been straining and reusing the grease from burgers for well over a century. They make use of this ancient basin by dipping their thin burger patties into its depths. Once they’re done, the resulting grease is strained once again and added back into the basin to be used again later. One can also try the double dip, wherein they take the entire assembled burger and dip it into the basin for an extra greasy experience.

• Texas’s San Antonio Bean Burger: The San Antonio bean burger hails from San Antonio, Texas. It’s a standard beef patty topped with crushed Fritos, diced onions, Cheese Whiz, and refried beans.

There are conflicting theories over who invented this Lone Star delicacy. The burger’s origins today are tied to the success of Sills Snack Shack, a restaurant owned and operated by Frank Sills for more than 30 years. While the original Sills Snack Shack is no longer around, the bean burgers it popularized have since spread all across the region. They often now offer a number of variations. They include replacing the Cheese Whiz with genuine cheddar cheese, switching out the Fritos for tostadas, or adding in some Pico de Gallo for extra flavor.

Western wonders: Green Chile, avocado, and pastrami

The West Coast and Mountain West offer their own distinctive burgers, from the heat of green chiles to the creamy richness of avocado. These burgers showcase the region’s diverse culinary influences.

• New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger: The New Mexico green chile cheeseburger is a cheeseburger topped with green chiles. However, the green chiles are actually a special green chile sauce rather than chile peppers. According to legend, the green chile cheeseburger was a go-to meal for the scientists working on the Manhattan Project in 1945. They would frequent San Antonio, New Mexico’s Owl Bar and Cafe after a long day.

If you’re looking to taste the same green chile cheeseburger that those scientists once had, the Owl Bar is still owned and operated by the same family to this day. After you’re done there, you can continue down the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, a collection of more than 60 New Mexican green chile cheeseburger joints that line the highways of the entire state. (Side note, we say the Owl Bar is not what it used to be. There are FAR better NM Green Chile cheeseburgers, as outlined in this post.)

• California Burger: What sets this Golden State rendition apart from the American classic is simple: It either includes avocado or, if the chef is feeling particularly saucy, guacamole. Bacon is usually thrown into the mix, too, along with lettuce, tomato, and onion.

Depending on the region you’re buying from, California’s most famous burger joint, In-N-Out, doesn’t carry either avocado or bacon. This means California’s most famous burger isn’t a California burger at all.

• Los Angeles Patty Melt: If you’re out of buns, replace the bun with rye bread to make a patty melt. A patty melt is a cheeseburger usually made on grilled rye bread and topped with Swiss cheese and grilled or caramelized onions.

It was allegedly created by Los Angeles native Tiny Naylor. While there is some debate over whether or not Tiny and his family actually invented the patty melt, there is no doubt that they helped to popularize the sandwich over the course of the 1930s by selling it at their then more than 40 restaurant locations across Southern California. In more recent years, the rye is often substituted for sourdough or Texas toast.

• Utah Pastrami Burger: While no one seems to know for sure just who thought to put pastrami and thousand island dressing on top of a cheeseburger, the resulting Pastrami Burger has become a Utah classic. Some believe the trend was started back in 1978 by Nick Katsanevas, one of the original owners of Crown Burgers in Salt Lake City, which has allegedly been selling these meaty burgers since it first opened its doors. Pastrami Burgers have since turned into a local mainstay, with various takes on the sandwich popping up all across Salt Lake City and the wider Beehive State.

• Montana Nut Burger: The Montana Nut Burger is a normal burger covered in a sauce: a mixture of Miracle Whip and crushed salted peanuts. The resulting smash burger is both crunchy and creamy, creating a “confusing” yet tasty treat. The heart of all nut burgers is Montana, where Matt’s Place Drive-In popularized the sandwich beginning in 1930 and turned it into a regional favorite.

From coast to coast, the hamburger has been transformed and reimagined in countless ways. Each region has contributed its own unique style, resulting in a diverse and delicious culinary landscape.

Do you have other burger styles to add to this list? Be sure to leave them in the comments below.

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