A Hamburger Today
Did Robb Walsh Find the Best Burger in Texas?
You can't really tell here, but this burger is hella big. Photograph by Robb Walsh
A younger version of myself would have shook his head in disappointment at Robb Walsh, food critic for the Houston Press. But an older, wiser me admires his restraint here. What might be the best burger in Texas—at 105 Grocery & Deli in Washington, Texas—is also gigantic, he says, and he could only finish half.
I went with a double, double, pink in the middle, all the way. I could barely believe the size of the sandwich that was set in front of me. It came wrapped in tissue paper in a paper-lined blue plastic basket full of golden fries. The meat bulged out of the bun. It was unevenly shaped, with a lot of charred crispy areas along the edges. I am guessing that each patty was around two-thirds of a pound.
That burger sounds amazing. And, it uses both yellow and white American cheese. That's a touch of class, folks.
But what's more interesting about Walsh's article is his musing on why the best burgers in Texas seem to come from convenience or grocery stores. Paradoxically, it's because they don't take burger-making seriously.
... As the convenience store becomes more famous for burgers than groceries, it begins ruining the homemade quality of the burgers by borrowing bad habits from high-volume burger operations.
Interesting theory, and one I'm perfectly willing to accept.
105 Grocery & Deli
17255 Highway 105, Washington TX (map)
936-878-2273