Editor's note: Burgermeisters! Here's another excerpt from George Motz's book Hamburger America. George and his publisher were kind enough to allow us to run them here, along with George's beautiful photos. Eat up!
Nestled in the rolling farm country of western Oregon, a short distance from Portland but a world away, sits a restaurant and bar that amazingly turns out over one thousand burgers on a busy Saturday. The restaurant is the comfortable Helvetia Tavern (pronounced Hel-VAY-sha) and is way out in the country. Regardless of how far it is from anything, burger lovers gladly make the trek to Helvetia for their signature Jumbo Burger and great selection of microbrews on tap.
The Jumbo is just that—two quarter-pound thin patties of fresh ground beef are cooked on a large flattop griddle and served on a toasted six-inch bun with bacon, cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, and the ubiquitous and tasty Pacific Northwest condiment Goop. The bun is larger than the patties, but are arranged slightly overlapping so the burger is presented wider not taller. "That's the way we've always done it," Mike explained. "The single patty is served on a smaller bun." As a finishing touch, the Jumbo is stabbed in the center and delivered with a plastic knife, as Mike explained, "to keep the contents from sliding around."
The tavern side of Helvetia is a comfortably dark, broken-in bar with a 1950 Brunswick pool table that still only costs a quarter to play. A strange collection of caps hangs from the ceiling, some signed by pro-athletes. Mike explained that the 1000s of caps were up there to hide the ugly ceiling. "We take them down twice a year to clean them."
Helvetia Tavern
10275 NW Helvetia Road, Hillsboro OR 97124 (map)
503-647-5286
Sun. to Thurs., 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Fri. to Sat., 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Hamburger America is available at Amazon and comes with a DVD of George's movie of the same title.
Odd, I've lived in Oregon my entire life, and never heard the term "Goop" used to refer to a condiment.
Doing a little bit of Googleing about it, it looks like some people use the term to what I'd normally call "fry sauce" - a ketchup and mayo mixture that is quite wonderful to dip fries into.
pcrackenhead- Goop is more of a Washington state thing but I have found it on a few Oregon burgers. Fry sauce has ketchup whereas Goop does not. I love fry sauce.
I grew up in Hillsboro and we used to go to Helvetia for this burger on special occasions. It's a classic and always brings back memories.
pcrackenhead, I worked at Basco's (formerly known as Arctic Circle) in Hillsboro when I was in high school. We used to make a fry sauce that had ketchup, mayo and (the secret, apparently) buttermilk. That stuff is fantastic!
@Hamburger America - that makes some sense then, I've seen the stuff on burgers around here, I've just never heard that term. Eh, learn something new every day I suppose.
@jmceats - I loved Arctic Circle's Fry Sauce too! I never knew it had buttermilk in it, that must have been the extra somethin-somethin that I always tasted.
I was taking my family there 35 years ago and it was wonderful then and the last time I was there it was just the same old rustic place with great food. I love the 6" burgers with piles of finely shredded lettuce and onions with their special onion rings. What a delight and well worth the drive from Portland. It is a romantic place in the middle of no where! Why do people drive 30-40 miles round trip! Eat there and you will no why! Have fun!
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Nestled in the rolling farm country of western Oregon, a short distance from Portland but a world away, sits a restaurant and bar that amazingly turns out over one thousand burgers on a busy Saturday. The restaurant is the comfortable Helvetia Tavern (pronounced Hel-VAY-sha) and is way out in the country. Regardless of how far it is from anything, burger lovers gladly make the trek to Helvetia for their signature Jumbo Burger and great selection of microbrews on tap.
12 Comments:
At first I thought that read "Helvetica" Tavern, and I thought. Finally, a burger haven that honors such a great font.
Erin Zimmer at 3:50PM on 01/08/09
Odd, I've lived in Oregon my entire life, and never heard the term "Goop" used to refer to a condiment.
Doing a little bit of Googleing about it, it looks like some people use the term to what I'd normally call "fry sauce" - a ketchup and mayo mixture that is quite wonderful to dip fries into.
pcrackenhead at 3:57PM on 01/08/09
pcrackenhead- Goop is more of a Washington state thing but I have found it on a few Oregon burgers. Fry sauce has ketchup whereas Goop does not. I love fry sauce.
Hamburger America at 4:06PM on 01/08/09
How funny, I'm getting married down the road from this place.
maggiej at 4:11PM on 01/08/09
I grew up in Hillsboro and we used to go to Helvetia for this burger on special occasions. It's a classic and always brings back memories.
pcrackenhead, I worked at Basco's (formerly known as Arctic Circle) in Hillsboro when I was in high school. We used to make a fry sauce that had ketchup, mayo and (the secret, apparently) buttermilk. That stuff is fantastic!
Thanks for this post.
jmceats at 8:59PM on 01/08/09
looks like fuggin micky dees with bacon
southlake98 at 9:55PM on 01/08/09
southlake98- Not quite. It's about 4x larger.
Hamburger America at 11:54PM on 01/08/09
@Hamburger America - that makes some sense then, I've seen the stuff on burgers around here, I've just never heard that term. Eh, learn something new every day I suppose.
@jmceats - I loved Arctic Circle's Fry Sauce too! I never knew it had buttermilk in it, that must have been the extra somethin-somethin that I always tasted.
pcrackenhead at 12:17PM on 01/09/09
What's the ratio of ketchup:mayo:buttermilk? I'm in the midwest and haven't Goop and/or fry sauce before but would love to try it out.
calvinhobbes35 at 2:48PM on 01/09/09
@HamburgerAmerica
George, that's a pretty thin burger--what it's crunch vs. juiciness?
Chris W. / STL MO
chevalier at 3:28PM on 01/09/09
chevalier- From what I remember it was all juice. The only real crunch was in the onion. It was a soft, hot, thing of wonder.
Hamburger America at 3:40PM on 01/09/09
I was taking my family there 35 years ago and it was wonderful then and the last time I was there it was just the same old rustic place with great food. I love the 6" burgers with piles of finely shredded lettuce and onions with their special onion rings. What a delight and well worth the drive from Portland. It is a romantic place in the middle of no where! Why do people drive 30-40 miles round trip! Eat there and you will no why! Have fun!
Burgerman101 at 5:29AM on 03/17/09