A Visit to Louis' Lunch, Home of the Hamburger
Editor's note: As we rocket toward the Fourth of July, what better way to celebrate what's essentially America's national dish than with a visit to where it all supposedly began—Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. Leave it to Nick "Beef Aficionado" Solares to cover the joint the way it needs to be covered. —The Mgmt.
Louis' Lunch
261-263 Crown Street, New Haven CT 06510 (map); 203-562-5507; louislunch.com
Short Order: One of the nation's most important hamburger institutions, Louis' Lunch lays claim to having invented the dish we love so much. Cooked in a unique vertical broiler, the lean mix of beef is flavorful if not particularly juicy. In fact, the burger here is known more for its isn'ts than anything else. It isn't served on a bun but on slices of Pepperidge Farm white bread. It isn't served with condiments. It isn't going to bend to newfangled burgerworld whims. It is, however, a unique contribution to America's national cuisine
Want Fries with That? Fries? There are no fries here, fool. You can get chips, though. Other items on offer are homemade pies, potato salad, and soup. Drink a Foxon Park soda with it; the root beer is amazing
Price: $4.50
Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, has been making its hamburger sandwich since 1900, making it the longest continuously operating hamburger restaurant in America and claimant to be the creator of the venerable sandwich.
And while the world has largely adopted the plain white bun as the bread of choice for a burger, Louis' Lunch continues to serve them in its own distinct manner, vertically broiled, served on white bread, and sliced in half with the only permissible additions being onion, tomato and a cheese spread. The spread is necessary because the unique vertical broilers that Louis' Lunch uses would not be able to accommodate regular cheese.
Don't even think about putting ketchup on a burger at Louis'; there is a sign admonishing against even asking for it, because as Jeff Lassen, fourth-generation owner, says, "We want you to taste the meat."
Let's examine the recipe and its origins. The claim regarding the creation of the first burger is that one day in 1900, founder Louis Lassen had some leftover meat that he had ground up when a customer in a hurry rushed up to what was then a tiny lunch wagon and demanded something quick and delicious. According to legend, Louis formed the ground beef into a patty, cooked it, sandwiched it between two slices of bread, and sent the customer on his way.
Man does not live by burger alone. Were that the case, we'd all blindly consume the stale-bunned, hockey pucks at the nearest McKing. True burger fans hunger for a deeper understanding of their favorite food, and, luckily, two books that lavish obsessive attention on this dish are hitting bookstores in April.
Many people agree that having one less McDonald's is not necessarily a bad thing, but the recent removal of the old school McDonald's at Highland and Sunset in Hollywood is a sad departure of a North American icon. Rather than a standard issue McDeez, this small white hut was a relic from the 1950s, when McDonald's first began. It featured steeple-esque roofing and a gigantic statue-sign of the chain's original mascot, Speedee the Chef, a cuter, simpler precursor to the bad-acid-trip-recalling, HR Pufnstuf rip-offs that now rule McDonaldland (RIP Mac Tonight). 
So Speedee, who would glow in neon come nightfall and reveal a questionable lump in his trousers, has been offed, leaving merely a maze of gang graffiti covering his sad remains. 
The history of the hamburger is truly a story that has been run through the meat grinder. 
Today, our BFF, the hamburger, turns 105 years old. It was on July 28th, 1900 that Louis Lassen—proprietor of 
From Businessweek:
