Mouthwatering Burger Trail You’ll Want To Follow

16 Aug Mouthwatering Burger Trail You’ll Want To Follow

How does a month on the road following a lip-smacking burger trail sound? Better than hitting a home run? Then bring out your navigators and hit the road. Here’s a burger trail that will take you almost through all the states in the country. Take care to hike in between tastings!

West Coast Burgers

California’s best 4505 Burgers & BBQ.

Begin in the west coast, at Seattle’s Red Mill Burgers. The cheeseburger with Mill sauce and a thin patty are arguably the best in Seattle.

When you’ve worked that off, drive down to Portland’s fancy Le Pigeon, where the burger contains unconventional ingredients like blue cheese dressing and butter lettuce.

Next, head to San Francisco’s butcher-run 4505 Burgers & BBQ where you’ll find California’s best cheeseburger with Gruyere cheese, a quarter pound patty and no veggie-nonsense.

You might also want to slip in to In-N-Out for their classic and popular, simple thin-patty burger which is quite good for a chain. (And the double double is cheaper than a Big Mac).

Head south to The Lodge at Torrey Pines, for The Drugstore Burger, which has a thin griddled ground chuck and shredded lettuce going for it. Also be sure to check out Pasadena’s Pie’N’Burger along the way, for classic hamburger with cheese, pickles and Thousand Island dressing, a tradition since 1963.

Cross the state line into Nevada for dinner at Bachi Burger in Las Vegas (there are several locations). The menu changes, but the burgers there have Asian influences. Not for the burger purists.

South-Central Burgers

Make a hot journey across Arizona and into Scottsdale. There you’ll find the chill vibe of the Rehab Burger Therapy gourmet quite welcoming. If you can get past the queues outside, that is.

The green chile burger at Santa Fe Bite.

Enter New Mexico for some fine green chile burgers at Santa Fe Bite. They claim they make the original green chile cheeseburgers. The meaty, cheese and chile slathered offering is certainly hearty and hard-to-resist.

In Kansas, tuck into the sliders at The Cozy Inn restaurant in Salinas. The sliders and burgers there follow rules – no fries and no cheese, and plenty of onions. You’ll be so happy with your meal that you probably won’t want to check out Town Topic, but you should. This Kansas City eatery offers some huge, unslider-like sliders, with ‘steam griddled’ patties that are cooked with shredded raw onions for a unique flavor.

Down in Oklahoma, you’ll find Tucker’s Onion Burgers cooks beef and onions together in a similar way. This method probably came out of the Depression, when cheaper onions were used to bulk up patties. The best way to have them at Trucker’s Onion is with double cheese, pickles, grilled jalapenos and shredded lettuce.

Across the state line in Texas you’ll find several must-try burger eateries. Dallas’ Grape Restaurant is a bistro that has been around for a few decades and serves innovative American fare. The Classic Cheeseburger is anything but basic. The pepper bacon is smoked in-house. The cheddar melt is perfectly complemented by the hit of Dijonnaise and Nathan’s half-sour pickles.

When in Texas, don’t bypass the Counter Cafe in Austin. They serve grass-fed burgers that are just right, with locally-made soft sourdough buns and cheddar. In Bellaire, you’ll find Bernie’s Burger Bus, which is literally a reclaimed bus service. Here you’ll find classic Black Angus beef and housemade toppings including slow-roasted garlicky tomatoes.

It’s probably been a lot of burgers by this time. You may want to get out of the car and take a dip in the Gulf of Mexico, before heading on to New Orleans.

The Company Burger in New Orleans is the best thin griddled patty burger with cheese in this region. The onion rings are to die for, and so are the fantastic housemade chipotle mayo, special sauce and basil mayo.

If you can, check out the Pig Trail Bypass Country Cafe in Arkansas. It’s a little out of the way, but the hooshburger is onion-and-beef patty infused with Iranian spices and honey.

In Tupelo, Mississippi, you’ll find the Neon Pig Cafe, which is a butcher shop that offers aged beef flavored with a long list of ingredients including hoisin sauce, Mississippi comeback sauce, lots of smoky bacon, and ciabatta.

Atlanta, GA is home to The General Muir, a popular Jewish deli that serves excellent quality burgers with gruyere, pastrami, caramelized onions and other fine things.

East Coast Burgers

The Spotted Pig. One of the best burgers joints in New York.

Move east and you’ll find in Miami, Cypress Tavern serves high quality steakhouse-style burgers with dry-aged beef and trimmings from cote de bouef.

Follow the coast to South Carolina. Husk, in Charleston and Nashville puts Benton’s bacon into the chuck blend patty. The result is excellent umami flavors, complemented by American cheese.

New York burger joints need no special introduction. There are several, and the best of them are arguably the Michelin-starred The Spotted Pig, the Minetta Tavern (a personal favorite), and the Brindle Room in East Village serving flavorful deckle and aged beef trimmings in the patty.

Not had enough?

You could check out the following recommendations as well.

Do you think there’s something that shouldn’t be here or a place that should be here but isn’t? Let me know.