Louis' Lunch

A couple weeks ago, my Dad and I decided to take a day trip down to New Haven to try out Louis’ Lunch, the birthplace of the hamburger. The restaurant is basically a little 15x10 foot shack with a pair behind-the-counter vertical grills, packed to the teeth with people. We had to wait an hour just to get inside, and another half hour just to make it to the counter. It was almost impossible to maneuver through the sea of people who were waiting around for their orders to be filled. The minute you got out of your seat, somebody else took it. Anyway, after an hour and a half of waiting we finally got to put our order in. You could order some potato salad in a cup to hold you over until your burger was done, and that was pretty much it. Your choices for toppings were cheese, tomato, or onion, and you could choose from a small collection of sodas to drink from. After we ordered, we sat around for another good hour or so until our burgers were done, and they were worth the wait. I had never had a burger cooked medium rare before, but I decided to stray away from my usual well-done burger. I figured since there were no condiments available (the owners of the establishment view the use of condiments as a mortal sin), a well done burger would be extremely dry, and I’m glad I ordered it a little undercooked. It was probably the best burger I had ever eaten. I don’t know if it was a placebo affect that had me raving about it or if it was actually that good, but it was the tastiest, simplest burger I had ever eaten. I recommend everybody go there at least once in their life to experience the original hamburger, despite the grueling waiting time.

Frankie B.