Happy National Hamburger Day

To celebrate this holiday that I'm supposed to know all about (but completely forgot until I got a call to be on this radio show today) I decided to do some more hamburger experimentation at home in the Hamburger America Test Kitchen. I had failed in the past miserably with the Jucy Lucy so I decided to try again. Not surprisingly, I failed again. The wobbling stuffed burger didn't explode this time but the cheese inside never melted and the core of the burger was cold and raw. Daughter Ruby and I decided to fall back on our old favorite and easy to re-create Oklahoma Onion-Fried Burger (pictured above). It was a success. So much so that we made another. Happy Burger Day to you.

The Perfect Burger Image?

Over the holiday weekend we made burgers (duh) at my dad's house. I picked up both wheat and white squishy buns for the varying tastes in my family and noticed something VERY familiar on the packaging. You don't have to look too closely to figure our where my graphic artist (for the book cover) got his inspiration for the 'perfect burger image'...is it a coincidence?

Two Great Burger Books

Since there's a lull in the book signing action I thought I'd mention two of my favorite new burger book finds. Both are actually not very new at all but are great cultural American history books that you must have in your collection.

White Towers - by Paul Hirshorn and Steven Izenour

This photo essay is hard to put down. The text is short and the photos amazing. Architect Izenour was one of the brains behind the academic Learning From Las Vegas, a study of the language of Vegas architecture and signage of the early 1970s. White Towers is a compilation of corporate black & white stills of newly-completed White Tower restaurants across America from the 30s to the 70s. White Tower, like the burger chain it clearly copied White Castle, was a model of branded architecture in mid-century America. Many thanks to Adam Kuban from Serious Eats for turning me onto this beauty.

Selling 'em by the Sack - by David Gerard Hogan

The academic Selling 'em by the Sack is not a light read but it is a thoroughly rewarding one. The first chapter alone should be required reading for any proud American as it tells the story of the rise of fast food in the US. The book traces the history of the iconic White Castle burger chain in such minute detail that I had to read the book twice to catch it all. You will never look at a slyder the same way again.

Five Guys in Park Slope Brooklyn

The picture pretty much says it all. Five Guys is coming to MY NEIGHBORHOOD, only 6 blocks from my house. It's about time because the closest good burger to me right now is 67 Burger all the way up in Fort Greene.

Motz Burger Wins Burger Battle

Right away I was accused of a 'fix'. I was asked to be a judge at the first ever Burger Battle of the Boroughs but quickly declined because there was a burger in the competition from Harry's at Water Taxi Beach called the Motz Burger. Fran Grace, the organizer of the Queens event, asked me to be the evening's emcee and I gladly accepted. When the Motz Burger won I was stunned. Not because I thought the burger I designed for Harry was not worthy of praise, but because the competition was fierce.

Some of the city's very best burgers competed for the crown. The oft-praised Resto was there, as well as Brooklyn's amazing 67 Burger, BRGR in Manhattan (I consulted for them before opening), Flushing's tasty Joe's Bestburger, the Bronx' pizza outpost Coals (whose burger is not even on the menu!), and the Ditmas Park newcomer The Farm on Adderley whose burger looked amazing. The judges for the event were CBS News Food Expert Tony Tantillo, NYC-TV's Kelly Choi, the 'other' hamburger author Josh Ozersky, restauranteur and chef Terrence Brennan, and food author Arthur Schwartz. With the exception of Josh Ozersky none of the judges had tasted the Motz Burger before the contest. Further, the contest was conducted by blind tasting (each burger was given a number) so there was no way to match the chef with the burger. When Harry was crowned (see photo above) and the Motz Burger had won I immediately felt guilty because I was standing up there doing running dialogue as each burger came out for tasting. I only made one comment at the beginning of the competition about the reason I was not a judge to the crowd and never pushed the Motz Burger more than any other burger. I think Harry was almost in tears when the winner was announced and he looked kinda like Frank Black on the cover of Teenager of the Year with that silly crown on.

It is a damn good burger and Harry should be proud. There's really nothing to it either. Harry did the right thing and brought his grinder to the event (which no one else did). It's hard to beat a burger that's made from beef that was ground only 15 minutes before cooking. It was also the only burger that was never touched by hands after grinding. The secret to this amazing burger is to grind fresh beef, use a measured scoop to collect a 1/4 pound wad of the beef, place the wad on a hot griddle and press it into a patty. The result is a moist, loosely-packed patty that has a tactile quality like no other. The addition of Harry's chipotle-mayo sauce and a buttered, toasted bun complete the package.

The Motz Burger is seasonal and can be found at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens. Click here for directions and come on down for a burger! The Motz Burger will be served all summer and during the NYC Food Film Festival which runs at the beach from June 14th-June 20th.

Congratulations Harry!

Crazy Week of Press

My first week home from the book tour has been nutty. On Thursday, late night, I was invited on the Joey Reynolds Show, WOR 710 AM in New York City. Joey, the legendary talk radio DJ, pushed the book, which was great, but wanted to talk about Skyline Chili (the chain in Ohio) instead for some reason. I don't think he had even seen the book until we were on the air. Listen to the wacky interview here where he says he's not sure if he can vote for Obama because it sounds too much like 'Osama'. I'd expect nothing less from classic late-night talk radio! If you scroll past the 20mins of diatribe you'll find a short interview with the hamburger expert. He was a tough guy to keep up with.

The next day I was scheduled to be on the Gayle King Show on Oprah's XM Radio Channel. I trudged through the pouring rain to Columbus Circle only to discover that programming 'forgot' that I was coming in and that 'uh, Gayle is in Chicago...'. I was not happy. According to my publicist I had the right date but the station expected me in June. I arrived home to find flowers and an apology, so all is well. Oprah Radio has offered other dates (in June) but nothing has been decided yet. I'm looking forward to talking to Gayle about burgers.

On Sunday morning, early, I went on the national Fox & Friends Sunday Morning show. Huge publicity and a quick, high-profile segment at the end of the program (close to 10am). The segment was shot on the street outside of their studio on 6th Ave and 48th St. Good friend, chef, and co-conspirator of the NYC Food Film Festival Harry Hawk came along to make the burgers for the camera on Fox's lame electric grill (barely got above 300 degrees). The beef came from Pat LaFrieda and I brought toppings for the burgers. Click here to see the clip. The anchor was Ainsley Earhardt and she was a great, very snappy, interviewer. She surprised me by taking bites out of the guberburger and the nutburger, a pretty brave on-air stunt (the shot above is proof that Ainsley took a bite of the nutburger, as you can probably tell from the red lipstick). I completely forgot to take a bite of one myself. There were lots of great graphics and shots of the book cover which made my publicist happy I'm sure. Sales of the book were clearly up as the amazon.com rank hit 1,200 about an hour after the program. I also set a personal single-day website record Sunday with 36,000 hits.

More to come this week as I become the emcee of the Burger Battle of the Boroughs tomorrow night. I'll also be signing books and eating burgers.

Book Tour Days 9, 10, & 11

Day 9

The last 4 days of the book tour were the most successful, and the last 3 brought me to Oak Park, Milwaukee, Madison, and back to Chicago again. Thankfully things went better here than my visit down south as true fans and great friends came out to see me, hear burger stories, and get a signed copy of the book.

I woke up Friday to be on the Johnny B Mornings radio show on The Loop 97.9 FM. He does the Classic Rock morning drive so I was guaranteed a large listening audience. The interview was going well until he asked me what my favorite chain burger was. I've always been a huge fan of Steak 'N Shake and assumed the listeners loved this fresh-

beef chain as well. Within 60 seconds of the statement, a caller yelled, "Steak N' Shake SUCKS!" Oh well. At least I had the day off.

I made a pilgrimage to the oft-praised Hot Doug's for a classic Chicago hot dog (I needed to balance my burger intake for the week) and had some of their hand-cut fries cooked in rendered duck fat. Wow.

That night was the scheduled reading at Barbara's Books in Oak Park, about 1/2 hour from Chicago. I know they had advertised well so a hearty turnout was expected. At 7:30, there were two people to read to but within 10 minutes there were at least 15 people there. The turnout was still way better than Texas so far and those that attended asked great questions.

I was starving after the reading and wanted to keep the Chicago food thing going so I stopped at Al's Beef for a hot dipped beef sandwich. It was a good day for classic Chicago fare.

Day 10

Had to get up stupid-early again to get to Milwaukee this morning. It was a 2 hour drive and I was scheduled to be on the local WISN ch. 12 News for a 2 min. walk-on. It went well and I raced over to TMJ-4 for another brief walk-on. After my duel TV appearances I made it over 

to Solly's for a much needed butter burger with stewed onions and a side of Glenn's famous hash browns. Glenn showed me the butter he'll go through in, I believe, a day (pictured, 30 pounds). I met up with good friend and butter burger lover Rick Cohler who had driven up from Chicago to meet

me and go to my reading at the local bookstore. Glenn knew that we had a few hours to kill before my Milwaukee reading and offered to score us a private tour at nearby Sprecher Brewery. A guy named Jason gave us a tour and we sampled their excellent new Cherry Soda. Now I really felt like a mini-celeb.

The reading at Schwartz Bookshop went very well and I had the biggest, most enthusiastic crowd yet. Close to 40 people showed up and asked great questions and a few had even been to some of my far-out burger  joints. The reading was enhanced by a quick history of Solly's by Glenn Fieber himself. Glenn also offered free burgers to anyone who bought a book. Now that's my kind of incentive.

From Milwaukee I drove west to Madison, WI. I felt the need to stop at Peterson's Hamburger Stand in Jefferson because they are in the book and had recently changed their name to Wedl's Hamburger Stand. Turns out the Petersons had sold the stand to Bert Wedl's dad and nothing had changed but the name (Bert is the kid standing in the window of the tiny stand on p. 295). I did have time to sample the burger though and thankfully nothing had changed.

I made it to Madison with 15 minutes to spare before a scheduled book signing at Dotty Dumpling's Dowry so I did the only sensible thing - I went

 to The Plaza for a burger. The Plazaburger is like no other and has a sauce that I crave. I tried once to re-create the creamy, tangy goo but failed miserably. The only spot to enjoy this crazy concoction is in Madison, at The Plaza.

Over at Dotty's 15

minutes later I was met by a healthy fan base and a few locals interested in the book. I told stories to bar patrons, watched some NASCAR on one of the many screens at the bar, chatted with the affable Jeff Stanley (posing here with my nephew Garrett's own Flat Stanley) and sipped Sprecher's Root Beer (on tap at Dotty's!). A local bookseller was there and sold around 20 books. It was a good visit.

At 8pm, 13 hours from waking up in Chicago, I was on the road back. The brutal drive to Chicago was 2 1/2 hrs through endless darkness and I was exhausted. I also had to get up early again to go in Rick Kogan's WGN show Sunday Papers...

Day 11

The final day of the tour could not have come sooner. At Day 11 I am so wiped out that I'll need 11 days to recover. Going on Rick Kogan's early Sunday talk show was the perfect way to end the tour. No pressure, just a conversation between friends. Rick spiced up the show by having the 12 year old son of a friend of his do the interviewing. This kid actually asked great questions, ones that even the seasoned anchors all over the country had neglected to ask.

Wind and rain almost kept us grounded in Chicago but we made it back to Brooklyn and now it is time to rest. No burgers for me tomorrow. Maybe tuesday.

Book Tour Days 9 to 11 coming soon...

I'm recovering from the nuttiness of the last three days of the tour. I'll update tonight. Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison were a huge success. In the meantime, here's a shot my wife just sent me of a classic 50's moment.  In the picture, my mother-in-law Sally is sitting in the middle half-way through her burger while my grandmother-in-law Patty ketchups another...

Book Tour Day 8

Made it to Chicago and met up with my family that had flown in for the week to stay with the inlaws. I was looking forward to some rest but had a scheduled 6am radio appearance (call-in) with Wisconsin Public Radio. The 1 hour interview was with a vegetarian DJ and I assumed they were set to skew me. Turns out the DJ fully disclosed that she was a vegetarian then went on to take calls from listeners about their favorite beefy finds in the burger-proud state of Wisconsin. I had a killer burger hangover this morning so it was a relief to not have to defend my burgerism at 6am.

I enjoyed the day off mostly playing with my 2 kids and catching up with the wife. The next event was the big burger blowout book party and signing at the Billy Goat tonight. It was a blast. Unlike the lame turnouts at my other readings, the Billy Goat party brought 40+ friends, fans, and family together for a real celebration. Sam Sianis was there, as was Bill and some of Sam's other offspring. Rick Kogan was there and read from his book about the Goat, A Chicago Tavern. Also in attendance was Jeff Ruby from Playboy magazine (the man who concocted his own list of burger faves a few months back), Bill DeShone, owner of Heinnies in Elkhart, IN (featured in the book) came west with Truth writer Marshall King, and Glenn Fieber from Solly's was there, down from Milwaukee. The shot below is of me, Bill Sianis, and Glenn.

I read from the book, Rick read from his, and a local bookseller was on hand to sell books. 

I requested that the bookseller bring more than they thought they needed and they brought 30. Turns out that they should have brought many more because they sold all 30 in 45 minutes. The woman selling books said the speedy sales was 'unprecedented'.

Tomorrow I'll be on WLUP-FM for a quick 10 minute call-in to the Johnny B morning drive show. I'm sure there will be a skewing planned on favorite burger spots in Chicago...

Book Tour Day 7

I barely slept 2 hours in Austin before my 3:30am wake up call came in. By 4:15 I was on my way to the airport to Houston. The stupid-early flight was planned to get me to a 7:45 appearance on the local Fox affiliate but they rescheduled for 9:30...My next escort Pam and I had 3 hours to kill in a town that sleeps late. No bookstores to visit, no shopping, and barley a breakfast spot open. We did find a great smoothie place - I needed something to flush the recent burger intake outta me.

My walk-on for Fox 26 TV became a taped segment against a mottled backdrop in the studio and took 2 minutes. After the only TV appearance for Houston, Pam drove me to a handful of bookstores to sign books. Pam was an excellent driver and had no trouble navigating the immense sprawl of Houston. It's a huge city and feels like LA with too much humidity. There was no time to visit my to burger favorites in Houston Christian's Tailgate and Lankford Grocery because I had to go to my scheduled noon reading. I didn't want to keep my fans waiting.

We made it to my next 'reading' at Brazos Bookstore, a tiny independent, and nothing was advertised in the windows. Just as we were getting out of the car, someone from the store came out and put a small sign on the front door announcing my upcoming appearance. We walked in to find that the 'reading' had turned into a 'signing'. Must be a Texas thing. I kid you not when I say that NO ONE walked into the store for the full hour that I sat there, with the exception of a local author that wanted to talk about stocking his book. He actually bought a book. I signed their stock of 40 books and high-tailed it to the airport. I was off to Chicago.