The History of the Hamburger

Burgers Supreme Catering - Provo, Utah - 801-623-0989
According to Wikipedia the following people, or restaurants, claim to have either "invented" the hamburger as it is known today, or a unique cooking method.

• Charlie Nagreen 1885, Seymour, Wisconsin. According to one claim of the first hamburger, Charlie Nagreen served the world's first hamburger at the Seymour Fair of 1885. "Hamburger" Charlie decided to flatten a meatball and place it between slices of bread to increase portability.
• Menches brothers 1885, Hamburg, New York. Western New York history recorded that Frank and Charles Menches ran out of pork for their sausage patty sandwiches at the 1885 Erie County Fair. Their supplier, reluctant to butcher more hogs in the summer heat, suggested they use beef instead. The brothers fried some up, but found it bland. They added coffee, brown sugar, and other ingredients to create a taste which stands distinct without condiments. They christened their creation the "Hamburg Sandwich" after Hamburg, New York where the fair has been held since 1868; the name was probably later condensed by common use to the shorter contraction "hamburger" (and so explaining why a beef sandwich--which never contained any pork--bears this name). A little known fact is that the Original Hamburger indeed had its own recipe spiced with coffee and brown sugar - much different from what most Americans have tasted over the last one hundred years.
• Fletcher Davis late 1880s, Athens, Texas. According to the McDonald's hamburger chain the inventor was an unknown food vendor at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Fletcher Davis operated a café at 115 Tyler Street on the north side of the courthouse square in Athens, Texas, in the late 1880s. Local lore holds that Davis was selling an unnamed sandwich of ground beef at his lunch counter at that time. During the 1980s Dairy Queen ran a commercial filmed in Athens, calling the town the birthplace of the hamburger.
• Louis' Lunch 1900, New Haven, Connecticut. Louis' Lunch has been selling steak and hamburger since 1895 when Louis Lassen opened his lunch wagon. This small establishment, which advertises itself as the oldest hamburger restaurant in the U.S., is credited by some with having invented the classic American hamburger when Louis' sandwiched a hamburger between two pieces of white toast for a busy office worker in 1900. Louis' Lunch flame broils the hamburgers in the original 1898 Bridge & Beach vertical cast iron gas stoves using locally patented steel wire gridirons to hold the hamburgers in place while they cook.

Anyway you look at it people have a fascination and a liking to the good old hamburger. A lot of people give the hamburger a bad rap, but let’s face it we love them. At Burgers Supreme in Provo, Utah we surely don’t claim to be the inventor of the hamburger but we like to claim that we have the best burgers in town. In fact we have 18 different “char-broiled” burgers that you can try and the variations of those burgers allow our customers to create their own burger recipe. Our claim always has been that we have “Something for Everyone’s Taste.” Not only do we have a huge assortment of burgers, chicken, fish, steaks and salads. And of course you don’t go to Burgers Supreme without having the french fries with our world famous fry sauce.

Now Burgers Supreme can come to your next event with on-site cooking of our famous burgers and fries. Burgers Supreme Catering is now taking reservations for corporate events, neighborhood parties, family reunions or any other large gathering you can think of. Check out our catering menu as well as our restaurant menu.