Some of America’s finest burgers are served at the joints that have been slinging patties the same way for generations – and a growing number of new spots are taking inspiration from these storied joints, putting a fresh spin on classic recipes. From food historian George Motz’s retro-inspired luncheonette to the trendy bistros giving the patty melt a gourmet makeover, we’ve hunted down the top places to try old-school burgers many will never have tasted before.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the fast food joints reviving America's forgotten burgers, from the patty melt to the slugburger – counting down to the best of them all.
A sophisticated brunch spot in sunny San Diego isn’t the first place you’d expect to find Oklahoma’s famously messy fried onion burger, but diners say Madi makes one of the best out there. The pride of El Reno, the fried onion burger is a regional speciality that dates back to the 1920s, when Depression-era chefs would bulk out their beef patties with caramelised onions to keep costs down. These days restaurants all over Oklahoma have their own versions, and it seems the onion burger love is spreading all over the US.
Madi is a bright and buzzy eatery that’s known for its colourful brunch dishes, with popular items including orange cinnamon roll pancakes and loaded Greek fries. The onion burger is a relatively new addition to the menu (it’s also the only burger the restaurant serves) but locals are already hailing it as one of the best in San Diego. At Madi it comes with American cheese, pickles and house sauce on a brioche bun and the perfectly smashed patty is cooked to a secret recipe.
Utah’s signature fast food isn’t much known outside of the Beehive State, but the pastrami burger is a regional delight that deserves more attention. It’s the most popular menu item at Patty Shack, a recent addition to Salt Lake County’s food scene that already has a following for its juicy, flavour-packed burgers. The dish was popularised in the 1980s by Salt Lake City’s various Greek-style burger joints and traditionally consists of a beef patty topped with Fry Sauce (another Utah staple), lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese and a hefty pile of cured pastrami.
Fans say the pastrami burgers at Patty Shack really are a cut above the rest. The fresh (never frozen) beef patties are formed by hand and cooked to order, and all toppings are chopped fresh every day. The all-important pastrami is thinly sliced, perfectly seasoned and wonderfully tender. The simple pastrami burger is the go-to order here, but you can customise it with everything from fried egg to grilled mushrooms.
This cool taproom on Indianapolis’ bustling Massachusetts Avenue opened in 2023 and specialises in dishes inspired by the northern Midwest. The signature eat here is a cheese-stuffed, half-pound burger called the Juicy Belle – the restaurant’s delicious take on Minnesota’s iconic Juicy Lucy (or Jucy Lucy, depending on where you order it). This historic burger dates back to the 1950s, and is essentially an inside-out cheeseburger, with cheese stuffed inside a meat patty. Two spots, a few miles apart from each other in Minneapolis, claim to have created it: Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club.
At Mass & Belle, the Juicy Belle is stuffed with your choice of American, Cheddar, pepper Jack or Swiss cheese for maximum melty joy. Other riffs on the classic burger include the Bacon Belle (stuffed with crispy bacon, cream cheese and chives) or the Spicy Belle, which features a gooey filling of pepper Jack cheese and jalapeños. The joint also serves a Hoosier take on poutine, with house-made cheese sauce and bacon, plus Midwest favourites like fried cheese curds and fried pickles.
This unassuming spot on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue is said to serve some of the city’s best burgers. At Two8Two the patties are a simple affair to really allow the flavour of the top-quality meat to shine – they’re served medium-rare and made with a special blend of beef that’s ground fresh daily by historic Brooklyn butcher Los Paisanos. The simple double cheeseburger, topped with two slices of Cheddar cheese, pickles, red onion and house-made burger sauce, is a thing of beauty, but diners also rave about the New Mexico-style Hatch green chile cheeseburger (pictured).
Founder Billy Thanopoulos first learnt about New Mexico’s legendary Hatch green chile cheeseburger when reading food historian George Motz’s book Hamburger America and spent years perfecting his recipe. The burger features a juicy beef patty topped with Cheddar and roasted green chiles (the variety used is distinctively fresh and citrus-tasting), all piled on a Martin’s potato roll with burger sauce. These days it's a bestseller and the joint has become famous for the dish, alongside other fast food favourites like chilli dogs, milkshakes and loaded sandwiches.
Another fast food joint putting a modern spin on Minnesota’s iconic Juicy Lucy, Burgers & Beignets is considered a comfort food mecca in Fond Du Lac, famous for its huge range of innovative (and award-winning) burgers and enormous sandwiches. Here the decadent creation (pictured) looks like a regular hamburger from the outside, but when you bite into the patty, molten Cheddar and American cheese come oozing out.
Diners rave about the signature Juicy Lucy, praising the quality of the beef and the perfectly melty combination of cheeses stuffed inside. But if you want to take things up a notch, orders at Burgers & Beignets are totally customisable, so you can add jalapeños, extra cheese (American, Cheddar, pepper Jack and provolone), maple bacon and salad, or swap your regular bun for a pretzel one. Be sure to grab a side of the restaurant's famous cheese fries too.
This retro-inspired spot promises ‘old school vibes and new school flavour’, and it's certainly gone down a storm with diners in Williamsburg, Virginia, since launching in April 2024. Opened as a homage to classic mid-century Midwestern luncheonettes, the 1950s-style spot combines classic dishes with top-quality, local ingredients. On the menu you’ll find comforting dishes like tallow fries, meatballs and gravy piled on creamy mashed potatoes and a classic patty melt. Cook's Burger Bar also serves its take on another Midwest classic, the olive burger.
The olive burger is a Michigan classic, invented in 1923 at Flint’s Kewpee Hotel Hamburg – a joint that went on to spawn one of America's first fast food chains, Kewpee. It traditionally consists of a beef patty topped with Swiss cheese, chopped green olives and mayonnaise, all crammed into a bun. At Cook's, you can have your olive burger with a single or double beef patty and it comes topped with house-made olive mayo, aged Swiss cheese, marinated tomato and romaine lettuce. Burgers are fried in beef tallow (a great old-school touch) for maximum flavour.
The humble patty melt is the burger fan's burger: a classic bite that combines the best bits of a burger and a grilled cheese to make a truly mouth-watering (and very messy) sandwich. While it may have been overshadowed by more outrageous, innovative burgers in recent years, the patty melt is now having a bit of a moment, with a host of restaurants and fast food joints bringing this old-school sandwich back. One of these spots is Daily Provisions, a small New York café chain serving up retro eats in elegant surroundings.
Founded in 2017, Daily Provisions may look fancy, but its menu is peppered with old-school classics – think egg and cheese sandwiches, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and tuna melts. The diner introduced the dish as a dinner special in 2023, and it soon secured its place as a permanent item. Here, the team have given it a gourmet spin by using top-quality beef, a house-made spicy Thousand Island-style sauce and griddled, seeded rye. Happily, it's still a very traditional affair and has won rave reviews from the likes of The New York Times
Another New York City spot reviving the patty melt is Revelie Luncheonette, a wonderfully retro diner that opened in SoHo NYC in 2023. It’s the more relaxed sister restaurant of Raoul's (an iconic Parisian-style bistro that dates back to the 1970s) and has a reputation for serving French café classics – like onion tart, croque madame and a classic jambon-beurre – as well as a stellar patty melt. Straightforward simplicity is the key to success here; golden caramelised onions, oozy American cheese and a juicy patty are sandwiched between buttered slices of seeded sourdough rye.
Considering the French leanings of Revelie Luncheonette, you might be surprised to hear that the bustling all-day spot also serves up a sensational rendition of New Mexico’s signature fast food: the green chile cheeseburger. A true culinary treasure, the burger dates back to 1940s San Antonio and is traditionally packed with green chile, a beloved native pepper that's famous for its hot, zesty and subtly sweet character. At Revelie, the burger is a bestseller and comes piled with shredded lettuce, tomato, Hatch chile and American cheese.
The brainchild of chef Eve Aronoff, a former Top Chef contestant, Frita Batidos specialises in Cuban-influenced burgers, also known as frita Cubana. The welcoming joint first opened in Ann Arbor in 2010, with a Detroit outpost following nine years later. It serves up all kinds of Cuban comfort food, from crispy plantain to traditional tropical milkshakes, but the signature burger is a runaway favourite, frequently coming out top in rankings of Michigan’s best.
The frita is traditionally made with seasoned ground beef and pork (sometimes mixed with chorizo), topped with crispy shoestring potatoes and served inside a Cuban-style roll. It has its origins in 1930s Cuba, but was popularised by a Miami restaurant owner in the 1960s. At Frita Batidos, diners can customise their burgers, filling them with everything from traditional chorizo and beef to fish or chicken. Toppings include Muenster cheese, fried egg, tropical slaw and thick-cut bacon, and all burgers are served in a soft bun with shoestring fries on top.
Opened in January 2024, LA-based restaurant Chain is, confusingly, not a chain restaurant. Its name refers to the fast food chains, past and present, that inspired it. So far, Chain – which started as a pop-up before getting a permanent spot in LA’s Virgil Village – has collaborated with Sonic Drive-In, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Chain was founded by chef Tim Hollingsworth and actor B.J. Novak, star of NBC’s The Office, whose involvement in the venture has attracted the patronage of Hollywood stars including Mindy Kaling, Chrissy Teigen and Andy Cohen.
Menu items have included riffs on Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme, Chili’s Southwest egg rolls and Outback Steakhouse’s Bloomin’ Onion. The spot is certainly onto something – at one point, Chain had a 25,000-strong waiting list. For one of its latest ventures, dubbed the ‘Comeback Combo', the restaurant asked fans on social media which discontinued fast food items they'd like back. One of four items chosen was Taco Bell’s Bell Beefer, a cult-favourite burger from the 1970s. Diners also rave about the over-the-top aesthetic of the joint, which is decked out with old-school memorabilia and life-sized statues of retro mascots.
The mission statement at Split Lip, one of Denver’s hippest fast food spots, is to ‘tell an American story through food’, taking inspiration from historic regional dishes like New Jersey’s pork roll (pictured), Oklahoma’s fried onion burger and Boston’s delightfully messy roast beef sandwich. The joint puts a gourmet twist on these local favourites with top-quality meats and inventive house-made sauces and pickles, while staying faithful to the original dish – think crispy fried bologna gyros, or Philly cheesesteak smothered in a homemade cheese ‘whiz’ infused with tequila.
According to Split Lip’s founders (a duo of longtime fine-dining pros), the menu highlights ‘hyper-regional food alongside the stories, secrets, and legends these dishes hold’, and this is definitely true of one of its signature dishes: the slugburger. This Depression-era burger was invented in Mississippi and is traditionally bulked out with a cheap ‘extender’, such as potato flour or soy grits, to get more patties per pound. The gourmet version at Split Lip is made with a mix of ground beef and panko breadcrumbs, topped with sweetcorn butter, American cheese and pickles and served in a fresh potato bun.
Launched by self-described burger expert George Motz, Hamburger America is the result of years of research into America's original fast food recipes and regional burger specialities. The spot opened in November 2023 in New York City's Soho neighbourhood and has been causing a stir on the fast food scene ever since, with fans saying it’s unlike any other burger restaurant. Its USP is historically accurate burgers, with a menu that currently has just two permanent options: a traditional smashburger and Motz’s signature 100-year-old Oklahoma fried onion burger.
The diner-style joint (pictured) also offers a rotating monthly burger special, focusing on different regional specialities. These have included Wisconsin’s gloriously decadent butter burger and the olive burger, a creation from Michigan that’s not widely known outside of the state. For a side, customers can order oversized shoestring fries. Motz is keen to recreate the early diners that first popularised burgers, so the small menu also includes old-school favourites like tuna salad, PB&J sandwiches, a grilled cheese, slices of pie and chocolate chip cookies.