Monday, Jul. 13, 2009
Connecticut
Photo credit: Christopher Capozziello / Getty
What kind of burger establishment forbids ketchup? Well, the one that invented the hamburger. (Or at least the first one to serve it in America.) Louis' Lunch, a small brick restaurant in New Haven, opened in 1895 and served its first hamburger in 1900 when a customer asked for a quick lunch that he could eat on the go. The owner slapped ground beef between two slices of toast, and America's obsession with burgers was born. Today the burgers are made much as they were back then: broiled vertically in the restaurant's original cast-iron grill and dressed with tomato and onion only. Mustard and ketchup, according to the owners, corrupt the classic taste. Hamburger: $4.50