By Zack Rosen & Heather Brown
Hello Grub Gabber fans! This week Zack and Heather endeavored to bring you a review of a place dubbed the #1 Tastiest Place to Chow Down in America by the Travel Channel, Louis’ Lunch. Louis’ Lunch is located in downtown New Haven at 263 Crown Street. The building, originally built in 1895, is like a diamond in the rough, nestled between parking lots and apartment buildings. Louis’ Lunch is the home of the first hamburger in America, so they’ve had plenty of time to get it just right.
Everything about the building, although seemingly used and abused, fits together completely right down to the spelling mistakes on the menus, the carvings in anything made out of wood and the posted signs denouncing ketchup and picky people. Our personal favorite is the sign that reads, “This is not Burger King. You don’t get it your way. You get it my way, or you don’t get the damn thing.” Now on to the food!
Heather chose the original burger with cheese. The burgers, made in the original ovens that Louis Lassen used when he opened his doors, are cooked medium rare unless otherwise requested. The bread is toasted with a toaster from about 1929. The result, a wonderfully juicy burger on perfectly toasted bread that you truly do not need ketchup for. Heather was a little hesitant about the no ketchup thing because she just likes ketchup so she was pleasantly surprised that the burger was fantastic without it.
To top it all off, she could wash it down with grape soda (which for those of you who know, basically no one carries any more).
Zack chose the “cheese works” – a cheeseburger with tomato and onion. Deliciously succulent, and amazingly tantalizing, this fresh piece of meat (literally) was a brilliantly juicy burger.
So what, you ask, makes Louis’ Lunch so juicy and delicious? Well, it doesn’t hurt that all of the meat is ground fresh in the basement of Louis’ each morning and is seasoned to perfection. The Lassen family members who continue to keep Louis’ Lunch going and the regulars make up a kind of strange family and have a repertoire that will make any bystander laugh.
Be forewarned, if you don’t know the lingo before ordering your food, the Lassens will let you know it and you will feel like a fool because everyone else will be watching you. Try visiting www.louislunch.com to get at least a little familiar with where you’re heading.
Although the burgers are $5 each, they are certainly well worth it. Taking that into consideration, in addition to the awesome atmosphere and delicious food, we give Louis’ Lunch 4 out of 5 grub-gabbing stars! Visit yourself to see what you think!
