Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The Best Burger in America
Monday, March 19, 2007

Be careful what you wish for. From the AJC:

The walls of Ann's Snack Bar are filled with awards and accolades from every publication in town. But there's something about "Best Hamburger in America" that has a different ring to it.
In last Saturday's Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, veteran food reporter Raymond Sokolov bestowed the grand title on this eight-stool Kirkwood restaurant's "World Famous Ghetto Burger" after eating dozens of hamburgers coast to coast and everywhere in between. Since then, owner Ann Price has been besieged with business at her ramshackle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, 35-year-old joint.
"It's driving me nuts down here!" Price, 63, bellowed from behind the counter where a dozen or more of her iconic double-patty creations sizzled on the flattop grill, reddened with seasoning salt and draped in yellow cheese. "I don't have the space!"

"Miss Ann," as loyal regulars call her, prefers to work less like a short-order cook and more like an itamae-san at a sushi counter —- crafting each burger sequentially, starting with a mound of loose meat cupped in her palm. She carves slivers from a whole onion over the burger as if she were peeling a potato. She crisps bacon in the deep-fat fryer, toasts the bun on the griddle and hand-spreads thin veneers of every known condiment. Sokolov termed the results a "masterpiece" and "the next level of burgerhood." Among the better-known wimpies it bested: Los Angeles' famed In-N-Out Burger and chef Daniel Boulud's $32 foie-gras-stuffed burger at DB Bistro Moderne in New York.

In the easiest of circumstances, obtaining a Ghetto Burger can be a time-consuming process. Now it's a trial to just get your foot in the door.

Labels: Food

Posted by B Feiler at 8:01 AM
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