Best Hamburgers in North America

If you're in the Greater Houston area, the best hamburger in town is Tookie's in Kemah.  They have a burger called the #99 that has wine, onions, and cheese mixed in with the ground beef.  Order the homemade onion rings on the side.

Good eatin',

Fujio Watanabe
[email removed]
name, department
KUHT Television - University of Houston System

From [email removed] Sat Oct  5 19:39 EDT 1996
X-Sender: [email removed]
To: [email removed]
Subject: Re: 'Q in Houston
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Length: 741

>>
>
>I'm a fan of Goodes, but also a fan of several other places, including my
>brothers home.  But try The Swingin' Door.  Not sure of the address, but
>it's out by the prison.  Drop an email on my brother, Joe Martin, and he'll
>tell you exactly where to find it, and some other good Q places.
>
>
>Bill Martin
>

I can HIGHLY recommend the Swinging Door... Its about 20-30 minutes from my friend's house.  We go their occasionally when we don't feel like making buffalo wings or burning meat on his grill..  I usually end up buying though.. :-)  Of note: The Swinging Door takes (and almost requires) reservations... Don't expect to get in and sit down in a reasonable amount of time on the weekend without one...

From [email removed] Fri Oct  4 22:29 EDT 1996
To: [email removed]
Cc: [email removed]
Subject: Re: 'Q in Houston
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Length: 1452

On Fri, 4 Oct 1996 17:36:29 -0700, you wrote:

>Does any one have an opinion about good 'Q in Houston ?  I have tried =
Goode
>Company and found them pretty "good", but I'm always looking for other
>places.
>
>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Email direct to me at =
work
>[email removed] if you have any ideas.
>
>thanks

Well... being from Tennessee and having a serious craving for some pork shoulder, I may not be a very partial judge, but here are a few places Ihave been and will go back to:

Demeris - there's one at the 610/290 junction, behind the mall.  Not bad 'Q, beef, chicken, ribs, and sausage.  This one is worth the trip just to hear the owner call out the orders.  There is another one over in the Montrose area, but have never been to it.

County Line - Off 1960 on Cutten Road.  Little more upscale with beef, pork (tenderloin), sausage, chicken, turkey, and ribs (beef and pork). They also do a mean smoked prime rib. =20

"The Train" - not really sure what the actual name of this place is, but it's on Hempstead at Gessner.  Part of the place is an actual railroad dining car.  Usual 'Q offerings, with the pork being tenderloin. =20

All of these places serve ample portions of 'Q.

Hard Rock Cafe - their Tennessee Pulled Pork sandwich almost reminds me of home. =20

Hope this is of some use to you.  If you know of any places in town that actually do pork, please let me know.

john hardaway
[email removed]

Here's my vote for the best hamburgers in North America:

Two places tie for best non-chain burgers:

The Spring Cafe near Houston, Tx., makes the best mouth-watering, juicy burgers I have ever had.  They make them any way you like 'em.  About a 1/2 pound of top grade sirloin with cheese and bacon and anything else to help clog the arteries faster.  The aroma of freshly grilled meat could almost make the most ardent vegetarian crack.  For dessert, I suggest you drive down to the Texas Heart Institute in Houston and treat yourself to some new plumbing.  You'll need it.

The second choice is a no-name place in the hills above Lawton, Oklahoma. I don't remember the place, but I remember the burgers.  They were as big as cow patties and juicy too.  Gee, I think they were burgers.

If any one knows the name of this place near Lawton, Oklahoma, please post for the group.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didm't mention THE best burger franchise in the country, in my opinion.  That would be Carl's Jr. in California and other states near there.  Their burgers have to be the best burgers I have had from a franchise.  If you haven't tried them, you are missing out on something real special.

Al

               "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

                                 -- Hunter S. Thompson