A tale of two burgers: Gahanna Grill and Thurman Cafe

Filmmaker George Motz is working on a book about hamburgers which brought him to Columbus. He was gracious enough to let me join him on his eating tour.

George did a documentary on eight great hamburger joints in the USA. It was really well done. It snagged the interest of a publisher who asked him to write a book on the best (100 or so) places.

Hamburger America

More about George at his web site

We met at The Gahanna Grill. I also met his wife Casey - although she is a 5 month pregnant vegetarian, she enjoys tagging along with George watching him eat burgers, take photos, and experiencing the Midwest. George and Casey are great so I hope we cross paths again.

The Gahanna Grill
82 Granville St
Gahanna
614.476.9017

George and I each had a Beanie Burger.

 

Beanie Burger
(Named for Beanie Vessner who has grilled these for 30 plus years)

1/2 pound patty
American cheese
Bacon
Sautéed onions
Lettuce
Tomato
Homemade Cole slaw
Served with a side of fries

The Gahanna Grill has changed hands a couple times since the 1990’s but Beanie has remained and so have the fiercely loyal regular customers. The new owner used to have a pizzeria in NYC and was private chef to Rudy Giuliani (really). He retained all of the character of the place while upgrading the facilities. In fact, Gahanna Grill has not changed much since I last wrote about it.

Gahanna Grill a la City Search

The thing to do at the Gahanna Grill is to have a Double Beanie Burger. If you can eat all of it - you get a T-Shirt with an image of Beanie on the back as well as your photo on the Wall of Fame (I am on there twice from previous forays to the Grill).

Our next destination was The Thurman Cafe in German Village.

Thurman Cafe
183 Thurman Ave
(German Village)
614.443.1570

Web site

George and I each had the Thurman Burger.

Thurman Burger
At least 1/2 lb of beef
What seems like one pound of ham
Mozzarella
American Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Mushrooms
Sauteed Onions
a heap of pickles
Jalapeno peppers
Mayo
(Served with Chips and a pickle spear)

The Thurman-ator – twice the meat - we opted not to get that. Casey ordered some of the fabulous Thurman’s Steak Fries. Thurman’s has been around since 1937 and has always been a family operated place. It is oozing with character - wooden booths, the bar is plastered with all types of old photos, beer themed novelty items, signed dollar bills and more. There are many great spots to eat in German Village but Thurman’s is a true Columbus culinary destination.

The Thurman Burger is big - tall and wide.

This is my technique for the successful eating of the burger (works on a Double Beanie Burger as well).

1 - Cut the Hamburger in two equal pieces

2 - Smash down the top of the bun

3 - Flip the burger over so that the bottom (very soggy by this point) bun is on top

4 - Grip firmly and don’t let go of the burger down until you finish your flipped half hamburger

George Motz at work on a Thurman Burger

Buy George’s Book when it comes out in 2008!

---

FYI (Food of Your Interest) - More about Hamburgers

Business Week 2005 – Menches Brothers and the Ohio Hamburger Connection

Our Ohio – more on Menches

The National Hamburger Festival is July 21 and 22, 2007 in Akron. It will feature a Hamburger Eating Championship, the Burger Queen Pageant, and restaurants will compete to be the best hamburger in the nation.

Hamburger Festival

Ohio Magazine did a nice overview of Ohio hamburger history. Check out the article below.

Ohio Magazine on Ohio hamburgers

Fabian’s Redux

Fabian’s Chicago Style Pizza Place

691 North High Street
Columbus (Short North)
614.221.8240

Fabian’s Pizza

Thank you Fabians! I have been getting 70 – 170 views of my blog per day. I must give much of the credit to Fabians since “Fabians Columbus” is the most common search term that leads people to my blog. Fabulous!

(Now – how do I get people to come back?)

I previously reported on a trip to Fabian’s in October. It was not one of my typical glowing reviews – but the place is good. My main concern was the faux Chicago style menu. I am still of the same opinion. The food is good – a few items are overpriced and while some ingredients are authentic Chicago – the end result is not Chicago style anything.

A strong positive – they offer a reasonable Happy Hour. The happy hour prices are the best way to experience Fabians.

Chicago Food 101

Here is a Chicago food primer so when you go to Fabians – which I encourage – you will be able to objectively decide – is Fabian’s Chicago Style food or not?

To begin – some information on Chicago pizza:

Food Timeline - Chicago Pizza

Wikipedia – Chicago Pizza

And now on to the Italian Beef -

Wikipedia – Italian Beef

Pat Bruno is the authority on Chicago Food – here his Beef overview –

Pat Bruno - Hemispheres Magazine June 2006

And Chicago Hot Dogs – (Note: Fabian’s Hot Dog is $7 with a salad… Huh?)

Wikipedia – Chicago Style Hot Dog

Some of the Windy City’s best Dawgs - (I vote for Byron’s and Clark Street Dog)

So now you know just enough to make an informed decision – go forth and eat – then let me know what you think about Fabians.

And now a word about HoneyDip Donuts…

Honey Dip Donuts
4480 Kenny Rd
Columbus, OH
614.459.0812

Hours:

Monday to Wednesday 5 AM to 9 PM
Open 24 hours Thurday to Saturday

Sunday – Closes at 2 PM.

I do not crave donuts very often - but when I do - this is the only place I think of. Honey Dip is just a basic donut shop - nothing (and no one) fancy. There are about 25-30 varieties of donuts as well as some muffins and cookies. The regulars come in for coffee and lottery tickets.

The sign says it all - the pumpkin donuts are customer favorites. I really like the chocolate iced cruellers, the glazed old fashoned, and the whole wheat varieties.

One of my favorite holiday memories involves Honey Dip Donuts. It was the night before Thanksgiving (in 1986). We walked in when the shop was closing for the holiday weekend. As it turned out, they were giving donuts away since they were going to be closed for three days. We each took a couple boxes. Mix in a pint of chocolate milk, a long night and 6-8 donuts and I was not doing so well 2 hours later. I went back the following three Thanksgiving Eves but the magical donut giveaway never happened again.

So…. is it donut or doughnut????

 

Link to the Wikipedia entry on this important matter

The Original Wendy’s Closed on March 2nd. Where’s the Grief?

There was a lot of national media buzz about the Original Wendy’s on Broad Street closing last week. I visited during the final days to observe the passing of another bit of Columbus history. The manager reported business was 5 to 10 times more than a typical day. It was very crowded and many people were taking final photos. This Wendys was a Columbus landmark for years. It was filled with all types of historical Wendy’s knicknacks. Wendys was born the same year as me - so we grew up together. Much of the memorabilia will be moved to the corporate office in Dublin. So here is a last look before this disappears forever.