By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
“Wian plopped on some relish, and began stacking up a ridiculous caricature of the hamburger—a double-decked delight pushing burger creativity to the outer limits!”
Robert Wian learned the restaurant business the hard way.  When his father’s furniture business faltered during the early thirties, he took a job washing dishes at the White [...]

By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
Sure, history books tell of the Tartar’s fondness for raw meat and how sailors from Germany loved to order Hamburg Style Steak upon their arrival in the New World. The real question is: Who created America’s first all-beef patty, ancestral prototype of today’s Quarter Pounder, Big Mac, and Whopper?
Pinpointing the origination [...]

By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
Hamburgers made their debut on the food scene as irregular lumps of chopped beef, hand shaped according to the improvisational jazz of lunch counter short order. During the early years, long before the cookie-cutter aesthetics of the Big Mac came into vogue, concerns over circular uniformity and ingredients were minimal.
When fry [...]