Left to right: Roxie’s Grocery founders Red and Roxie Miller with Kesha Miller holding Bryson Miller, LaToya Miller, and Greg Miller holding Corryn Miller. Hamburger cooked by Erin Hobson.
Whenever you ask people to name their favorite Memphis hamburger, “Roxie’s Burger” usually pops up. This is the incredibly delicious, very large (although not their largest — we’ll get to that), and very juicy cheeseburger served at Roxie’s Grocery in North Memphis.
I never knew the history of this store and this burger, so I talked to Reginald Miller, one of six sons of the grocery store’s founders, Red and Roxie Miller.
“My dad retired from Ledbetter meat company after 20 years and bought a little corner store,” Reginald says. “And we’ve been here ever since.”
They opened the store 37 years ago, he says. He and his parents and his wife, LaToya, work at Roxie’s Grocery, and Kesha Miller, one of the daughters-in-law, has been head cook for 10 year. The place is a literal “corner store” at the intersection of Third and Mill Avenue in Uptown. Customers can’t miss it. “Uptown Roxie’s” is painted on one side.
But there has to be something else, I thought. A secret ingredient? “I can’t give you that secret,” Reginald says.
I asked Reginald how the hamburger came about. “My dad and mom came up with that,” he says. “We were cooking hamburgers in the microwave at the very beginning. And then 10 years later, ended up with a stove and everything took off from there.”
The hamburgers, served on “big buns,” are made with “pure ground beef” as well as lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mustard, and ketchup. They also use hoop cheese, which is a mild, fresh cow’s milk cheese, and, he says, “We put them together and put them on the grill.”
But there has to be something else, I thought. A secret ingredient? “I can’t give you that secret,” Reginald says.
The hamburgers originally were purchased mainly by people in the neighborhood, he says. “City workers came in one day and stopped by to get plate lunches. They ended up getting burgers and they told other people.”
And, Reginald says, “We have specialty burgers.” The “Uptown Burger” includes two beef patties, American cheese, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled bell peppers, and grilled jalapeños.
If you are ambitious, you can order the impressively sized “Mr. Good Burger,” which includes two patties, pepper jack and hoop cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, and four strips of deep-fried bacon.
Roxie’s plate lunches include “oxtail, meat loaf plates, and meat plates,” Reginald says. They also sell fish and smoked sausage dinners and sandwiches. Sides include spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, greens, and cornbread.
Customers can get breakfast all day, including the “Big Red Breakfast,” which includes “two huge pancakes, and either four strips of bacon or four sausages, with three eggs, and toast,” says LaToya.
So, after all these years, have Red and Roxie Miller considered opening other locations of Roxie’s Grocery?
“No,” Reginald says. “My mom and dad are not willing to move or upgrade. They just want to keep it the same.”
Last question. Does Roxie’s Grocery actually sell groceries? “We sell groceries,” Reginald says.
If you really want to go home and cook.
Roxie’s Grocery is located at 520 N. Third Street; 901-525-2817.
