Illustration by Anna Rose
For many who live in the Bluff City, burger appeal rivals the lure of pulled pork, especially in the summer when backyard cookouts provoke spirited debates about toppings, grill techniques, and the best burger restaurants in Memphis.
Nowhere is the city’s burger love more clearly expressed than in the Memphis magazine annual restaurant poll. This year, more people cast votes for best burger than in any other category, handing the top three wins (again) to Huey’s, Earnestine & Hazel’s, and Tops Bar-B-Q. While we expected the trio of winners, other burger choices surprised us, including a six-way tie for fourth place and a remarkable variety of write-in votes.
Intrigued by the poll’s endless list of burger options, we went on a monthlong binge to find excellent beef burgers that we hadn’t already written about in print or online. The ground rule did eliminate many favorites, including burgers at Hog & Hominy, Elwood’s Shack, Folk’s Folly, Interim, Sear Shack, Belly Acres, LBOE, and Trolley Stop. But our new discoveries, described below in alphabetical order, showcase similar diversity in personality and price. Our new crop of top-10 favorites also illustrates a commonality suggested by David Weatherspoon, who maintains the popular Instagram called Tennessee Burger Gram. “The restaurant has to care about its burger,” Weatherspoon explains. “It has to say, we are making this burger, our way, and it is perfect.”
Bar Burger @ Acre
A bar menu staple since the restaurant opened, the Acre burger is resplendent with its simple ingredients in a soft brioche bun. The burger, almost an inch thick in the middle, stays moist and a little pink, while melted cheese drapes the patty like a warm and cozy mitten. The secret to the burger isn’t complicated, says Chef Wally Joe. “We use high-quality beef and aged cheddar. We don’t fancy it up.”
Extras: The top-shelf fries at Acre are excellent, as well. Surprisingly, they also are frozen, not hand-cut, an approach three-star Michelin chef Thomas Keller also advocates. Joe explains: “I always say, if it’s good enough for Thomas Keller, it’s good enough for me.”
Acre, 6905 S. Perkins Ave. 901-818-2271 $$
Tiki Burger @ Atomic Tiki
A beach bar menu in land-locked Memphis is indeed a beautiful thing, especially late-night when an 8-ounce Angus cheeseburger comes with smoked ketchup, Sriracha aioli, and house-made pickles. Adventurous eaters can opt for a $2 add-on of egg or Spam. Either way, the Tiki Burger comes with a bag of Maui onion chips, a friendly wait staff, and a background of reggae, both authentic and covers. Ever hear the reggae remix of “Macarena?”
Extras: Aloha! You know you want a paper umbrella in your drink, so order a Tikirita or a signature cocktail like SpongeBob’s House, served in a fresh pineapple. Pair with $2 Tiki tacos on Tuesdays.
Atomic Tiki, 1545 Overton Park Ave.901-279-3935 $
The Belmont Burger @ Belmont Grill
Yes, the burger is a rectangle and served on a French roll, but don’t let the eccentricities stop you. Six ounces, hand-patted, and dripping with melted cheese, the Belmont Burger co-exists happily with the bar itself: Both are chargrilled, a little sloppy, and big enough to share, like the stories you’ll likely swap with the Belmont’s regular customers. Built about 1915, the building’s rich history and permanent strands of Christmas lights add to the burger’s allure, as does its permanent half-price special every Tuesday.
Extras: The Belmont’s house salad is surprisingly good, but so are the Idaho bakers, fried and fully loaded.
Belmont Grill, 4970 Poplar Ave.901-767-0305 $
Burger and Pommes Frites @ Café 1912
The skin-on fries, skinny and salty, fill up half the plate. (Yes!) The burger — griddle-seared Pittsburgh style — rests open-face on half the bun, along with smoked bacon cheddar (or blue cheese) melted over bacon. On the bun’s other half, sweet pickles, roasted garlic, baby romaine, and over-sized rings of red onion circle the tomato like an artful food photo of the Sputnik sign at Joe’s. We admire the plate’s abundance and blissfully eat.
Extras: Seasoned with dried rosemary ground into power and tossed with brown sugar and a little cayenne, Café 1912’s roasted mixed nuts make any cocktail memorable.
Cafe 1912, 243 S. Cooper St.901-722-2700 $$
Watershed Burger @ Carolina Watershed
Enchanted by the blossoms that drift to our table from a towering mimosa tree, the Watershed Burger almost seems extra, until the first bite. Like a golden ratio, the burger is the perfect equation of bun (sourdough), patty (locally sourced Angus beef), and toppings (aged cheddar, butter lettuce, roasted tomato, caramelized onions, and avocado spread.) The Carolina house sauce — a mayo mix made with secret spices — is the burger’s crowning glory.
Extras: Deal with the $1.75 up-charge and order the Watershed’s chips. Crunchy and oblong (like a potato!), they could be the best house-made chips in Memphis.
Carolina Watershed, 141 E. Carolina Ave.901-321-5553 $
The Brussels @ Farm & Fries
Admittedly, Brussels sprout leaves on a burger seem a bit odd. But caramelized in the fryer, the superfood morphs into a sweet and flavorful counterpart to the savory patty, made with 100 percent grass-fed and finished beef. The brioche bun (not too small, not too big) also sandwiches cheddar, tomato, spicy brown mustard, and bacon, finished with a maple and brown sugar glaze. “You end up with this awesome flavor that most people haven’t had in a burger before,” says chef and manager Matthew Barre.
Extras: Hand-cut and twice fried like traditional pommes frites, the restaurant’s fries can be paired with seven different dipping sauces, all house-made.
Farm & Fries, 7724 Poplar Pike in Germantown901-791-2328 $
Grove Burger @ Grove Grill
Stack up the toppings (pickles, tomatoes, sweet onion, spring mix, and blue cheese crumbles) and dig in. Little wonder the Grove Burger has been on the menu for more than 20 years. Made with a combo of prime and choice beef freshly ground every day, the 7-ounce patty is chargrilled, so the middle stays moist and meaty. Chef Chip Dunham, who returned to Memphis last year to steer the kitchen of his father’s restaurant, says the bun is the burger’s showpiece: “I make them every day and sprinkle grits on top instead of seeds.”
Extras: Splurge a little and also order warm blue cheese slaw and a glass of rosé.
Grove Grill, 4550 Poplar Ave.901-818-9951 $$
Stuffed Beef Burger @ Mot & Ed’s
The stuffed turkey burger may be Mot & Ed’s social media star, but the restaurant’s Stuffed Beef Burger is also sensational. Owner Edna Banks-Hawkins explains her method like this: Pat the beef flat, add the stuffing (cheese, bacon, jalapeños, sautéed mushrooms, roasted peppers, grilled onions, and fresh spinach), pinch up the ends, fold it over, and cook the burger slow. “It’s like Play-Doh,” she says, laughing. “I’m an artist, so everything for me has an artistic form.”
Extras: Look for the Boyd’s burger up next. Stuffed with barbecue and topped with signature slaw, the burger honors the family’s former restaurant on Beale.
Mot & Ed's, 1354 Madison Ave.901-249-8976 $
Vault Cheeseburger @ The Vault
At the Vault, located downtown in the South Main Historic District, Chef Aaron Winters serves up a friendly neighborhood bar with an elevated pub menu lead by the Vault Cheeseburger. Impressive in every way, the Angus beef burger is locally sourced from Claybrook Farms, chargrilled, and topped with tomatoes, Romaine, Benton bacon, shaved red onions, sharp cheddar cheese, and spicy house-made mayo. The scrumptious brioche bun comes from La Baguette.
Extras: Seared on the restaurant’s flat top as its name implies, the Vault’s Smash Burger is the darling of an upcoming episode in September of the Food Channel’s “Late Nite Eats.”
The Vault, 124 G.E. Patterson901-591-8000 $
901 Jr. Cheeseburger @ 901 Grille and Market
Price, convenience, and flavor shape an excellent burger at 901 Grille, located on the northwest corner of East Parkway and Central. Unassuming in presentation, the single patty with melted cheddar gets its personality from the grill’s flames, which dance in a call-and-response with the burger’s sizzling juices. Dressed with standard fixings on a soft white hamburger bun, the burger is especially satisfying on Tuesdays, when the combo meal special is $4.98.
Extras: Instead of fries, order a creamy mango shake made with vanilla ice cream and mango pulp, a sweet import from India the color of sunshine gold.
901 Grille, 711 East Parkway S.901-512-6171 $
