Since my blog is new and I've already had quite a few interesting "adventures" I think I will share one of my most favorite restaurants I visited after seeing it on TV. There are others...but I love this story.
To start you have to know I'm generally up for anything...but anything involving food I'm up for times 2! (And Tim is not always happy about my "up for anything" attitude because that usually involves him doing something he doesn't want to do or spending money he doesn't want to spend! Or both.)
The weekend before Valentine's Day in 2010 we were snowed in. Being snowed in means Tim goes to shovel and I sit my butt in front of the TV and watch food shows! I'm usually the Food Network queen but this particular time I had found the Travel Channel most interesting. The show was called 101 Places to Chow Down in America. Each hour was part of the countdown.
Tim came in from shoveling and I was NOT giving up the remote. He sat down and got hungry right there with me. We watched the entire series. (I think it was about 5 hours, no lie)
Number one on the list was a tiny little place called Louis' Lunch in New Haven, CT. They are credited with making the FIRST hamburger and supposedly have the best burger in America cooked in these crazy old upright grills. Now I know what you're thinking, did those two idiots drive to CT when they were supposed to be snowed in? No. We did not. We made a frozen pizza and I handed the remote over.
HOWEVER, the next weekend was Valentine's Day weekend. We were sitting on the couch and Tim asked what I wanted to do. I said, "Let's go to Louis' Lunch." He asked if I was serious. (Of course I was! Who doesn't want to try the best burger in America??)
We got ready, jumped in the Mustang and were on our way. A little while down the road I suggested we call Tim's friend, Jeff and ask him to go to lunch. We picked him up. He made the mistake of not asking where we were going on the phone. It still cracks me up when we finally told him Connecticut. Who goes to Connecticut for lunch? We do.
We arrived in New Haven, CT and IT WAS COLD. We had to park in a parking garage and walk to Louis' Lunch. As we got closer we noticed a line out the door. We had to stand outside for about 15 minutes before being able to be the part of the line that was inside the door.
The inside of Louis' Lunch is very small. When I say small, I mean could MAYBE hold 20 people sitting down at these old, worn, wooden tables. Standing room for the line made the place "packed." We got lucky and while we were in line a tiny table opened up. Jeff sat down and we ordered for the 3 of us.(By the way, I checked out the bathroom - just might be the tiniest bathroom ever!)
This is not your typical "have it your way" type of place. You can have your hamburger sandwich (and I say sandwich because it is served on TOAST not a bun!) 4 ways: ham with cheese, ham with onion, ham with tomato or ham works. I decided on the ham works while Tim had the ham with onion and Jeff had the ham with cheese. By the way, don't even think about asking for ketchup. They don't have it because you don't need it. (or so they think...I wasn't exactly thrilled about this at first since I am such a fan of the tasty red condiment.)
After eating, I went and talked with the owner. He was so kind as to let me take a photo with he and his worker making sure to get the centuries-old grill in the photo.
All in all...we had a great experience. I think it's more about the experience and the history of it. The hamburgers were very tasty however I don't think I can make an informed decision on if it was "the tastiest in America" because well, I haven't tried enough burgers!
If you ever have time and want to do something a little crazy on account of a burger...take a drive to New Haven, CT and visit Louis' Lunch.
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