The American Burger
White Castle Slider
Five holes in the patty, a griddle carpeted with onions, the bun cooking on top of the beef: the 1921 Wichita original that launched the first fast-food chain and sold America on ground beef.
Whataburger Original
Five-inch bun with large beef patty, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions; Texas-born chain (1950), beloved across the South. Cu...
Western Bacon Cheeseburger
Carl's Jr. built its name on this one: a charbroiled patty, bacon, battered onion rings folded inside the bun, and barbecue sauce where the ketchup would be.
Wendy's Baconator
Two beef patties, six strips of applewood bacon, cheese melted between the layers, and nothing green. Wendy's 2007 Baconator, built by doubling instead of balancing.
Vermont Cheddar Burger
A burger that names its cheese by maker and age, two-year Cabot or clothbound Grafton: sharp aged white Vermont cheddar, crumbly and loud, melted gently over a griddled patty.
Veggie Burger (California Style)
California's plant burger builds inward from the produce, leaning on Hass avocado and 1970s sprouts to do the work beef fat would, over a patty whose paper trail runs through 1982 London and 1980s.
Utah Pastrami Burger
A cheeseburger crowned with a pile of griddle-hot pastrami and fry sauce: the Utah pastrami burger flopped in California and became a Salt Lake institution, the Crown Burgers build.
Tillamook Cheddar Burger
A burger built around aged Oregon cheddar that softens but never pours, trading the melt of a processed slice for a sharp, firm bite: the Tillamook cheese carries the build.
Theta Burger
A thin beef patty under shredded American cheese, pickle chips, mayonnaise and tangy hickory sauce. Born at Norman's Town Tavern by most accounts, carried today by Johnnie's in Oklahoma City.
Steamed Cheeseburger
Burger patty and cheese steamed in a metal tray, served on a bun; unique to central Connecticut diners.
Smash Burger
A loose beef ball smashed flat on a screaming griddle, browned across nearly its whole face: the crust is not seasoned on, it is built by contact, and the burger exists for it.
Slider
Small burger, typically 2-3 inches in diameter; White Castle origin.
Shrimp Burger
Ground or chopped shrimp formed into a patty and fried.
Shake Shack ShackBurger
Angus beef burger with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce on a potato bun; started as a NYC hot dog cart in Madison Square Park (2001), now ...
Salmon Burger
Salmon is too lean to hold a patty, so the salmon burger is an engineering job: a third blended to paste to glue thumbnail-chopped chunks, bound with egg and crumb. The Pacific Northwest standard.
Salmon Burger (Alaskan)
In Alaska the salmon burger tracks the run calendar: sockeye and coho worked into a bound patty, seared and folded into a toasted bun. A state that wrote wild salmon into its constitution.
Sacramento Squeeze Burger
A smash burger with a frico ring: a fistful of cheddar dropped on the steel around the patty, fried into a lacy skirt that overhangs the bun. The Squeeze Inn's Sacramento signature since 1977.
Protein Style Burger
No bun at all. In-N-Out's protein style order closes the patty and cheese inside two leaves of iceberg, a customer-driven swap the press met decades after it started.
Oklahoma Onion Burger
In El Reno, Oklahoma, shaved onion gets smashed into the raw patty itself, caramelizing into the crust instead of steaming on top, a Depression-era fix now read as the smashburger's ancestor.
Mushroom Swiss Burger
The grown-up burger that fast food codified: why Swiss and not American, why savory and not acidic, and how Hardee's and Whataburger turned a diner upgrade into a name people petition to bring back.
Montana Bison Burger
Ground bison runs 2-6 percent fat to beef's 15-25, so it lives or dies on a rare-to-medium pull. The animal fell from millions to about 1,000 by 1889 before ranchers rebuilt it from Montana stock.