American Eats: Connecticut. Louis' Lunch

The building looks completely out of place in its surrounding, a parking lot on one side, surrounded by upscale shopping and residences in a clearly gentrified neighborhood Red shuttered windows sit on either side of a black door. Its location is a recent development; the building was uprooted and moved in the 1970s to make way for redevelopment and gentrification in a different part of town. In a black band on the top, reads a sign,  “Louis Lunch, Est. 1895”.

Depending on who you believe, it was at Louis’ Lunch that a customer in a hurry asked for a lunch that he could eat on the go in a hurry. It was that customer who allegedly helped bring about the hamburger.

In 2010, I ventured off the highway to Louis’ specifically to experience the “original” burger. Their hamburger is served the same way it has been since the beginning. A burger made of steak served between two pieces of white bread toast. You can get it with a few condiments. You can’t get it with ketchup. That’s a punishable offense. They make the burger the same way they always have using cooking implements that are virtually antiques. The gas broiler for the burger was made in 1898. The toast is cooked in a much younger 1929 toaster. 

The burger itself was a monument to simplicity. It was good. It was simple. It was hearty. It was exactly what the customer wanted when it was invented; a quick meal to provide sustenance to move on with the rest of their day. We live in a time where so many burgers have so many toppings, sauces, and accoutrements on the burger itself gets forgotten. The burger is often lost in the sauce…..literally. Louis’ brings the burger back to its roots by continuing the traditional way they have prepared it for generations. It harkens back not the fancy, mass-produced burgers of today but is more akin to the simplicity of a family cookout.

Is it possible to imagine a world without the hamburger? If the folks at Louis’ Lunch didn’t slap a meat patty between two slices of bread in 1900, what does American cuisine look like? There is no food that is more ubiquitous, more associated with American culture than a hamburger? The burger didn’t just conquer the country, it conquered the world. There are McDonald’s over 36,000 locations in 122 countries, trailing only Subway in the number of restaurants worldwide.  McDonald’s helped bring down communism. No brand has been a better conduit of American culture than McDonald’s, and other than blue jeans the hamburger has been no better example of American products. And where would be had a worker in a hurry asked for a quick lunch?

Without Louis’ slapping hamburger meat between bread, America as we know it isn’t America. Hyperbolic? Maybe. But true. You owe it to yourself to visit this historic location and try the quick service food that, quite literally, changed everything.