The cuisine of the American Midwest draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.
A hamburger, or simply a burger, is a dish consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis with condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing, and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger. Under some definitions, and in some cultures, a burger is considered a sandwich.
Dairy Queen (DQ) is an American multinational fast food chain founded in 1940 and currently headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. The first Dairy Queen was owned and operated by Sherb Noble and first opened on June 22, 1940, in Joliet, Illinois. It serves a variety of hot and fried food, as well as original frozen dairy products that vary from location to location.
White Castle is an American regional slider restaurant chain with about 345 locations across 13 states, with its greatest presence in the Midwest and New York metropolitan area. Founded on September 13, 1921, in Wichita, Kansas, White Castle has been generally credited as the world's first fast food hamburger chain. It is known for its small, square hamburgers commonly referred to as "sliders". The burgers were initially priced at five cents until 1929 and remained at 10 cents until 1949. In the 1940s, White Castle periodically ran promotional ads in local newspapers which contained coupons offering five burgers for ten cents, takeout only. In 2014, Time named the White Castle slider "The Most Influential Burger of All Time".
Dick's Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., or simply Dick's, is an American regional chain of fast-food restaurants located in the Seattle metropolitan area. It was founded in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood in 1954 by Dick Spady, H. Warren Ghormley, and Dr. B.O.A. Thomas. Dick's currently operates nine locations, of which all but one are drive-ins.
The Red Barn restaurant was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1961 in Springfield, Ohio, by Don Six, Martin Levine, and Jim Kirst. In 1963, the small chain was purchased by Richard O. Kearns, operated as Red Barn System, with the offices moving briefly to Dayton, Ohio and in August 1964 to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the late 1960s United Servomation, also called Servomation, bought the Red Barn chain. In 1978 United Servomation merged with the City Investing Company's GDV division which also owned the Motel 6 motel chain. Only interested in real estate, construction, and financial services the new owners ceased advertising for the chain along with allowing the franchise leases to expire with the last of the leases expiring around 1988. At its peak, Red Barn had 300–400 restaurants in 19 states, as well as outlets in southern Ontario, elsewhere in Canada, and Australia.
The Johnny Rockets Group Inc., commonly known simply as Johnny Rockets, is an American restaurant franchise whose themed decor is based upon 1950s diner-style restaurants. As of April 2024, the company operates 90 locations in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Décor includes Coca-Cola advertising, featuring nearly life-size cardboard illustrations of women in World War II armed services uniforms, individual jukebox stations, chrome accents and red vinyl seats.
Burger Time is a regional chain of drive-through fast food restaurants that is headquartered in West Fargo, North Dakota. Its original restaurant was founded in Fargo, North Dakota in 1987. As of April 2024, the company operates 7 locations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Mickey's Dining Car is a classic diner in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Designed to resemble a railroad dining car, the prefabricated building was constructed in 1937 by the Jerry O'Mahony Diner Company of Elizabeth, New Jersey, then shipped to Saint Paul by rail, opening in 1939. Its unusual architecture made it a local landmark. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for having local significance in the themes of architecture and commerce. It was nominated for being "a beloved, longstanding and unique social institution," an unaltered example of railroad car-style diners, and one of the few surviving examples of its type in the American Midwest. The diner ran in continuous operation at the same location from 1939 until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The diner remained closed from this point until it reopened on the morning of October 3, 2024.
Blake's Lotaburger is a fast food restaurant chain, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with 75 locations in the Southwestern United States, mostly located in New Mexico, as well as Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. Their menu focuses on New Mexico green chile topped hamburgers and french fries, as well as New Mexican foods such as breakfast burritos.
Veselka is a Ukrainian restaurant at 144 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal and his wife, Olha Darmochwal, post–World War II Ukrainian refugees. Veselka is one of the last of many Slavic restaurants that once proliferated in the neighborhood. A cookbook, published in October 2009 by St. Martin's Press, highlights more than 120 of the restaurant's Eastern European recipes.
A Jucy Lucy is a stuffed cheeseburger with the cheese inside of the meat instead of on top, resulting in a melted core of cheese. It is a popular, regional cuisine in Minnesota, particularly in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Two bars in Minneapolis claim to have invented the burger, while other local bars and restaurants have created their own interpretations of the style.
Wilson's Sandwich Shop is a restaurant located in Findlay, OH, founded by the owner of the Kewpee Hamburger restaurant in Lima, OH. It is a local institution, known for its square hamburgers, called "hamburgs", and frozen malts. Patrons can get in touch with the community at Wilson's. It is even known as a regular stop for local Courier reporters getting "man-on-the-street perspectives". Various celebrities and politicians have visited throughout the restaurant's history, including singer Johnny Mathis, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, former Vice President Dan Quayle, and President Joe Biden.
FLIP burger boutique was an upscale full-service American restaurant based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company opened its restaurant in West Midtown, Atlanta in 2008. The restaurant was generally well-received by food critics for its ambiance and food, though there had been criticism that the restaurant was "overdone". It had been credited as increasing competition among hamburger restaurants in Atlanta.
J.G. Melon is an American restaurant established in 1972. It is located at 1291 Third Avenue on the northeast corner of East 74th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is known for its hamburgers.
The Band Box Diner is the oldest operating diner in the Elliot Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The restaurant, located at 729 South 10th Street, is modeled on the White Castle chain, but is entirely locally built. It was opened by Harry Wyman and his wife Bert in 1939. They eventually built 15 Band Boxes in the chain by 1950. All of the restaurants were in Minneapolis, with the exception of one in Columbia Heights. In 1953, the Wymans sold the chain, and by 1972, this location was the only one that remained. It was purchased in 1998. Its new owners hired architects Robert Roscoe and Karen Gjerstad to plan the restoration and expansion of the building.
World's Best Donuts is a doughnut shop and American restaurant in Grand Marais, Minnesota. It is located along the waterfront of Lake Superior. World's Best Donuts is an independent family-owned business established in 1969 by Merieta Altrichter. The shop has been featured in Minnesota Monthly and The New York Times, both of which described the shop's donuts as living up to the business's name.
The Dime Store was a short-lived restaurant in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. It was established by Dayna McErlean, with additional conceptual development from Jeremy Larter. The restaurant opened in 2014, replacing Leo's Non-Smoking Coffee Shop, a diner which had operated for thirty years. The Dime Store's menu included diner classics such as burgers and milkshakes, along with all-day breakfast and weekend brunch specials. Despite garnering a positive reception, the restaurant closed in November 2015.
The 5-8 Club Tavern & Grill is a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1928 as a speakeasy, the eatery is one of two Minneapolis establishments that claim to have invented the Juicy Lucy cheeseburger in the 1950s, the other being Matt's Bar. The 5-8 Club also serves its Saucy Sally burger and other dishes including fried cheese curds and onion straws. The restaurant, which has been featured on several Travel Channel TV series, has three additional locations in Minnesota.
Skyline Restaurant is a diner in northwest Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Established in 1935, the restaurant initially sold fried chicken by a gas station. It gained popularity during the 1950s, and Skyline's menu of American cuisine has changed little since then. Michelle Nelson has owned the diner since 1999; previous owners have included Benny and Phyllis Lum, as well as Ken Hom, who eliminated drive-in service. Skyline's burgers and milkshakes have received a generally positive reception. In 1975, James Beard said the restaurant's burger was among the best in the country, and Food Network Magazine said Skyline had the best burger in Oregon in 2009.
