Ted's Restaurant is a hamburger restaurant established in 1959 that is known for its steamed cheeseburger. [1] [2] [3] Its original location is in Meriden, Connecticut, in the United States. It also operates a food truck and a concession stand.
Ted's Restaurant is a hamburger restaurant established in 1959 that is known for its steamed cheeseburger. [1] [2] [3] Its original location is in Meriden, Connecticut, in the United States. It also operates a food truck and a concession stand.
The steamed cheeseburger, also referred to as a "steamer" [4] or "cheeseburg", [3] is believed to have been invented at a restaurant called "Jack's Lunch" in Middletown, Connecticut, in the 1930s. [5] [3] However like many restaurant food icons the origin is somewhat unclear, but despite this it is undisputed that Ted Duberek opened his namesake restaurant serving the steamed burgers in 1959 in Meriden, catering to the then significant local factory worker population. Early on, as the local factories were working around the clock, Ted's would stay open until 4:00 A.M. [3]
Instead of being fried in a pan or grilled on a grill like typical cheeseburgers, the steamed cheeseburgers at Ted's Restaurant are cooked via steaming in a stainless-steel cabinet which contains small trays that hold either an individual hamburger patty or a chunk of cheese. [3] This method of cooking causes the fats in the meat to melt away and they are then drained from the tray once the patty is fully cooked. [6] [7] The end result is a moist, juicy burger which is then served by scooping the meat onto a bun and then pouring the melted cheese over the meat. [3] The burger comes with a choice of customary toppings. [3] [8]
Over the years the local factories began moving their manufacturing overseas, yet Ted's remained in business, though with shorter hours. After Ted Duberek died in the early 1970s, his son Paul Duberek took over, running the business until 2007. That year, Paul sold the business to his nephew Bill Foreman who had worked at Ted's while he attended high school and college. [9] Bill has continued running the business with few changes and the steamed cheeseburger remains the featured menu item. [3]
Ted's expanded in the 2010s with the addition of two more restaurant locations in Cromwell, Connecticut and North Haven, Connecticut but by 2018 they had both been closed. [9]
Ted's was featured on a second-season episode of the Travel Channel's Man v. Food in December 2009. [10] Then in June 2013 it was featured on another Travel Channel show, Burger Land .
Ted's operates a food truck named the "Steam Machine" and it sells steamed cheeseburgers at Bushnell Park in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, at the Xfinity Theatre amphitheatre also in Hartford, and at UConn Huskies football games at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. [11] [12] [8]
Ted's sells steamed cheeseburgers at a concession stand located behind section 101 in the XL Center arena in Hartford, Connecticut. [6]
In August 2018 Ted's was the featured food vendor during a special promotion by the Hartford Yard Goats minor league baseball team. For one home game the Yard Goats changed their name to the "Hartford Steamed Cheeseburgers" and wore special one-off uniforms resembling the food item. Ted's sold made-to-order steamed cheeseburgers to fans at the "Hartford Neighborhood Flavors Cart" that was set up at the stadium. [13] [14]
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, a burger is considered a sandwich.
A cheeseburger is a hamburger with a slice of melted cheese on top of the meat patty, added near the end of the cooking time. Cheeseburgers can include variations in structure, ingredients and composition. As with other hamburgers, a cheeseburger may include various condiments and other toppings such as lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, avocado, mushrooms, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard.
The horseshoe is an open-faced sandwich originating in Springfield, Illinois, United States. It consists of thick-sliced toasted bread, a hamburger patty or other choice of meat, French fries, and cheese sauce.
The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, so named for containing a patty with a precooked weight of four ounces (113.4 g), or one quarter of a pound. It was introduced in 1971. In 2013, the Quarter Pounder was expanded to represent a whole line of hamburgers that replaced the company's discontinued Angus hamburger. In 2015, McDonald's increased the precooked weight to 4.25 oz (120 g).
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Louis' Lunch is a fast food hamburger restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut, which claims to be the first fast food restaurant to serve hamburgers and the oldest continuously operated hamburger restaurant in the United States. It was opened as a small lunch wagon in 1895 and was one of the first places in the U.S. to serve steak sandwiches. According to Louis' Lunch, the hamburger was created in 1900 in response to a customer's hurried request for a lunch to go. In 1917, Louis moved the business into a square-shaped brick building that had once been a tannery.
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The Burger King Specialty Burgers are a line of burgers developed by the international fast-food restaurant chain Burger King in 1978 and introduced in 1979 as part of a new product line designed to expand Burger King's menu with more sophisticated, adult oriented fare beyond hamburgers. Additionally, the new line was intended to differentiate the company from other fast food hamburger restaurants at the time. Since the line's introduction, the other burgers have been discontinued, leaving the chicken offering, the Original Chicken Burger, as the primary product left. Additionally, other burgers that utilize the same roll as the chicken burger have been introduced to the company's menu both domestically and internationally since the original product line was introduced.
Shady Glen, officially Shady Glen Dairy Stores, is a restaurant in Manchester, Connecticut. John and Bernice Rieg opened the first Shady Glen store near the Manchester/Bolton town line in 1948 and a second store in the Manchester Parkade shopping center in 1965. The second location closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shady Glen is locally famous for its homemade-style ice cream, signature Bernice Original "winged" cheeseburger, and vintage 1950s style diner and service. In 2012, it was recognized by the James Beard Foundation as an "American Classic".
The Record-Journal is an American daily newspaper based in Meriden, Connecticut, that dates back to the years immediately following the American Civil War. It was owned by the Record-Journal Publishing Company, a family-owned business entity, until it was sold to Hearst Communications Connecticut Media Group in November 2023.
A steak sandwich is a sandwich prepared with steak that has been broiled, fried, grilled, barbecued or seared using steel grates or gridirons, then served on bread or a roll. Steak sandwiches are sometimes served with toppings of cheese, onions, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, and in some instances fried eggs, coleslaw, and french fries.
A hamburger is a specific type of burger. It is a sandwich that consists of a cooked ground beef meat patty, placed between halves of a sliced bun. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as dill relish (condiment), mayonnaise, and other options including lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and cheese.
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.
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A steamed cheeseburger, also referred to as a steamer or cheeseburg, is a hamburger topped with cheese that is cooked via steaming and originally only served by restaurants in central Connecticut in the United States. Despite it now being available elsewhere, it is still difficult to find outside that area.
