Kevin Alexander is Thrillist's Food & Drink executive editor and wants to live inside the White Hut, but understands the logistical issues. You also have the option of upgrading to ranch-raised buffalo, but really, they don’t call it cattle country for nothing. The Classic Cheese is a thing of simple beauty, topped with a slab of aged white cheddar and the standard trimmings. Since 1945, MacPhail’s of Jackson has reigned supreme with its 1/2lb burgers made of 100% local Angus, stacked on a house-made bun. But in cattle country, each town you encounter will, in fact, have a great burger. That’s because everything is few and far between in Wyoming. Great burgers are few and far between in Wyoming. Once you taste the way the cheese fuses through the patty into a gooey mess that mingles with the chili and slaw and mustard (because you have to order it “all the way” after you've made this trip), we promise you’ll be completely swayed to our cheese preferences. Johnson’s Siler City spot requires planning - and not just because its not the kind of city you just happen to be visiting - but because the diner is only open for four hours a day, five days a week, and lines for his Velveeta-topped patties start long before the 10am open time. except by Velveeta, that weird orange block that you probably only use for cheese dip since its big appeal is that it stays velvety smooth when melted, unlike regular cheese.īut thankfully, Calvin Johnson is more of a visionary than all of us queso fans.
But the way it melts onto a burger is unbeatable. You may be familiar with Kevin’s and my love affair with American cheese-covered burgers. And if you disagree, let us know in the comments. But at the end of the day, we think we’ve got a case for a burger you’re going to love in every single state in the Union. We tried to show our work whenever possible, and give credit to others in the running. If we didn’t eat it personally, one of our other National Food/Drink editors or City editors or contributing writers did.
Note: this was not just a list compiled from other lists which were compiled from other lists until you’ve reached the end of the Internet. So, over the course of the last three months, we’ve set about researching, eating, and fighting about everything from pork belly pastrami-covered burgers in Pennsylvania, to griddled patties in Indiana, to quite possibly the best damn bar burger in Minnesota. After all, we spend much of our year consuming them for our 33 best/personal satisfaction. After we tried to figure out the best pizza in every state, it was inevitable that burgers would be next.