It always puzzles me a bit when a place has both chili and burgers on the menu, but no chili burger! Many’s the time I’ve ordered both and made my own table top version. The lettuce and tomato become a side salad. That makes it healthy. In the old days I could always muster the appetite to polish them off. But these days I’m likely to take some home.
As an aside, I lived in New Hampshire for a while and chili burgers don’t seem to be a thing Back East, at least not there. I knew a guy who owned and ran a pub-style restaurant in the town where I lived, and I suggested he run chili burgers as a special some time. Not long after I saw it on the specials board and couldn’t wait to sink my fork, knife and spoon into it. I’d been jonesing for quite awhile. When the plate came it was a composed burger, bun on top, could’ve been a bacon blue cheese, mushroom Swiss or any old lesser burger. I thought they must’ve got my order wrong. But then I took the top bun off and saw, sitting neatly on top of the patty, what couldn’t have been more than a quarter cup of chili, like a condiment!! From a gustatory standpoint I was crushed. But I had to admit it was cute. Bless his heart, I thought of the proprietor.
As another aside, despite the gajillion chili burgs I’ve ordered over the years, I’ve never run across the term chili size.
A similar effect is often observed with biscuits and sausage gravy. The online recipe websites typically show a photo with biscuits to be sure, but then, a whisp or tiny rationed dollop of (alleged) gravy, plus a sprig of parsley or something like that. No no no . . .
If you can see the biscuits, there isn’t near enough gravy. It is known.
Note: If you want an open-faced burger with chili and cheese on it in SoCal, order a chili size. If you want a closed sandwich, order a chili burger. (Here’s one from Tommy’s.)
Chili burgers are fantastic. That is, If the chili is any good. The burger too, but those are generally better quality than some forms of chili or other concoctions called chili by the ignorant.
Good point. A chili size or a chili burger might have beans, but they shouldn’t. Beans are more acceptable on a chili size. But I have to say that I would not have a bowl of Tommy’s chili on its own. What they put on their burgers is more of a ‘sauce’ than chili. Here’s a copycat recipe. It’s good on a chili burger, and it’s good for making Wienerschnitzel Chili Cheese Dogs at home; but it’s not something to eat out of a bowl.
I’ve had a couple of chili sizes (misnamed ‘chili burgers’) up here in Washington. They really tried too hard, using ‘gourmet’ chile. I think they’re not clear on the concept.
Very true. I love their burgers (and chili cheese fries) but the closest is two hours away. A friend driving up from LA brought me two quart-sized containers and it took two pounds of ground beef to turn it into something you could eat out of a bowl.
It’s been awhile but I’ve been in a few of those around the DC area. Pretty sure the owners in this area are all related, with the exception of one that couldn’t really be considered a diner.
That entire strip is now being redeveloped. No idea if Atilla’s will return; I’ll miss the place if they don’t.
I was just looking at Pancake Circus’s menu (see my previous post), and I noticed they have a hot roast beef sandwich on the lunch menu. I always thought that was a uniquely Wisconsin thing! For the uninitiated, it’s an open faced sandwich with slices of roast beef and gravy, so it must be eaten with a knife and fork. I guess I never noticed it because I always order off the breakfast menu when I’m there.
Hot open-faced sandwiches (beef, turkey, pork tenderloin, etc.) are common at the diner/family restaurants here in the Chicago area, too, at least. Meat on white bread, covered in gravy, and definitely a knife-and-fork meal.
AAFES outlets, of all places, on the bases used to have this wonderful trailer-trash concoction of tortilla chips, chili, jalapeño smothered and baked with some sort of industrial orange cheese product. Not too expensive, and tasty. Arteriosclerotic delight. On the other hand another outlet served a “Bacon cheeseburger” and thought at first they must have made a mistake. Careful investigation revealed that there was, in fact, bacon installed under the bun. Technically. Two limp pieces, perhaps a few angstroms in thickness, about the size of a bandaid.
Hot [dead animal] sandwiches were a mainstay in Southern California when I was growing up. I remember there being beef, but I always got turkey.
In case there are places from which people may be reading, that don’t have these, here’s how they were served in SoCal: Two slices of white bread, cut into four triangles, topped with a good amount of sliced meat, covered in gravy and served with mashed potatoes and gravy and peas-and-carrots (out of a can).
Not just Wisconsin. They (and "hot chicken, “hot turkey,” “hot hamburger” sandwiches, all of which are meat on a slice of toast and covered in gravy) definitely existed in Toronto; when I lived there; and they’re popular here in Alberta. And yes, they are a knife and fork meal.
Never heard of “chili size” though. Here, if you order a “chili burger,” you get a burger topped with chili, the same way that if you order a cheeseburger, your burger is topped with cheese. Hereabouts, if you order a “chili size,” you’re likely to get the question, “Okay, what size?”
When I ordered one at a “family restaurant” in Wisconsin it didn’t come with any vegetables, just a side of mashed potatoes. My sister’s comment was “What does Wisconsin have against vegetables?”
