Oh, Lordy, Did We Love Those Great Burgers!

The July issue of the Biscayne Times carried a delicious article titled “In Search of Great Burgers,” by contributors Geoffrey Anderson Jr. and Diane Rubin-Anderson, and as I visually scanned the photos and mentally ingested the commentary in that wonderful piece, oy, did I get hungry!

The only thing is, the hunger that came roaring back was for the great hamburgers of our circulation area’s past. That geographic range I am happy to note, includes not only all of Northeast Miami-Dade and Miami Beach and its northern suburbs, but also such locales as downtown, Wynwood and others, which allows us to include no few venues which we certainly don’t and wouldn’t want to exclude.

Many of our readers grew up on the east side of Biscayne Bay, moving a bit north later on to Miami Shores, North Miami, North Miami Beach, the Sky Lake area and the condos along Biscayne Boulevard between Miami Shores and North Miami. They, as well as so many others, will happily if not joyfully recognize those wonderful burger joints and dining spots.

While a number of places were famous for their burgers, others, such as the perhaps more elegant fine dining spots including Park Avenue, Embers, Hickory House, Bonfire and Clover Club – I could go on indefinitely, but we only have a limited amount of space – offered burgers with different names. Those monikers included “steak burger,” “sirloin burger,” “grilled chopped sirloin,” “chopped steak” and several others. Although dressed up with schmaltzy descriptions, they still were, when it came right down to it, hamburgers.

There were a number of drive-ins which offered terrific burgers in “the good old days,” and those included Scotty’s at 158th Street and Collins Avenue at the north end of Haulover Park, Colonel Jim’s in North Bay Village, Billy’s on the south side of 79th Street on the Miami side of the west causeway bridge, and Pickin’ Chicken, a Miami Shores drive-in where a Publix parking lot now stands. 

Different places had their fans and aficionados, but in this writer’s mind and memory, the greatest hamburger ever served anywhere in greater Miami was at the Normandy Restaurant. That storefront, with a counter and a few tables, was on 71st Street in Miami Beach, several doors west of Indian Creek Drive.

Some people love to tell the story of how John Brown, former governor of Kentucky and of KFC fame, walked into Ollie’s on 23rd Street in Miami Beach, had an “Ollieburger” and supposedly paid $1 million for the recipe. It's probably more tall tale than truth. Ollie was infamous for cooking with sweat and cigarette ashes dropping into the comestibles, as well as letting loose a profanity-riddled tirade at anyone who dared to express a preference for a burger served any other way than he deemed fit. If Brown had ever tried the burgers at the Normandy, which were astronomically superior in both taste and presentation to the Ollieburger, he would have paid that owner $2 million!

Another of the grandest-tasting burgers of all time was available only at the six Lum’s locations on Miami Beach. Ordinarily, locals warmly remember them as beer and wine bars which served hot dogs steamed in beer with sherry wine sauerkraut on steamed buns, which were, in the terminology, “to die for!” However, very close in grandeur of taste to the Lum dogs was the Lumburger, but not the offering served at the coffee shops of the same name owned by the Perlman Brothers, who would later open Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Mr. and Mrs. Lum cooked the Lum dogs and the Lumburgers at home and lightly steamed the buns, which were then kept in steamers at their establishments. Lumburgers were similar to sloppy joes, but made with just meat and some kind of wonderful flavoring. They were almost as popular as the Lum dogs, but once Lum’s began operating as coffee shops and spread throughout much of the south and northeast, nothing tasted the same and the mass production essentially destroyed what had, for many years, been a unique and singularly delectable treat.

Fun Fair in North Bay Village offered its own twist on the classic Americana fare with a unique pizza burger. Never ever did anyone, before or since, put together a taste such as that. Fun Fair was open-air with a high slanted roof and a relish bar, where you helped yourself to condiments and sauerkraut, and Lordy, was that fun. It was a major gathering spot for “the kids” from Beach and North Miami high schools as well as for local families, and everybody loved it.

Built around the same theme and concept as the White Castle hamburger chain, Royal Castle was the most popular go-to spot for burgers and birch beer. Rising up at NE 2nd Avenue and 79th Street in 1938, it offered 15-cent hamburgers cooked on the grill right in front you that were served in homemade honey buns. Royal Castle eventually grew to 175 locations, mostly in Florida, but today – just as with Lum’s and Howard Johnson’s – there is just one still in existence, standing at 2700 NW 79th Street in Miami. It looks the same as they all did in the past, but the tastes … well, they just aren’t the same.

One of my many different talks on and about local South Florida and the state of Florida transportation history is based on my newest book, “Lost Restaurants of Miami,” and in that talk, after a very brief discussion of the earliest history of greater Miami’s clubs and restaurants, I launch into the Royal Castle song, which ends with “Royal … dah dah dah dah dah dah … Castle … we’ve got the very best … I’mmmm hungry, let’s eat!”

Were there many more great places to enjoy a hamburger or a chopped steak or a sirloin burger? You bet, but not only are we out of space, I’m getting ready to go out and find a place that will not only serve me a great burger, but will bring back memories of those wonderful hot-off-the-grill treats of the past. If you find one, please be sure to let me know.

Seth H. Bramson is adjunct professor of history and historian-in-residence at Barry University. The lifelong Miamian is also the company historian of the Florida East Coast Railway, a prolific Florida history book author and the country’s senior collector of Floridiana and Florida East Coast Railway, Florida transportation and Miami memorabilia. This past May marked his 63rd year of collecting – as he likes to say – “all this junk!”