I love to find hamburgers in places I don’t expect to find them.
Like at Pete & Sam’s: For a long time, I had no idea they sold hamburgers. Their sirloin strips were all I ever got there for years, before venturing to try their Italian food.
I now seek out hamburgers at other restaurants. My most recent find was the burger on the menu at Coletta’s Italian Restaurant. Right between the “Trojan (Italian Sub)” and the chicken filet.
Coletta’s Italian Restaurant
“People are surprised to learn we have good hamburgers because they always try the Italian food,” says Jerry Coletta, owner of Coletta’s Italian Restaurant at 1063 South Parkway East. They say, “I didn’t know you had such good hamburgers,” he says, adding, “It’s kind of a hidden feature on our menu.”
Hamburgers aren’t a new thing at Coletta’s. “My granddad had hamburgers on the menu going back to the ’30s. We have a menu from back then and hamburgers were five cents. And barbecue sandwiches were quite expensive. They were 10 cents.”
They don’t have any set way of making them, Coletta says. “We use a quality ground beef that’s not real fatty.” They don’t cook them the way his grandfather did. “Way back in the day it was on a grill. But now we use a broiler.” They’ve been broiling them for at least 40 years, he says. The patty is a third of a pound, lightly salted and peppered.
Pete & Sam’s
Hamburgers are a staple at Pete & Sam’s at 3886 Park Avenue. My server, Megan Schuchardt, a big fan of them, says, “It’s just one of those burgers, you know?”
“We’ve always had the burger on the menu,” says Sammy Bomarito, one of the owners of the restaurant. “It’s been on there as long as I can remember.” Their half pound hamburgers are cooked on a “flat top cast iron grill, which is probably 60 years old.”
They’re made with steak trimmings and ground beef, Bomarito says. They changed to a brioche bun a few years back. But the hamburger seasoning hasn’t changed. “It’s the same seasoning we use on our steaks.”
Dino’s Grill
I usually order the ravioli or spaghetti when I visit Dino’s Grill at 645 North McLean Boulevard, but I recently tried one of their cheeseburgers for the first time. They sell a quarter pounder hamburger and a third of a pounder, says Rudy Grisanti, whose son, Mario Grisanti, owns the restaurant. “We cook them on a flat grill,” Rudy says. “And that kind of sears the sides so that the juices stay inside the burger instead of dripping out like on a chargrill.” And, he adds, “We’ve been doing them like that ever since we’ve been in business. Basically, all the way back to the State Cafe (which opened in 1942).
“We’re more of a family-style restaurant,” Rudy further explains. “And that gives them a choice of different things. Like we have a hamburger steak on there. We have a hot roast beef sandwich on there. The only thing that really surprises them are the hot tamales.” Their hamburger is “not the number one seller,” Mario adds. “But everyone that gets it is surprised how good it is.”
A hamburger on the menu at Jack Pirtle’s Chicken still surprises people. Cordell and Tawanda Pirtle shared information about their burger, which is available at all five of their locations.
According to Cordell, Jack Pirtle’s started selling hamburgers “at the very beginning” in 1957 when the original 1217 South Bellevue Boulevard store opened. His parents, Jack and Ovra Pirtle, came up with the seasoning at that time. It’s still the seasoning they use today.
“It’s just a good little old-fashioned burger,” Cordell says. “Many folks that went to school at Memphis State [now University of Memphis] lived off them daily.” They had a store on Highland Street, Tawanda says. “We would serve way over 100 at lunchtime every day.”
Their burgers, which are cooked on a flat iron, are “that other thing,” Tawanda says, adding, “Someone might not like chicken and they want something else. That’s why we have smoked sausage, and the steak sandwich. That’s where all that came from. To give customers a little extra something. Some customers eat with us every day.
“Of course, today everyone wants everything fast, but to get the really good taste of the older days, just slow down,” Cordell goes on. “Let the cooking process be done right.”
