Hamburger America

06/03/2026

The NEXT MONTHLY BURGER SPECIAL starts TOMORROW!!

On Thursday, June 4th at 11am we introduce to the menu THE MISSISSIPPI SLUG BURGER, the oh-so-tasty tiny burger with an unfortunate name. We shouldn’t have to explain but we will - NO, there are no slugs or bugs in this burger, it’s just a name - historically speaking, these burgers are named after the 100+ year old slang term for a nickel. 

We need to ask for your understanding here - this is not a sexy burger. It is not a huge belly-buster or a gorgeous pile of ingredients. It is a very simple roots burger that predates most modern burger trends, including cheese. This burger will send you back to a time long ago - hard times in the South. go there with us.

There was a time in Northern Mississippi when beef was scarce. Entrepreneurial burger cooks chose to make breadcrumbs from yesterday’s stale buns and mix that into beef to extend their supply (very similar to what happened in El Reno, OK with the Fried Onion Burger). The breadcrumbs mixed with beef had a profound gastronomic effect where the exterior of the patty would crisp up beautifully. Over 100 years later, many Slugs can be found all over the rural parts of Mississippi but the burger has evolved into a pork patty mixed with soy flour.

Our Slugs this month with the original beef-and-breadcrumb version. And true to history we are serving ours without cheese on slider buns with nothing more than some diced onion and mustard. 

Step back into burger history with us and come in for a pair of Slugs! Or go even MORE traditional and Grab a Bag of 6!

05/23/2026

05/07/2026

TODAY is the DAY! THE NEXT MONTHLY BURGER, the famous CHEESY WESTERN, is here!

Starting at 11am today (May 7th), this iconic burger from Texas Tavern in Roanoke, VA hits the menu for the month and you need this!

The version of the Cheesy we are serving is a 'Double Meat Cheesy With’ in Texas Tavern vernacular. This includes 2 thin griddled patties, American cheese, dill pickles, thin sliced onion, the Tavern’s famous relish and a gently scrambled egg on a toasted bun. Yes, this may be one of the only burgers you’ll ever find with a scrambled egg on it…

Opened in 1938 by Nick Bullington, Texas Tavern is now run by the 4th generation of the Bullington family. Come meet Molly and Matt Bullington at 11am today - they will be in house for a lunchtime meet-n-greet and they want to hear your Texas Tavern stories!

And huge thanks to for the support in bringing the Bullingtons to NYC.

As a bonus, we will also be serving, until supplies last, the Tavern’s famous chile. See ya’ll soon.

04/08/2026

LOTS GOING ON at Hamburger America this month!! Just so you have it all in one place, here’s what’s going on:

APRIL 8th (today) - we brought back a fan fave for the next month, the GREEN CHILE CHEESEBURGER. We use only authentic Hatch green chile from New Mexico and get ours from . On menu until May 6th

APRIL 10th (friday) - will be in-house from 3-5pm, let’s party! This awesome DJ project will get you shakin’

APRIL 14th (next tues) - BOOK LAUNCH DAY - see previous post for details but expect 2 book signings and a SURPRIZE BURGER all day

APRIL 22nd - the next Future Legends Lunch features our friends from LeK**K and Deig Bakery in Reykjavik, Iceland (and we hear they’re bringing their mother’s pickles). More on this next week.

04/07/2026

Last week we celebrated Seth’s birthday for the second year in a row at Hamburger America and gave him what he wanted - chili dogs. But Seth LOVES to donate his birthday so we pledged $3 from the sale of every chili dog sold that day to charity, namely , and we raised a good bit. We sold 127 dogs which made the total donation from Hamburger America $381. Seth agreed to MATCH the donation, as did a bunch of other awesome folks and now we’ve raised a few thousand bucks for charity!

Let’s keep it going because an anonymous donor has pledged to match the TOTAL to DOUBLE the donation! Use the link in our profile to donate. We will post the grand total on Saturday April 11th.

We also had fun working on the line for a few hours at God’s Love We Deliver and our team helped to package and ship out over 3000 meals on our shift. Huge thanks to all that volunteered that day, especially to our 3 crew members Oriana, Verito and Veronica who joined us. And THANK YOU VERY MUCH for purchasing a chili dog (or 3) last Wednesday - you ate chili dogs and made a difference.

📷🎬 by +

04/04/2026

BOOK LAUNCH DAY is ALMOST HERE!! Tuesday, April 14th!

To celebrate the launch of the fully revised and expanded Hamburger America we have a very big day planned at HamburgerAmerica. First…we have a SURPRISE for you - for ONE DAY ONLY we will bring to the menu a beloved regional burger, which will be revealed at 11am on April 14th.

Also that day there will be 2 book signing sessions with George - from Noon to 1pm, then from 6 to 7pm. Come pick up a signed copy and say hi!

03/23/2026

Who is Seth? Still doesn't matter, but it’s his birthday again and he loves our chili dogs. This gives us the PERFECT EXCUSE to bring back our beloved chili dog for ONE DAY ONLY. Please join us ALL DAY day Weds April 1st for the return of our CLASSIC CHILI DOG and the 2nd Annual Chili Dogs for Seth donate-a-thon. 

Griddled natural casing Sabrett’s dogs will be served on steamed Martin's Long Rolls with mustard, diced onion and our tasty Coney sauce. $3 from the sale of each dog will go directly to God's Love We Deliver, our favorite local charitable organization. And our good friend Seth has agreed to MATCH the donation...and vou can too!

It’s a great way to give back...eat chili dogs and do some good. And it may be April Fool’s Day but we’re not foolin’. Let us know if you’d like to MATCH the donation - we will know the final amount on Thursday morning. To match the final tally, or make a donation of any amount, visit link in our bio.

See you soon!

God’s Love We Deliver Seth Unger

03/03/2026

SAVE THE DATES! Lots going on at Hamburger America in the next few weeks…

Other than the usual change of the Monthly Burger Special (next burger drops March 11 - the Mississippi Slug Burger) we have 3 BIG THINGS going on:

MARCH 17th - Barry Wallace from Dash Burger will be at the griddle for a LEGENDS LUNCH and ST PAT'S DAY (see previous post for details). And to commemorate, and keep our Irish guests happy, we will have GUINNESS on TAP all day!!

APRIL 1st - this is no joke, it’s a DAY OF SERVICE with Seth! Who is Seth? Doesn’t matter, but he loves our CHILI DOGS so we are bringing them back for ONE DAY ONLY. All profits from the dogs will go to our charity partner Gods Love We Deliver. Once we announce the amount raised we invite others to match the donation. More on this in a separate post later this month.

APRIL 22nd - Our good friends from Iceland Markus and Karl of Le K**K, Reykjavik will be at the griddle for a LEGENDS LUNCH…more details soon.

02/21/2026

FUTURE LEGEND INCOMING!

Mark your calendars, BARRY WALLACE from Dublin’s DASH BURGER will be at the griddle on MARCH 17th. Cheeky, we know (ST.PATS DAY and all) but to sweeten the deal we will be pouring Guinness ALL DAY!

Barry is bringing his Dash Double Smash - Two dry-aged lacy patties with American cheese, onion and Dash Sauce on a toasted potato roll. Remember this is a Legends LUNCH, when we sell out, we sell out (probably by 4pm). The Guinness however will be flowing all day…

photo of and by

02/13/2026

Join us for Valentine's Day! ❤️❤️❤️ If you're still looking for a place to take your lover(s) we have you covered. At 6pm on Feb 14th we are lowering the lights, putting on some sexy tunes and covering the place with candles...

No reservations necessary! First come, first served and we have great wine from Une Femme (red, white and bubbles)

02/10/2026

THE NEXT MONTHLY BURGER SPECIAL STARTS TOMORROW!!

The HAMBURGER PO-BOY from New Orleans will be on the menu starting at 5PM WEDS FEB 11TH, just in time for MARDI GRAS (which falls on Feb 17 this year). There are a few great hamburger po-boys to choose from in Nola, but we chose to represent the classic version at CAMELLIA GRILL. Their po-boy is a 6oz. griddled patty with American cheese served “dressed up” with shredded iceberg, sliced tomato, dill pickles and mayo on authentic po-boy bread. That’s right, we are NOT MESSIN’, we figured out how to get New Orleans’ favorite po-boy bread, Leidenheimer, to NYC because it just wouldn’t be the same without it. And to round out the perfect po-boy there will be plenty of Louisiana hot sauce available. 

The first Poor Boy sandwiches were created in 1929 by the Martin Brothers at their corner store in New Orleans and were originally intended to feed cash-strapped striking streetcar workers for free. The sandwich was simply a cut loaf of New Orleans French bread filled with ‘debris’ (the bits of roast beef in the bottom of the pan), gravy and potatoes. Many variations of the po-boy have since been invented with the most popular today being fried shrimp. 

The Hamburger Po-Boy will be on the menu until March 11th! You have one month to come grab an authentic bite of New Orleans.

02/04/2026

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Huge congrats to Matt Eliot of Washington DC for ordering the MILLIONTH SMASHED PATTY at Hamburger America. Matt ordered a single fried onion burger at exactly 1:05pm on Saturday, Jan 31st (yes, right at the PEAK of lunch on a Saturday). He chose Free Burgers for a Year instead of the $250 gift card, which entitles Matt to one single patty burger of his choice everyday until Jan 30th, 2027.

Yes, Matt lives in DC so he likely won’t be in everyday, but that was the luck of the draw. Our count was deadly accurate and began tracking the number all the way back in summer. Thanks to our POS system we can see every single burger sold since opening day, Nov 15th, 2023. On the day we knew we would hit 1 million we tracked every sale until we found our winner, which wasn’t easy because we were watching sales at both counter and register.

Matt was pretty shocked when bells started going off and balloons dropped. The entire restaurant burst out in applause and he told us, “This is my first time here, I’ve been looking forward to trying the place”. Then added, “I’ve never won anything!” Well you have now, Matt. Congrats again! See you soon.

Thanks to for capturing the action! 🎬🎥

01/07/2026

THE NEXT MONTHLY BURGER SPECIAL STARTS TODAY!!

At 5PM TODAY, Jan 7th, we welcome the CELSUS BURGER from The BLAZER PUB in North Salem, NY. This is a big moment for us because for the first time since we opened we are celebrating a THICK PATTY BURGER, and one that has bacon. This burger is a beast at 7.5 ounces (nearly half a pound!) and has 4 slices of Swiss cheese, bacon and a big spoonful of sautéed onions. It’s the thick juicy burger of your dreams.

The opened in 1971 and is one of the greatest cozy spots to eat in America. The physical space is warm and inviting, but the staff and great food make it even warmer. If you could dream up the perfect spot to have a few beers, comfort food and random conversation with strangers, this is the place. The Celsus Burger is so-named for the original owner’s mother’s maiden name, a version of an ancient Irish surname.

Join us at 5pm today (WEDS 1/7) to meet the O’Leary sisters, part owners and longtime mainstays at Blazer. They will be in-house to make sure that this kickoff goes as planned!

Some ground rules though - please don’t ask for bacon on our regular burgers, not gonna happen. We need to save the bacon for the special. This burger also takes a bit longer to cook (11 full mins) so please be patient, and we are doing our very best to cook all burgers to medium temp - we won’t be offering a multitude of temperatures. Thank you in advance for your understanding. 

The Celsus Burger stays on menu until Feb 4th

01/03/2026

WOW, WHAT A YEAR!! Thank you everyone who helped make 2025 at Hamburger America a wild year. Between the staff, the customers and Hamburger Heroes we managed to have a great time all year making, eating and appreciating burgers. We have the greatest crew, and anyone who has ever sat a the counter or ordered to go will tell you this.

We started the year with a bang featuring Owl Bar’s iconic Green Chile Cheeseburger, thanks to the constant supply of . We also welcomed LA burger icon for one day and visited to film an ep. of his Pro Moves on . In February we featured Ben’s Chili Bowl and the Ali Family, and the generous put $75 worth of caviar on our $7 egg salad sandwich (which we sold for $7!). March featured Swenson's Galley Boy from Ohio on the menu, we raised thousands for with one-day chili dog sales (thx and !), and visited the counter with . In April Sandy Short from Taylor’s Maid Rite showed us how to make a real loosemeat sandwich and filmed an episode of . 

In June we landed on the 100 Best for the 2nd year in a row! Then we embarked on a 1 month/5-city Europe tour. We reconnected with old friends, made new ones and smashed thousands of burgers. In August we wound up on GMA, sharing the morning with (!) and in Sept made a very public visit to HA, and we visited Brazil and Argentina for 5 events (big thx to and for working hard in South America). In October we ran 2 booths at the , one served green chile cheeseburgers and the other a collab with hot sauce. But also in Oct we lost dear friend and crew member Camilo Punsoda, a loss that has deeply affected the team at HA. 

In November we finally convinced Eddie Sullivan from Brennan & Carr to bring his Gargiulo Burger to Hamburger America, Stool ‘Zero’ was auctioned to charity at for a whopping 5K(!) and we had Thanksgiving with 22 crew members at HA.

2026 is underway and much is planned. Stay tuned for fun collabs and great food!

12/29/2025

ONE DAY ONLY! Join us for BREAKFAST New Year's Day starting at 9AM. We will be serving EGG SANDWICHES until 2PM (and regular menu starts 11am as usual). Start the new year well with a classic Breakfast Special!

Your choices are:
- Bacon, Egg, Cheese
- Sausage, Egg, Cheese
- Ham, Egg, Cheese
- Egg, Cheese

All served on a Kaiser Roll (or GF bun) with American Cheese. Hatch Green Chile also available!

Each order comes with OJ or Coffee.

NO SUBS. Please don't ask for egg whites

Jan 1st, 2026 - 9am to 2am

03/05/2025

THIS THURSDAY.....the GALLEY BOY hits the menu at Hamburger America!!!

Starting 11am on March 6th, we welcome the pride of Akron, Ohio...the iconic double cheeseburg with 2 sauces from Swensons Drive-In.

Since 1934 Swensons has fed generations of lucky Ohioans and for one month you can indulge in the Galley Boy, right here in NYC.

Members of the Swensons team are in town and would love to meet you. Come say hi Thurs at 11:30am!

03/03/2025

Only 3 MORE DAYS to get your Ben's Chili Bowl fix at Hamburger America!! This Weds March 5th we say goodbye to this legendary Chili Cheeseburger...after that you'll just have to get down to DC (which you should do anyway!)

Starting Thursday....the Galley Boy from Swensons in Ohio

02/19/2025

THIS FRIDAY -ONE DAY ONLY!! Feb 21 we have Ben's Chili Bowl Original Half Smokes in house, the real deal, up from Wash DC... and they are smothered in Ben's Spicy Chili Sauce..but only for one day (all day).

We are celebrating the midway point of this awesome collaboration with the most famous menu item at Ben's. Come on in and see what the fuss is all about!

06/26/2013

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