Arts & Entertainment

Who Has the Best Burger? Louis' Lunch or Ted's?

The Daily Meal named both as having top burgers.

When it comes to hamburgers, Connecticut residents have two options for getting their hands on the best in the country — the original beef on bread or a steamed cheeseburger.

Anyone who lives in the Nutmeg State probably knows Louis’ Lunch and Ted’s are at the top of the list, and The Daily Meal named both in its list of “The 101 Best Burgers in America.”

Louis’ Lunch in New Haven was named the ninth best burger in the country while the steamed cheeseburgers at Ted’s in Meriden earned No. 20 on the list.

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Louis’ Lunch, which started serving beef on bread in 1900, is commonly called the birthplace of the hamburger. It hasn’t changed much since then. There’s as much history and tradition in the restaurant as there is controversy about if this sandwich-looking dish served on white bread qualifies as a hamburger, since it doesn’t come on a bun.

The Daily Meal let it slide. The Louis’ Lunch burger is a flame-broiled patty cooked on both sides simultaneously, served on toast without mustard, ketchup or mayonnaise. The only available burger accessories are cheese, tomato and onions, and customers have to ask for them the right way with the proper “Louis’ Lingo.”

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A customer who says "give me two cheese works, a salad and a birch" is asking for “two hamburgers with cheese, tomato and onion, cooked medium rare on toast, an order of potato salad and a birch beer," according to the Louis’ Lunch website.

The steamed cheeseburger at Ted’s is a different conversation entirely. Instead of grilled, broiled or seared, the hamburger patty is steamed, helping the meat to retain size and moisture. The cheese is also steamed before it’s scooped atop the burger. Open since 1959, Ted’s steamed cheeseburger is award winning, and it carries a substantial local following, according to Ted’s website. The restaurant has been featured on Travel Channel's "Man v. Food" and "Hamburger Paradise."

Though these two burgers have received honor and recognition, everyone’s entitled to an opinion. So what do you think is the best burger in Connecticut?


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