Grease From 1912? Dyer's Burgers, Memphis, TN

Dyer's Burgers  Memphis, TN

My wife recently had a conference in Memphis right down near Beale street.  While she was in meetings all day I was forced to take tours of the Gibson Guitar factory and Sun Studio.  I was also forced to find a place for lunch.  I am always seeking out the best cheeseburger, and am often met with disappointment from referrals, so you can imagine my hesitation to take advice from the GPS lady with the sweet British accent.  I mean, let's face it the British don't know a lot about great food...especially burgers.  Never the less I found myself at Dryers Hamburgers on Beale street right across from Coyote Ugly.  The place has been in business since 1912.  Here is a brief history from their website...

          "Back in 1912, the late Elmer "Doc" Dyer opened his own cafe and began to develop a secret cooking process for the uniquely delicious world famous burgers we still serve here today on Beale Street.

Legend has it that the "secret" was Doc Dyer's ageless cooking grease. This famous grease , strained daily, has continued to produce our juicy Dyer's Burgers for almost a century now.  One of "Doc's" original employees, Mr. Kahn Aaron bought the establishment in 1935 and continued the Dyer's name and tradition of famous burgers.  The Dyer's legacy continues to this day. Over the years, this famous cooking grease has been transported to our various Memphis locations under the watchful protection of armed police escorts, finally settling here on Historic Beale Street, Home of the Blues and World Famous Dyer's!"

Ok, here we go.  This was one of the best (if not the absolute best) burger I have ever eaten.  I sat at the counter and watched the cook take a billiard sized ball of ground beef from a cooler.  He pounded this ball out thinner than I would have ever thought possible.  He then scooped it up with his spatula and placed it in a 18 inch cast iron skillet on top of a four burner stove.  Inside this skillet was the very same grease that had been there in the beginning.  Naturally I ordered the double cheeseburger, so he pulled one patty from the grease and placed a slice of cheese on top.  Then he dipped the spatula, with the patty and cheese still on it, back into the grease to retrieve my other patty.  That was topped with another slice of cheese,and then a quick dip back in the grease to melt the cheese.  The top bun was added and all were pressed together over the skillet to drain any remaining grease.  It was placed on the bottom bun, wrapped in paper and put in the basket with fresh hand cut french fries.  In the mere seconds that it took the burger to come from the cook to the counter where I was sitting, the paper had become completely translucent.

Now, as I said this was one of the best burgers I had ever eaten, and I would not only recommend to anyone that they visit Dyers, I would insist in it.  As good as the burger was, it would have not been fully complete without the dessert.  A deep fried Twinkie with powdered sugar and sweet cherry topping.

Should you find yourself in Memphis around lunch or dinner time, take my suggestion and pass on the BBQ (head to Texas for that)  make a direct line to Dryer's Burgers.  Your mouth with thank you for it, your arteries will hate you for it

Dining With The Wiederkehrs

My wife and I recently made a stop at the Wiederkehr Wine Village in Altus, AR.  We were told by so many taht this was a must do...so we did.  I had tasted the wine they produce several years ago, and that should have been my first clue to stay away.  If you like your wine to taste like it was poured straight from that "big red pitcher of Kool-Aid man", this is the place for you.  So sweet. 

Now on to the real reason for this post...the food.  We arrived to a interesting little restruant that was dug into the side of a hill.  Definalty a cool looking place.  Becky, my wife, and I ordered 2 different types of wine, so you can understand my confusion when our waitress arrived and poured each of us a glass from the same bottle.  I naturally thought we had arrived at some sort of magical resturaunt.  In order to remedy the blunder, our waitress poured half the mispoured wine back in the bottle, and the other half she poured down her throat.  It was not too long after that, we decided that she had done this more than once this day.  My wife ordered a cheese and fruit platter to go with the wines.  A good idea we thought.  It arrived and showed itself to be a bowl of mixed melon, a wedged orange and apple, a few grapes, and fresh sliced cheese right out of the Kraft package.  Thankfully they had removed the plastic wrapping. 

Now it gets interesting.  I ordered the roasted chicken and Becky ordered the smoked pork tenderloin.  Our meals arrived and to our surprise my wife had been served pork chops, which also appeared on the menu.  When I questioned our waitress as to why she had pork chops when she had ordered the pork tenderloin, I was told that she indeed had the pork loin in front of her.  I replied that no in fact the were most definitely pork chops, and in fact there were bones to prove the "choppedness" of the pork.  This is when I learned something that I had never know in all my years of cooking.  Our waitress told me that pork chops and pork tenderloin were one and the same.  After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I tried to explain the difference to our partially intoxicated waitress, who proceeded to argue with me.  In any event, Becky tried the chops, and did not like them so she order another dish.  It was then that the waitress took the chops back to the kitchen and told the "chef" all about me.  I know this because she was unable to control the volume of her voice.  It should come as no surprise that my chicken was as dry as the Sahara, and Becky's second entree was just as bad as the first.  We "ate" our meal, paid the full un-discounted bill, and left.