Oklahoma has its own burger—a smashburger with a boatload of grilled onions pressed into it on the grill. Its creation is credited to Ross Davis, who first served it during the 1920s and Great Depression at The Hamburger Inn in El Reno, about 130 miles west-southwest of Tulsa along the historic Route 66. While that diner is no longer with us, other burger joints have popped up to fill the void. And while the Fried-Onion Burger was primarily associated with El Reno, Google knows what you mean when you search for “Oklahoma Burger.” And on a weekend trip to Tulsa, I went looking for someone serving it.
The First Burger
What I found was a bit more burger history: Oklahoma claims to be the birthplace of the hamburger itself—served on a bun, that is. (As opposed to just the standalone meat patty or the 1885 creation of 15-year old Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin, who was selling meatballs at a county fair and took to smushing his wares into patties to be served between bread slices for easier eating.) No, this is the classic bun-burger-bun hamburger as we’ve come to know it.The year was 1891, when Oscar “Weber Bilby” grilled beef burgers on a pig-iron grill for a 4th of July barbecue in Tulsa and served them on dedicated bread rolls. They were a big hit, and he continued to make his burgers for picnics and the like. The Bilby family eventually opened a hamburger stand in 1933 and grilled those burgers on that original grill from the Independence Day picnic.
