Way Far Afield

(I went to Connecticut to eat a hamburger)

I’m going to call this another featurette and I promise no more featurettes after this or the blog will just become a bunch of single, non-recurrent featurettes and that wouldn’t make very much sense at all, would it?

So anyway…WELCOME TO THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF FAR AFIELD

Name: Louis’ Lunch (The birthplace of the hamburger sandwich)

Location: 263 Crown Street, New Haven, CT

Reason someone would bother to drive to CT to get a damn hamburger: They claim that they invented them.

Legitimacy of this assertion: Suspect at best. Travel Channel says it’s true?

What I eated: A hamburger, dummy. I also had a Pepsi and some potato salad.

Price: Like $8? My friend paid.

Worth the drive to (or being in) Connecticut?: Sure, why not.

Tasty: Good meat, white bread, onions, tomatoes and cheese sauce….no major complaints. The potato salad was admittedly a bizarre choice.

Service: Two very Italian northeastern dudes (think television stereotype). Nice enough.

Atmosphere: I have never seen so many people in Yale hoodies (literally 80% of the clientele). It was weird. Also strange but charming tiny booths.

Comments: Definitely an experience. Burgers are cooked in a “side broiler” which is like a little stove pipe full of fire. Interesting to look at, but an excuse for undercooked ground beef? (My burger was on the less than cooked through side). I dunno, man.

When I asked for a cheeseburger, the guy asked if I wanted onions and tomatoes. That’s all. Just those things. Because I felt like I was on hallowed ground if Louie’s claims were true, I just went with it. Made very little difference given that you couldn’t taste those things anyway. Couldn’t taste the cheese.

Ultimately, the first hamburger probably wasn’t the world’s best hamburger. You just have to accept that. If I lived in New Haven, I wouldn’t eat there everyday. But that day in particular? Hell yes I ate there. Because Zoe and I left and as we were leaving Connecticut I said to her, “I may have just eaten the first hamburger ever…” It was a proud moment.

Making history and rubbing elbows with lame Yale students all at the same time.

What a party.

-kevin