Burgers and Beer: Together Again for the Very First Time

I had already moved far away from Colorado mountain towns by the time I was old enough to legally drink beer while eating a burger. I make this connection between beer, mountain towns, and burgers because there is something very particular about enjoying those three things in concert.

I loved eating in those summer alpine valleys as a kid. I remember sitting down outside a bar on a weathered deck with the adults—most likely stoned out of their gourds—the atmosphere thick with a unique perfume: a hoppy/sweet twang from cheap lager, the fatty smoke from grilling ground chuck, the aroma of the local vegetation, all mingling in the clean mountain air, drifting away on a taut summer breeze.

It’s a smell that carries those deep solar plexus memories that can double you over in pleasant reverie. Every once in awhile, mostly in the spring when the weather is sunny but crisp, I’ll catch a whiff of grilling meat and I’m suddenly transported to Ouray, or Telluride, or Aspen, or wherever.

The first time I was able to sit down and enjoy a mouthful of that burger/beer experience, I too was most likely stoned out of my gourd. Which may be why I found the whole thing transcendent. Warm burger, cold beer, cloudless sky = heaven.

It’s etched in my mind. Beer and burgers. They are forever married, never to be torn apart. And I’m sure that there are many people out there who share my point of view. It’s an American pub thing. The Brits have room temperature beer and fish and chips. We have a killer burger (and “fries”) and a frosty cold one. We got the better deal. It’s one of the benefits of sailing pell-mell across the Atlantic to escape religious persecution.

But there have been dark beerless days for the burger—days in which the beef and the beverage were separated in the neo-puritanical zeal of convenience. I blame Roy Kroc, his milk-shake mixer and a San Bernardino hamburger stand known as Dick and Mac McDonald’s Hamburger Restaurant.

Okay, so much of this is hyperbole (all of it?). I have no idea if the burger and beer association was even made in America before the 1950’s. Though I suspect it must have been, considering the roots of the burger are in Hamburg, Germany, where sailors would munch on patties of minced meat, mixed with onions, maybe breadcrumbs, a bit salted and maybe smoked. You’d almost have to drink a German beer to get that down. Also: sailors? They’re gonna drink regardless of what they eat. What they were eating back in the states (in the major Eastern seaports) was a similar patty, marketed to them as Steak: Hamburg Style. Or at least that’s how the story goes.

At some point that patty was put between bread slices (or a bun) to make a sandwich which eventually became the basis of Kroc’s empire. The burger was the king of the road. Hell, you didn’t even need to leave your car. The liquid that accompanied the meal? Milkshake, and/or soda. Certainly not beer.

But things have come back around. Rather, I’ve constructed the “facts” in a way that would suit the purpose of this post, which is to tell you that very soon local “sustainable” fast food chain Burgerville will begin serving beer at their Salmon Creek location in Vancouver, WA. From OregonLive:

VANCOUVER — The Washington State Liquor Control Board has approved Burgerville’s application to serve wine and beer at a restaurant near the merge of Interstate 5 and 205 in the Salmon Creek neighborhood near Vancouver.

The board issued an interim license Thursday, board spokeswoman Anne Radford said Monday. This license is good for a month while the board’s Licensing and Regulation Division prepares and sends a formal issue letter, she said, adding that the owners are allowed to sell alcohol while they wait for this letter. That usually takes about a month.

So the burger and the beer will be joined once more in a food market (fast) where the pairing has been rare, or non-existent. But nothing is certain. There are still puritans out there. Apparently two letters have been filed with the Washington liquor control body protesting the sale of beer and wine at the fast food joint. If this little experiment goes poorly, the trend may not catch on.

I suspect that Burgerville started this in the ‘Couve so as not to hassle with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. I have serious doubts as to whether the OLCC would approve this kind of thing, even after being put through the test across the border.

I like Burgerville. It’s better than most the shit shoved out a fast food window, that’s for sure. I like that they stay local and, in that vein, will be selling local brews and wine. It’s good for brewers and vintners. It’s good for our economy.

But I have my doubts about drinking a beer in a Burgerville, with the jukebox and the florescent lights and balloons and all that… well, sadness really. I find the inside of fast food joints unbearably sad. So, I don’t think I’ll avail myself of that beer. I’d much rather be in a mountain town, or at least outside a local pub on a gorgeous day like today—a beer in one hand and a burger in the other. Just the way it’s supposed to be.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I seem to have developed a craving.