Favorite Restaurants – Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut

We’ve championed a fair few restaurants here on USA Travel Guide, from the very old to the charmingly unique, so it was only a matter of time before we held up the torch for the most American food of them all: the hamburger.*

Of course, a dish of this magnitude can’t have the leisure of a single origin. There are more than a dozen claims spanning the continental 48, many of which have, or seem to have, some real merit behind them. Even the U.S. government has a stance on the issue, and it’s with them that we’ve chosen to side. According to the Library of Congress, the first hamburger served in the United State was served in 1895 by Louis Lassen at Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut.

They’re still serving that very same recipe today.

Louis’ Lunch is a culinary Mecca. It is a place that all disciples of the burger should travel in order to praise the original and, some say, still best burger in the world. Do not be off-put, however, by the lack of pomp and circumstance. Despite the immense legacy, Louis’ Lunch maintains its grab-and-go neighborhood feel to this day, built on the back of a burger that has kept the shop on top for 114 years.

This isn’t to say they don’t do things a little different. Here’s your Louis’ Lunch primer:

All burgers are cooked to medium rare in an antique vertical cast iron stove from 1898 that is able to cook the meat on both sides simultaneously. Burgers are served on toasted white bread with cheese, tomato and onion only. No ketchup, no mustard, no mayonnaise. If you plan to add your own, better wait to do it off-property, lest you be accosted by staff and other customers.

Louis’ Lunch would like all customers to know that they are not Burger King, and as such they do not take pride it doing it “your way”. Their way has been popular for over 100 years; your way is surely inferior.

Depending on your timing, you may also enjoy a hot dog or steak sandwich, but honestly if you’re traveling in, to order anything but the burger would be crime. See the menu.

Louis’ Lunch is located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut just one block from Yale University. They’re closed on Mondays and open late Thursday through Saturday. Be warned, they close up shop entirely a few times throughout the year: second week in January, the week of Good Friday, and the entire month of August for Spoon Inventory. Learn more about the restaurant here.

For hotels near Yale University, we like the Holiday Inn Express Shelton Hotel – Trumbull. It won’t get you the closest to the university, but it’s an easy drive and the rewarding accommodations always make the trip an afterthought.

*Sorry, apple lobby. Unpatriotic as it may be, I just don’t like your pie.

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