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What are you doing to that thing?
I'm trying to get it so I can get it in my mouth.
MOTZ: For years, I've been crisscrossing America
in search of the best hamburgers.
I've written books about burgers,
even made a film about them,
and I found that burgers aren't the same everywhere.
From state to state, they tell a very regional story.
In New Orleans, I'm talking about burgers
served on light, flaky po'boy bread,
a succulent beef steak
overflowing with buttery mushrooms
and shredded cheddar cheese,
and a grilled charred beauty
topped with a heaping handful of crispy bacon.
I'm not out here to eat just any burgers.
My job is to find the good ones, the really good ones,
the ones that have been around forever,
the ones that taste great...
[ Singsong voice ] Yes!
...the ones made from fresh ground beef.
Those are the burgers that I want to eat.
What else do you need?
I'm on a mission to preserve the All-American hamburger,
and my mission is far from over.
I'm George Motz, and this is my journey.
This is "Burger Land."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Man, I love New Orleans.
This city is all about music, food, and celebration.
You could ask anybody who lives in this town,
and they'll tell you it is a town of partying.
Hey!
So, it's no wonder that millions of people
pour into this city every year
for parties like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest.
It's a parade just for me.
There's nobody else on the street.
New Orleans is the only major city in America
where English, French, and Spanish influences
have come together to create a culturally diverse area
that you won't find anywhere else in America.
New Orleans is a port city,
and it sits at the mouth of the Mississippi River,
so seafood is a really big part of the diet here.
Oysters, shrimp, and crawfish
are all staples of the local cuisine.
But the most famous local staple is the po'boy sandwich.
Created here in the 1920s,
it features shrimp, roast beef, or whatever you like
on soft, pillowy French bread.
But what I like inside my po'boy is a hamburger.
Other states in America are divided into counties.
Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes.
New Orleans is in Orleans Parish.
But just northwest of here in Jefferson Parish
is the town of Metairie.
And it's there you can find Bozo's.
Bozo's is not the kind of place
you'd expect to find a great hamburger.
It's a seafood place.
But the reason I go there
is because they have a delicious hamburger
served on po'boy bread.
Good to see you.
What's going on? How you been?
Haven't seen you in a while.
About that.
Right.
His name was Bozo also.
His name was Bozo Vodanovich,
which to some people -- in the Slovenian language,
it means "Christ" or some derivative thereof.
And a lot of people think other things when they hear that name,
but it's got nothing to do with that.
No.
So, why'd you buy the place?
Katrina had a lot to do with it.
You know, when he was ready to retire,
there was nobody else
that wanted to step up and take it over.
I just didn't want to see another New Orleans icon
going by the wayside.
So, here we are.
Yeah.
You don't normally find great hamburgers
in seafood restaurants.
I got to tell you.
[ Laughs ]
The hamburger po'boy is what?
You don't have to give me secrets.
I don't want to hear secrets.
Fresh ground Black Angus, a chuck that we get ground
by one of the local butchers here
that we've been dealing with for decades.
It's a semi-purist recipe.
Basically, just little chopped onions and some salt.
Brings the flavor out, but you taste the beef.
So, what do you think the onions do?
They sit on the grill for a while
and they caramelize inside the meat.
Gives it a little bit different flavor
than you would normally get.
It goes on the Leidenheimer.
It goes on the Leidenheimer French bread.
Slice in two, put some pickles on a plate, and there you go.
Leiden.
♪ Ooh la Leidenheimer ♪
And that's all the singing I'm gonna do
[ Laughs ]
MOTZ: Fresh Leidenheimer bread has been part of
the po'boy tradition in New Orleans forever.
And while I was at Bozo's,
longtime Leidenheimer employee Carlo
was stopping by with the morning's delivery.
You guys are really pretty much the only game in town
when it comes to bread for po'boys, right?
We average about 450 accounts a day
that gets served on a daily basis
Sure.
This product right here is about an hour-and-a-half old.
Sure. You can pull one out.
Yeah.
But the outside is still very crisp,
but it's just a little bit of crispness.
Sure. You can break it.
I'm gonna break bread here.
That's what friends do. We break bread.
Oh, look at that. I mean, it's so --
There's kind of a technique to breaking, too.
Oh, look at that.
Yeah, you kind of want to pull.
Oh, yeah, like that.
Very unique item.
That's correct.
MOTZ: Equally important to the taste of Bozo's hamburger po'boy
is its burger-making process.
Do you hand-patty every burger?
Yeah. About 8, 9 ounces.
[ Chuckling ] Yeah, that's big.
But the hamburger's not a ball.
How does it get from that to a hamburger?
Where's my burger knife?
You're just pushing it up against the knife.
Just use that as a guide to get a little straight edge
so it'll look halfway decent on the bread.
So, you know that you've gone far enough
when it's the length of the knife?
Yeah, about that.
I mean, it depends on --
You know, I can cut the bread and make it fit.
That doesn't look like a classic hamburger to me.
I don't know what that looks like.
That's insane-looking.
Yeah.
Hey.
Wait, wait, wait. What was that?
What'd you just do there?
It's just a little cottonseed oil.
So, you don't press it down?
No, do you want to take all the juices out of it
and all the flavor and let them burn off?
Well, till it's done.
It cooks till it's done.
We'll see where we're at.
Nothing.
And there you go.
That is a thing of beauty.
Thank you.
Aw, it's so good. That is so good.
Even though it's not on a white, squishy bun,
the classic po'boy bread
still holds the whole thing together really well,
which you kind of need because this thing is a beast.
You can still taste the beef in there.
The mayo is so key.
Mayo --
People in New Orleans love their mayo.
[ Crunching ]
The initial crunch of the Leidenheimer bread
gives way to a pillowy interior,
where mayo meets the ripe tomato and lettuce.
That and the sweetness of the caramelized onions
make this burger the complete package.
I think I'm gonna need a nap after this one.
Every time I finish that burger,
all I think about is the next time I'm gonna be here.
[ Laughs ]
MOTZ: The hamburger po'boy at Bozo's is not to be missed,
but for the traditionalist who prefers a white, squishy bun,
Port of Call on the French Quarter
serves a Mushroom Cheddar burger so good that the line
sometimes stretches out the door and down the street.
When this place opens,
it goes from zero to 60 in like 10 seconds.
One of the most famous streets in New Orleans,
if not the country, is Bourbon Street.
This is Bourbon Street before it wakes up,
but pretty soon, this'll be an all-day party into the night.
But all of Bourbon Street is not party central.
In fact, the other end is residential and quiet.
And that's where I'm headed right now.
This is Port of Call.
It sits on the far end of the French Quarter,
away from the crowds,
but somehow, the crowds still manage to find this place.
It's a very long line, but it's totally worth it.
Yeah, that's what we heard.
Starved.
Didn't eat much yesterday,
[ Laughs ]
After a night of partying in New Orleans,
Port of Call hits the spot.
And I always get the Mushroom Cheddar burger.
The doors are opening. The doors are opening.
MIKE: George!
Mike! How you doin'?
Good to see you.
It's insanity.
It's all because of one reason.
We make the best hamburger around.
[ Laughs ]
Oh, right.
Hamburgers were just an afterthought.
They became more and more popular
because we started putting the baked potatoes
on the plates with the hamburgers.
And it just took off.
Today we'll serve 600, 700 people on a daily basis.
Unbelievable.
How big are the burgers? How big are the patties?
8 ounces, hand-formed patties.
And as the orders come in,
we throw them on the charbroiler.
It's full. Believe me.
So that it's flaming up,
and it gets a nice crust on the outside.
You guys use a broiler because that's the way
you cook your steaks, right?
A charbroiler, yeah.
Right.
It's basically the same as your backyard barbecue pit,
a propane that's on a commercial level.
And the meat chars real nice, gets a nice crust on it,
but it also drips on these rods.
Ah. Gotcha.
We don't do anything fancy here.
Well, hang on.
Well, all right.
Your mushroom recipe is unbelievable.
Sautéed in red wine.
And butter.
An unbelievable amount of garlic.
The cheese. You don't put a slab of cheese on there.
You grate your cheese, right?
I have a huge cheese grater.
It's not, like, a processed cheese.
It's grated cheese.
And we put a handful on top and scoop the mushrooms on top,
and it melts the cheese down.
It's just wonderful.
Shredding the cheddar gives the cheese a fluffy consistency
and, when melted by the sautéed mushrooms,
drapes the burger in a way that a slice of cheese cannot.
That's it.
It's as simple as can be,
but the flavor of it is the best.
This conversation is killing me.
I'm starving.
You got it.
While I wait for my lunch,
a few of the locals next to me
are preparing for a long day of drinking
with their own cheeseburger base.
It's the first spot you want to hit before the day starts
because you want to kind of carb up a little bit
and get a little cheeseburger in you, good potato,
and you can kind of last a little longer
than some other people.
You know what I'm saying?
MOTZ: Thanks, Mike.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, that is beautiful.
[ Singsong voice ] Yes!
Mmm, so beefy. You taste the beef,
which is what you should do when you eat a hamburger.
The mushrooms are very earthy.
It completely works with the flavor of the beef.
You can taste the smoke with the char.
Look at that little char on the bottom there.
It's cooked like a steak. It tastes like a steak.
And the mushrooms only enhance the beefiness.
That is one fist of a burger.
Look at that thing. [ Grunts ]
The cheese is not a slice of cheese,
like a big, hard chunk of cheese.
It's completely fluffy and melts a lot easier.
It's totally unique.
What a great experience.
A good burger experience is about more than just the taste,
and our next spot is no exception
With its classic diner feel and iconic sign,
Ted's Frostop is a place so steeped in nostalgia,
its burger isn't the only thing
that'll make you feel like time has frozen.
We have to kind of gauge the foam,
and then you got to stop.
It just keeps coming.
That is sudsy.
MOTZ: The multicultural heritage that makes New Orleans unique
can be spotted anywhere you look --
from the architecture of its colorful Creole cottages
and enormous Victorian mansions
to the iconic rumble of streetcars.
Every time I come here and I see one of these things roll by,
I can't help but get caught up in its charm.
That charm is on full display at Ted's Frostop.
The Frostop chain started in 1926
and quickly spread across the nation,
reaching New Orleans in 1955,
when Ted Sternberg opened its doors.
Today, there are only about a dozen of them
that are still standing.
As you can probably tell from the sign,
Ted's is famous for their root beer,
but they also have an incredible cheeseburger
called the Lot-O-Burger.
Across the country, I've met a number of burger lovers
who have become part of my dedicated advance team.
My good friend and local burger expert, T.G. Herrington,
has a new burger for me to check out in New Orleans.
But first, we're going to grab a burger I've had before,
one that T.G. grew up on -- Ted's classic Lot-O-Burger.
Thanks, man.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Original owner Ted Sternberg stepped down a few years back,
and current owners Peter and Kyle Moss
are committed to keeping things the way they were,
which makes sense, considering their profession.
You guys have saved the place.
Well, we're really antique dealers by trade,
but as kids, we grew up, and we loved it,
and Mr. Ted was getting older, and we wanted to keep it going.
Oh, absolutely.
The mug is like 57 years old.
Think about that. The mug alone is an antique.
When we came, Katrina had come and knocked the mug over,
Right.
So, we put it back on the pole and cleaned up the kitchen.
And it was sort of a symbol
that one of the icons was coming back.
Oh, yeah.
With the carhop service, right?
MOSS: In the '50s, the cars would pull right up to the counter here.
Yeah.
This was parking lot here.
You would park right here.
MOTZ: What is Frostop?
There you go.
And in 1926, they invented this formula.
So, the recipe is the same from 1926?
That's right.
And all natural, never has had caffeine.
The burger, which I love,
Right.
Exactly.
Leidenheimer bread. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
But, then, you've got your purists that love a po'boy.
Starts with the butcher.
We have a blend. It's a 80/20 ground chuck.
And they put on our secret sauce.
The Lot-O-Sauce was where,
you know, it was "a whole lot of burger."
That's where they thought of it.
Oh, flat top.
It starts out as a ball, and then they sear it.
They push it down
so that it gives a crusty edge on either side.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that is the original American hamburger.
Right.
And when it sears,
that's what really keeps that juice in
Definitely, yeah.
But also gives it that nice craggy edge on the side.
You're making me hungry.
Can you ask for it just one way?
Does it come dressed or undressed?
Everything's dressed unless you say "undressed."
MOTZ: No Lot-O-Burger is complete
without the famous Frostop root beer.
Wow. Look at that foam.
T.G.: It just keeps coming.
Being a local, you'd think T.G.
would get his Lot-O-Burger served on po'boy bread,
but his bun choice goes against the grain.
I have the Lot-O-Burger on po'boy bread,
while T.G. opts for a tradition white, squishy bun.
Whoa, man.
That's a lot o' burger.
Just kidding. [ Laughs ]
This is bringing back all kinds of memories.
Here we go.
It's that sauce, this canary-yellow sauce,
which is their "secret."
I'm pretty sure that all that is is mayo and mustard
And that's a really good mix.
There could be something else in there.
There has to be something else in there, right?
Yeah.
I do.
It's so pillowy.
Wow. I want to take a nap on it.
It's so obvious that the ingredients are fresh.
I mean, obviously, the beef is some fresh-ground.
But I can really, really taste the fresh tomato
and the really fresh lettuce.
I mean, this is really -- it's really cold -- ice cold.
And it works so well with the texture of the beef.
Brings me way back.
This thing is like a hamburger time machine.
Well, we have more burgers to eat, though, don't we?
You're taking me to Camellia next.
A burger I have never had before.
MOTZ: The taste of the po'boy bread with the special Lot-O-Sauce
really elevated the Lot-O-Burger.
And the staff at our next spot, Camellia Grill,
adds some flavor that's not just found in the food.
Ain't nothing wrong with getting the grub on, huh?
[ Laughter ]
MOTZ: The juicy Lot-O-Burger on soft po'boy bread
really hit the spot.
And for my local expert burger taster, T.G. Herrington,
Ted's Frostop is a nostalgic reminder
of the rich history of New Orleans.
Our next stop --
The Camellia Grill over on Carrollton Avenue --
has been around since 1946.
It's a landmark diner and popular brunch destination,
complete with service that will make you smile.
There it is, man.
This hasn't changed since I was a kid.
Let's go, man. Let's do it.
I've had the waffles here many times before,
but somehow overlooked the burger,
and T.G. has told me it shouldn't be missed.
Oh, man. Classic.
T.G.: There's the man with the plan.
Hello, fellas.
This is the Marvin.
What are we talking about?
Let's do it.
Ain't nothing wrong with getting the grub on, huh?
24 years now.
I'm catching on. They told me I got to get it this year.
[ Laughter ]
RONNIE: Hey, guys. Welcome to Camellia Grill.
How y'all doing?
Ronnie.
And I've been the manager for the last 15 years, I guess.
I tell you, I've been here many times,
but I've only been here hung over for breakfast,
until my friend here told me that there was burgers.
And, okay, so, here we are.
Well, that's what we're known for -- burgers and omelettes.
So, how long you been coming here, T.G.?
Since I was a kid, man.
30 years. Let's put it that way.
30-plus. That's good.
The Camellia Grill has been a staple of this community
for almost 70 years.
But when Hurricane Katrina came through,
this local landmark was one of its many victims.
And for a while, it looked like they might never reopen.
Katrina was a wipeout for this town.
Yeah. I mean, it did look like a wasteland.
The old owner moved out of the state,
and so he sold it to the new guy.
What made him want to buy it
is when he passed by and seen all the love notes
outside on the vestibule.
All the people just put notes covering the whole door,
the columns and everything.
He seen that and reopened it.
18 months.
And that's the one thing.
That Saturday morning,
we had a line out the door about four months straight.
It was Mardi Gras nonstop.
Let's talk about the burger.
Describe how the burger comes to be.
Make 6-ounce meatballs and just press them into patties
and don't do anything else to them.
Then they slap them on the flattop grill.
I think what makes it is the grill.
When you're frying bacon on it all morning,
it gives everything a good taste.
We do sell a lot of bacon cheeseburgers.
Like I said, we go through about 20, 30 cases of bacon a week.
[ Laughs ]
I think we're ready to order. I am.
Marvin.
MARVIN: Yes, sir.
Let's do it.
I got to have my cheeseburger with bacon and grilled onions.
Yes, sir.
That sounds good.
Nurse!
[ Laughter ]
That's my good-cooking chef over there, y'all.
They say when he cooking good, he looking good.
Nurse, what do I do about a brain freeze?
Uh-oh.
Stop sipping.
[ Laughter ]
MARVIN: All right, here we go, gentlemen.
That time has come. The moment has arrived.
This magic moment.
That is a gorgeous burger.
It's a classic cheeseburger.
They put a lot of bacon on there.
Wow. [ Chuckles ]
Yeah. Indeed.
And it's juicy.
Mine has imploded.
Staying together with a hope and a prayer here.
We have the crunch of the lettuce,
the different salty, smoky crunch of the bacon.
The bacon really makes this burger, man.
We've all had bacon on a burger.
But when it comes from a grill seasoned with bacon fat
that's been searing into it all day,
the flavor reaches a new level.
Thanks God for the linen napkins.
This is a great burger.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Ah, you make me do a tummy rub, right?
And to think that this place, you know, after Katrina,
may have just been closed forever.
It takes people who have got vision
to honor the tradition, you know, and keep it going.
A New Orleans without this place would be a little weird,
[ Laughter ]
Tell the nurse we said, "Thank you for healing us."
What's up, baby?
Oh, two.
Ribbit, ribbit.
New Orleans, Crescent City --
Whatever you call it, the place is awesome.
From its music and festivals, to its architecture and cuisine,
New Orleans is a city like no other.
And the city is filled with strong people
who have overcome adversity to carry on its unique traditions.
The distinct spin they put on their burgers,
whether they're served on po'boy bread,
loaded with bacon, or covered in sautéed mushrooms,
represent the city's melting pot of cultural influences.