You say an NFL city? I say cheeseburger.

I was thinking of that the other night in San Diego when I had my usual In-N-Out Out Burger double-double, animal style.  (If you don’t know animal style, you don’t know their secret menu.) I’ve been traveling NFL cities since 1974, and I have favorite restaurants in most _ Joe’s Stone Crabs on South Beach, Faidley’s for crab cakes in Baltimore, Legal Seafood in Boston, Uncle Jack’s kobe beef steaks in Manhattan, Giovanni’s on The Hill in St. Louis for Italian, Geno’s East for deep-dish pizza in Chicago, Columbia Restaurant for Cuban food in Tampa’s Ybor City and Jacques-Imo’s for blackened redfish in New Orleans. But I also love cheeseburgers. You may scoff at some, but I always have to have the original sliders at White Castle in a bunch of cities, the Whataburger in Dallas, the steakburger at Steak ‘N Shake in St. Louis and Tampa, Ollie’s Trolley burger in Washington D.C., any butter burger in Wisconsin, the signature burger at Minetta Tavern in Manhattan, the burger served late at night at Holeman & Finch in Atlanta, Dyer’s Burger in Memphis (my hometown, so I’m making an exception although the Oilers/Titans played there for a year; the burger is cooked in a cast-iron skillet in grease that they’ve used since I was born) the original Big Boy burger still served in Detroit, the beefburger at Craigie on Main in Boston, the six-inch cheeseburger at Grandpa’s Burger Haven in Denver, B-Spot Burgers in Cleveland, Blanc Burger in Kansas City (I know it’s a barbecue town, and there are some great places), the Butcher Burger in Philly (but I eat the cheesesteaks at Pat’s every time in), Shake Shack in Miami Beach (the original is in New York City, and among my favorites there, too), Yo Mama’s burger off Bourbon Street in New Orleans and Grover’s Bar and Grill burger in Buffalo (although go to The Anchor for the original and best buffalo wings).

        You can beat those?  Let me know what’s the best burger I missed, or in the cities I left out, and I’ll try ‘em next time.