An Ode to the Ranch Burger

Robin Hi,

Your name sounded familiar but I didn't really know who you were until yesterday when I looked more closely at your recent post and noticed that you are from Louisville. A Google search not only brought up some of your background but up popped an article by you on the Ranch House and their ranch burger.

I must have been around ten or twelve years old when I went to the Ranch House which at that time was located in the
St Matthews area. This was the first time I had ever had a hamburger... and not only a hamburger but one with a terrific sauce and the works. It was an absolute delight. I only went there one more time before I moved out of the area. I had a plain hamburger and it was a huge disappointment.

It is difficult to compete with memories and so every hamburger I have had since has fallen a bit short of that
experience. BTW, the patty melt that your wife likes is my second favorite type of hamburger.

Maybe around 8 years ago we had to go to Atlanta for a business trip. We decided to drive so we could spend a few days in N.C. and look at some real estate. When I found out that there was a Ranch House located somewhere in Indiana we diverted our travel a bit so we could stop there. I also had the ranch burger, fries and a chocolate milkshake. Still delicious but somehow not quite up to the memory. I think that that experience is why I have even today a fascination with hamburgers like the Big Mac with it's special sauce.

Tim

[Robin Garr]

Small world, Tim! I was just a kid in the time of the last Ranch Houses - there was the one in St. Matthews, which was then surrounded by potato fields and is now the INNER suburbs, and another way out in the South End near Iroquois Park that I know of. Probably more.

The one in Southern Indiana that you read about (an old, fossilized review) wasn't directly connected with the original chain, but sought to replicate that '60s experience with what purported to be the original recipes. It was quite good, but unfortunately it didn't last very long. Apparently the people who REALLY owned the rights to the name filed litigation, and the story ended pretty quickly.

Louisville is still a great town for hamburgers, though, as noted in the long In'n'Out Burger thread. Local yokels are probably fans of decent beef because this used to be one of the stockyards cities, even if far from the scale of Chicago or Omaha.