CHEESEBURGERS - A
TAKE-OUT JOINT
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★
District: Millard; Blackstone
Fast casual smash burgers
Perfect For: Casual Dining; Lunch; Takeout
Standout Dishes: The Benny; Fried Pickle Chips; The Nation
It takes some serious chutzpah to name your restaurant after a single food item. If that dish isn’t up to snuff, you lose credibility with the audience and your concept is sunk.
Thankfully, the titular item at Cheeseburgers: A Take-Out Joint delivers on its lofty promise. That’s a big reason why that, in less than three years, Cheeseburgers already has three locations: Omahans can’t get enough of these beefy delicacies.
There are plenty of restaurants serving great burgers in Omaha; so why has Cheeseburgers caught on so quickly? There are several reasons, but the most important is that Cheeseburgers took a trend that several Omaha restaurants (Nite Owl, Fizzy’s Fountain & Liquors, and Block 16 are a few) employ and built a concept around it: the smash patty.
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a burger featuring a massive, beefy patty, the smash burger offers a completely different experience. These burgers are smushed with a spatula on a scalding hot flattop, giving the juices nowhere to go but back up into the meat, essentially cooking the burger in its own beefy juices. Plus, smashing the patty creates more surface area and opportunity for Maillard reaction (a breaking down of sugars and proteins that creates charring and texture)—thus, more flavor.
Plus, smash burgers typically have two patties, so you’re not sacrificing any of the beef. It’s a win all around.
And Cheeseburgers takes full advantage of the smash burger phenomenon. The smashing process locks in all of the rich, meaty flavor of the beef itself, and it creates a crisp, brown crust and toasty goodness. The patty is seasoned aggressively; some say too much so. This palate thinks the salt levels are perfect and draw out the awesome beefy flavor.
With just five signature burgers, the burger menu at Cheeseburgers is relatively small (diners can also customize their own burger with more than a dozen toppings), but each offering highlights the stupendous patties in a unique way.
The Benny represents the classic bacon cheeseburger, pairing the beef with with melty American cheese, salty bacon, and a buttery bun. There’s nothing flashy here; rather, Cheeseburgers allows the beef—and the brilliant cooking of it—to be the star.
Then there’s the gargantuan The Nation, Cheeseburgers’ take on McDonald’s Big Mac, an item I have to admit I never understood—has anyone ever eaten a burger and said to themselves, “You know what this burger needs? More bread!”
But Cheeseburgers employs the middle bun in a way McDonald’s only wishes it could. That extra layer of carbs absorbs the sweet, tangy 1000 Island dressing and leftover meat juices, ensuring no drop of flavor escapes this burger. It’s one of the best burgers in Omaha.
Cheeseburgers also offers rotating specials that pair their standout patties with unique flavor combinations.
A great example of this is the Sweet Leaf Burger, which cut the salty richness of the patties with an herbaceous, garlicky pesto and mild, tangy cream cheese.
The classic burger accompaniment—french fries—are unfortunately a miss at Cheeseburgers. These skinny potato strands are limp and don’t have much flavor. Fortunately, the other side dishes more than pick up the slack.
The Onion Rings are large as inner tubes and have a hearty batter that produces a tremendous crispy texture. The Fried Pickle Chips, too, are heavily battered; many feature more batter than pickle itself.
The strong application of batter works for two reasons, though:
- The batter, studded with secret spices, is highly savory and extremely delicious.
- The quality of the fried ingredient is strong. Even with so much batter present, the sweetness of the cooked onion and the salty, sour flavors of the pickles still stand out.
For all Cheeseburgers does very well, it faltered a bit on its name. While you can get your meal to go, you’re also welcome to dine in, and the restaurants have cozy, well-lit eating areas. I would prefer to enjoy my burger hot and fresh in these locales rather than getting take-out.
But that’s a small complaint against all the positive Cheeseburgers has going for it. This restaurant has fully embraced the smash burger trend to tremendous results. While its name may seem a tad aggressive, one bite is all you need to understand Cheeseburgers is worthy of its moniker.