Serving It The Same Way Since 1931

I had originally heard about Bob's Hamburg in Akron, Ohio, several years ago, before I began writing this blog. As quickly as I learned of its existence, I forgot about it as well. Not because I didn't think it wouldn't be an interesting place to check out, but because at the time I was in the midst of dealing with the last few months that my grandfather was alive. It was right about that time that he started to go into that last serious decline that eventually led to his death in mid-2008.

It wasn't until I engaged in a fairly recent conversation with a newly acquired reader that making a stop at Bob's came back to the forefront of my mind. I had asked her about some of her favorite burger places and one of the spots she named was Bob's Hamburg. Being in a much less preoccupied state of mind than I was two years ago, I added it to the short list of places to review. The problem I had was that Bob's was a breakfast and lunch place. And since I am currently working in Cleveland during the week, it was apparent that a Saturday lunch visit would be the most likely time for me to try them out.

I arrived at Bob's Hamburg shortly after 11 AM and was surprised to find the lot almost completely empty. Perhaps the breakfast rush had come and gone and the lunch rush had yet to materialize. Regardless, I parked in the rather large lot (compared to the size of the restaurant itself). Bob's was located at 1351 East Avenue, Akron, OH 44307 and they can be reached at 330-253-2627. There was no website associated with the restaurant at the time of this writing. While call ahead and carry-out was available, there was no delivery service.

Here was a shot of the outside sign and the restaurant itself:


Once inside, it became apparent that this was the quintessential diner from the 1950's. There was stool seating at the lunch counter to the left and about a half dozen booths to the right. While no trace of a "diner car" existed on the exterior of the restaurant, the inside just screamed with the kind of charm that chain restaurants can't deliver. Center stage at the counter was the burger grill, the very one that has existed since 1931. At roughly four foot by two foot square, it was dedicated to doing just one thing: grilling burgers. Additionally, the broiler under the grill was there to toast buns. Everything else came from what I am guessing is a second kitchen in the back of the restaurant.

I picked up one of the paper menus and began to photograph it:





Ironically, if you look at the third photo, all of the burgers are called "hamburgers" and "cheeseburgers" instead of the more colloquial "hamburgs" and "cheeseburgs" that the sign out in front of the restaurant would suggest. I'm not sure why they didn't continue the tradition on the menu. Looking at the menu, I decided to go with a single bacon cheeseburger with "everything" and an order of onion rings. After placing my order, I began watching the young woman manning the burger grill:


As with my experience at Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, IN, she seemed to be the master of her domain and the number of burgers that occupied the grill at any given time varied from completely full to just one or two. The longer I sat and observed, the more I realized that almost all of the fried side items came out of the back kitchen at a much quicker pace than the burgers on the front grill. In fact, my onion rings arrived an astonishing ten minutes before my burger:


As soon as I saw these, I had a sneaking suspicion that they were homemade. I tasted them and my inclination was confirmed. These had a very delicate coating of batter on them. In fact, they were almost too delicate, because if I wasn't careful, the coating fell off just a bit too easily. The onions themselves were nice, although one of the onions was a bit difficult to chew; perhaps it was either too old or it had been one of the outer leaves of the onion. While there was a bit of the fryer grease at the bottom of the cardboard container, it was fairly minor and didn't affect the greasiness of the rings.

I watched as my bacon strips arrived at the burger station from the back kitchen and the woman on burger duty quickly assembled my bacon cheeseburger. Here was what she placed in front of me:


"Everything," in case you were wondering, gentle reader, was shredded lettuce, mustard, onions, pickles, and a "special sauce." I decided to leave the raw onion off of my burger, but as I was to discover later, there were actually two other onion options. The first of which was caramelized onions, which seems pretty standard for a burger topping. The second option, which honestly looked like brown rice, was reconstituted dried onions. Apparently known for their sweeter disposition than the raw onion, this was actually dried onions that were soaked in hot water until plump and then drained. I asked the young woman about this and she said that it's been a very popular option since they opened, eight decades ago.

Alright, so how was the burger? Actually, quite good. I wasn't able to taste the meat by itself since it was covered from edge to edge with a slice of American cheese. Between the bacon, pickles, American cheese, and special sauce, if the burger had any sins, they were successfully covered up. The toasted bun added a nice textural contrast to the softness of the meat and cheese. As I ate the burger, a bit of the special sauce dripped out of the bottom of the bun. I swished a bit of water in my mouth to try and cleanse my palate before I dipped a finger in to taste it by itself. It wasn't quite as thick as a commercial ketchup, but it almost had a BBQ sauce-esque taste to it. I was picking up hints of coriander and cumin. While definitely a tomato-based sauce, it was neither ketchup nor BBQ sauce, although it reminded me of both.

Having finished my lunch, I paid the just over $5 check, thanked the ladies working behind the counter and strolled out into the for now, still cool Akron afternoon air. Bob's was a simple place and served simple, but tasty food. While I've had better burgers, Bob's version was no slouch and if you are into authentic diner ambiance, then Bob's might just fit the bill perfectly. I recommend you check them out.

What Can Brown Do For You?

On the first night of my visit to my friend Chris in Scranton, Pennsylvania, we had stopped at a local supermarket called Weis to pick up a few food items. One of these items happened to be a package of seeded Kaiser rolls from a local bakery called National Bakery. Without knowing exactly what we had picked up, we returned to his house only to discover that the rolls were incredibly fresh and flavorful. So much so that Chris offered to drive us to the bakery itself the next day and check it out.

We decided to make it a double-header trip and stop for lunch at a local diner that Chris had been meaning to try out for some time, the Glider Diner. Located at 890 Providence Road, Scranton, PA 18505, they can also be reached at 570-343-8036. They also have a website which is located here. As we got closer to the restaurant, I began to see the outline of a classic diner car:


We parked next to the structure and walked in the front door. What started out as a small diner car that probably would've sat 25 to 30 patrons opened up, Tardis-style, into a back room that sat many, many more patrons. It also turned out that there was a rear-entrance as well. We had thought that there might be a wait since we had shown up for lunch right around noon, but only minutes after seating ourselves in the first room off the diner car, our server approached us with the menu and took our drink order.

Here was a shot of the menu:







While looking over the menu, I spotted another local food that Chris had told me about when we were talking about my visit, Porketta. Now, some of my gentle readers out there who are more familiar with Italian cuisine might think I may have just misspelled Porchetta, but I haven't. Both versions involve pork, however, and the version I was about to experience in Scranton was closer to a sliced pork roast that had been heavily seasoned on the outside with spices, salt, and herbs. While I am sure that there are many variations of this product that range from cook to cook, here is a link to a representative sample.

When I saw that the Glider Diner had a hot Porketta sandwich, I immediately knew what I intended to order. The only other decision I needed to make was whether to order the French fries, mashed potatoes, or home fries to accompany my sandwich. I decided on a side of home fries with gravy. Chris went with a more traditional breakfast.

After what seemed like a very short time, both of our meals arrived. When my server set this down in front of me,


the only thing that popped into my head was, "Wow, that's a LOT of brown." I mean, I know I was eating in a diner and all, but even just a nice little sprig of parsley would've gone a long way towards breaking up the sable monotone on the plate. The other thing that surprised me was that from my reading of the menu, I had thought that the sandwich bread would sit on top of the gravy instead of covered by it; kind of an open-faced sandwich that was topped with a bread slice.

Let's talk about the sandwich first. Here was a close-up of just the sandwich:


Having never tried Porketta before, I offered my friend Chris a bite. He said that it was pretty representative of the other versions he had tried since moving to Scranton. The pork was sliced thinly and was tender, but it tended to be a little dry in spots that were not covered in gravy. I immediately picked up on the seasoning and herbs used to flavor the Porketta, although they weren't overpowering at first. The more I ate, the more intense the flavor became, especially the saltiness. The bread was of the American sandwich variety and was definitely the right choice for this type of sandwich. The gravy was rich and seasoned well, but was a bit heavy handed in its application.

Having tasted my Porketta sandwich, I moved on to my home fries with gravy:


It turns out that I'm glad I ordered the gravy as the home fries by themselves were wholly unseasoned (i.e. no salt). The fries were cooked nicely and had some nice caramelization from the griddle, but had they come naked I would've definitely had to apply salt from the shaker or perhaps ketchup. In this particular case, however, the gravy did an excellent job of serving that purpose. When I asked Chris if his home fries were seasoned, he admitted that they weren't, but having slathering his in ketchup, he didn't seem to particularly care.

The best part of the experience, however, was the price. The entire plate of food I had received today for lunch was only $6.80 plus tip and tax. I only managed to eat about two-thirds before I had to give up, lest my stomach continue its cries of "Stop! Stop!" Now that I've had Porketta, I don't know that it would be something I would crave. However, as the saying goes, "When in Rome ..." and I'm happy to have tried the Glider Diner's version. Chris was very happy with the omelet he received for his breakfast and I think the general consensus was that either of us would be happy to return again. Our bellies now full, we hopped back in the car to track down the National Bakery outlet.