Hank’s Hamburgers

Hank’s has been doing what it does since 1949 – frying hamburgers. It is one of countless restaurants in Tulsa and throughout Oklahoma where burgers are taken seriously by the cook and relished by customers. Not to say that they are gourmet fare. On the contrary. They are quintessential hash-house hamburgers, cooked to the point that degree of doneness is not an issue, but fatty enough to be wickedly succulent. Other than burgers, the menu includes Frito chili pie and corn dog on a stick as well as onion rings and French fries, malts, and a special made-here chocolate-covered peanut butter bon bon.

You can get a single, a double, a triple, a “Big Okie” (four patties), or a Hank’s Special, which is a single half-pound patty. Each normal patty is a quarter pound, and while I enjoyed the avoirdupois of a Hank’s Special, I like the multiple-patty configurations better. The layers of meat and cheese provide a textural adventure that a large single patty cannot.

Even the biggest creation is presented as a tidy package, but I found that by the time I was halfway through, onions and tomatoes were slithering out and patties had gone out of alignment, creating a mess, albeit an extremely delicious one.