Hut’s Hamburgers

**** THIS RESTAURANT IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED ****

Sometimes your soul truly needs a juicy, meaty, mouth-watering hamburger. When that happens in Austin, Texas, locals flock to a favorite hole-in-the-wall since 1939 – Hut’s Hamburgers.

Hamburgers at Hut’s are made with all-natural, fresh, never frozen, Texas-raised beef purchased locally from Johnny G’s meat market of South Austin. You can have a burger made with buffalo meat, boneless chicken breast, longhorn grass fed beef, or even as a vegan veggie burger. No matter how you order it, I guarantee it will be a burger you won’t forget.

Hut’s doesn’t have a flashy look. Its parking lot is tiny and the blue walls are worn. But the moment you walk inside, you are blasted by hundreds of interesting pieces of memorabilia and decorations adorning every wall: neon signs advertising beer companies, a taxidermized buffalo head wearing a baseball cap, sports posters, autographed celebrity photos, street signs, and more.

As an avid lover of corn dogs, I had to start with the Mini Corn Dog basket: eight miniature fried corn dogs and a cup of yellow mustard atop a bed of thick-cut french fries. The corn dogs are light and fluffy. French fries are soft inside, crunchy outside.

But of course, Hut’s Hamburgers is all about hamburgers. With twenty  burger options on the menu, it isn’t easy to choose. Our waitress had to come back to our table three times, just because I was unable to to decide which burger to order.

I went with the All American Buddy Holly Burger. Described on the menu as “The Works!” it is piled up high with layers of mayonnaise, mustard, crisp onions, crunchy pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and American cheese. All these fine toppings are laid atop the richest, most mouth-watering burger patty and held in a toasted buns. On the side: golden brown Peppered Onion Rings and a cup of Housemade Chipotle Mayonnaise.

Hut’s Hamburgers has been in Austin for more than eight decades now, and I don’t see it changing any time soon. The pursuit of a classic burger is often lost in fast food joints that focus on speed and grease, rather than patience and quality meat. If you find yourself in Austin, Texas, look no further than Hut’s for the best burger in town.