Michelle Groskopf for The New York Times
One hundred years ago, a teenager named Lionel Sternberger dropped a blanket of American cheese over a hamburger at his father’s sandwich shop in Pasadena, Calif., creating the first cheeseburger. The story may be as flimsy as a Kraft single, but it attests to the decades of tinkering and reinvention that have made the burger a lasting, ever-evolving American genre, like jazz or the Hollywood movie.
Today, burgers can come packed with the cultural ingredients that make the country what it is: regional tradition and immigrant inspiration, deep history and blue-sky creativity, plantains and gochujang and even more of that cheese. Here are 11 variations that reflect the moment — and the limitless things a great burger can be.
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The Burger Is … Steadfast
Cheeseburger at Sun Cattle Co. in Oklahoma City
800 West Sheridan Avenue, $7, suncattle.com
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