York Town Square

This is a Bury’s hamburger, specifically from Johnny Eagle’s booth at the York Fair. Notice the distinctive tomato sauce, whose ingredients are reportedly secret, although the recipe has been published in the York Sunday News and on this blog. And notice the onion topping it all off. (See photographs of the two stands selling Bury’s burgers below.) Also of interest: Bury burgers beat out Big Mac as first fast-food eatery in Downtown York.

OK, the fair’s last day is the last day you can get its best fare of the culinary kind – Bury’s burgers.

Two stands offer this famous red sauce-slathered hamburger – Bury’s Famous Hamburgers and Joe Bury’s Famous Hamburgers.

There’s competition as suggested by this comment on the Joe Bury’s Famous Hamburgers Facebook page: 

“Joe Bury’s Famous Hamburgers VS Johnnie Eagle & Bury’s Burgers… Two different recipe… Joe Bury’s Famous Hamburgers has the original recipe as we were told… Last Day at the fair. Find us on Grandstand Boulevard to grab a famous burger!”

Each fair, I sample a burger from each stand. Each year, I come to the same conclusion: It’s a dead heat. Both are wonderful.

I never tasted a Bury’s burger from one of Joe Bury’s long-closed chain of stands, so I’m at a disadvantage to know how they compare to the original.

But you’ll have trouble telling those offered at York Fair apart.

It’s still a test you won’t regret.

And you’ll have an option of getting the burger topped with an onion.

Go with the onion. Its crunch counterbalances the scrumptiously soft burger.

 

The stand for Joe Bury’s Famous Hamburgers is selling its delicious fare on Grandstand Boulevard, the aisle paralleling the grandstand. The stand sells burgers all year at various locations. Those sites are listed on the stand’s Facebook page.

 

Also
– Before there was McDonald’s, there was Bury’s Famous Hamburgers in York, Pa.
– Before Geno’s made news in Philly, Gino’s headlined in York.
– About Avalong Dairy and Melvin’s Drive-In: ‘I am some what familiar with the history of the area’.
– Mack’s is short for McDaniel’s, but in York County it means ice cream.
– The 1950s, ’60s: ‘The greatest time to grow up in York, Pa.’.

Bury’s recipes

– Bury’s recipe as published in the York Sunday News, 2000, click here.
– That York Sunday News recipe with additional ingredient reportedly from Joe Bury himself, click here.
– A quick alternative: This Bury’s burger sauce comes from a can, click here.
York Town Square posts on Bury’s Famous Hamburgers:
Yet another Bury’s hamburger drops into the cooker.
Bury’s burgers: ‘You won’t get that recipe’.
The quest for Bury’s secret hamburger recipe continues.
This Bury’s recipe comes from a can,
Reader reveals Bury’s secret recipe.
Is Bury’s secret sauce really secret?
Bury’s burgers: Nostalgia on a bun.
Fair, Bury’s go together like tomato sauce, burgers.
Bury’s burgers: ”That was it – no slaw, no relish, no pickles’.
Playland plays nostalgic note for York countians.
Bury’s burger memories far from buried.

Also of interest:
– Back when Gino’s was the York-area place to go and Baltimore Colts was the team to root for

– To read stroll back memory lane, see posts in Nostalgia and Memories category.

Johnny Eagle’s booth, with Bury’s Famous Hamburgers, is located across from the fire station at the York Fair. Bury’s burgers have been available there for years.