El Reno, Oklahoma is known as the birthplace of the onion burger. It was here that fried onion burgers, also known as Oklahoma onion burgers, were born. In the 1920s, during the Great Depression, when meat was expensive but onions were cheap, Ross Davis of El Reno’s Hamburger Inn began adding shredded onions to his meat patties to bulk up his burgers. This birthed a local specialty that is still respected today.
Hamburger Inn is now long closed, but a trio of other local joints carry on the tradition: Johnnie’s Grill, Robert’s Grill, and Sid’s Diner. And El Reno loves these onion-forward burgers so much they even throw an annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival. This festival celebrates their local legacy with games, car shows, live entertainment, and the creation of the world’s largest fried onion hamburger.
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In 2024, to mark this historic site, a new sign was erected in town: the Hungry For History Onion Burgers Historical Marker in El Reno, Oklahoma. This monument officially placed El Reno on the map as the birthplace of the fried onion burger.
This marker was erected thanks to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. Their “Hungry for History” marker program celebrates “America’s food history by telling the stories of local and regional food specialties across the United States.” The program is designed to commemorate “significant food dishes created prior to 1970 and the role they played in defining American culture and forging community identity.”
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has added nearly 2,500 historic markers celebrating locally and regionally created food dishes across the country, and this was the first in Oklahoma. Here’s what the Hungry For History Onion Burgers Historical Marker in El Reno, Oklahoma, says:
Hungry for History: Onion Burgers
William G. Pomeroy Foundation 2024
Introduced in the 1920s, shredded onions fused with limited amounts of ground beef made these burgers an affordable local specialty.
Photos of the Hungry For History Onion Burgers Historical Marker in El Reno, Oklahoma
