Dethroner Destinations: Dyer’s Hamburgers, Home of the 94-Year-Old Grease

Founded in 1912 in Memphis, Dyer’s Hamburgers has one dubious claim to fame: They’ve been using the same vat of grease for ninety-four years. See, Dyer’s doesn’t cook their hamburgers on a grill, instead dropping the hand-formed patties into the roiling runoff of the thousands of burgers that have gone before.

When Dyer’s opened up a second location in the ‘burbs, they hired a wholly unnecessary police escort to haul some of that famous grease to the new location. (Smart marketing, but rumor has it that the Board of Health didn’t let them actually use it.)

So how does Dyer’s keep the grease from getting overly nasty? We spoke to Sean, a server at Dyer’s who explained that the grease is filtered every night to remove burnt particles. As for how they stored it, he remained coy.

“That’s our little secret.”

We suspect they pop a lid on it and hope for the best—it takes a while for grease to go bad, especially when it’s heated to boiling for hours each day.

The burgers are served with or without cheese, but the condiment selection is sparse: mustard, onion, and pickle. But we hear tell of a “Filthy Diablo” burger, triple patties and triple cheese surrounding a sliced and fried polish sausage. Who needs ketchup when you’ve got kielbasa?

Despite reports to the contrary, Sean maintains that the only thing cooked in the grease are the burgers. Pity. All that beef tallow is just begging for some spuds.
Images, address, and more at the excellent… [Holly Eats]