In Search of the Burger, Week 1: Ebbets Field

Ebbets Field

Hours: 11–1:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m.–midnight Sunday

Address: 1027 E. Walnut St. (original home of Harry Durst, Springfield’s mayor in the 1930s)

Phone: (417) 865-5050

Décor: Sports theme

Notoriety: Nick Russo’s startup in 1981; named for Ebbets Field baseball stadium in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Seating: Inside or outside, front or back

Clientele: Relaxed, after-hours crowd

Face it. When Nick Russo sold Ebbets Field eight years ago, it lost some of its panache. But that was then and this is now – and Lance Reeves deserves credit for keeping the restaurant true to its origins and bringing customers back.

It’s been a couple of years since we stopped by Ebbets Field, but nothing significant has changed for the casual observer.

“What’s the best burger?” is the first thing out of Paul’s mouth as our waitress brings our menus and water.

The answer was Da Duke, a burger made with bacon and cheddar cheese ($6.75) and served with lettuce, tomato, dill pickle spear and potato chips. Of course, any place with a whole section of the menu devoted to burgers has to be part of this series of reviews. There are 10 varieties, all with colorful names. Da Dodger Blue is topped with bleu cheese dressing – “messy,” our waitress says. Da Bum is cheese only; Da Babe is topped with ham and provolone. Or you can be brave and try Da Fernando, topped with jalapeno peppers and bleu cheese.

All of them come with “no extra charge for onion, mayo, ketchup, mustard or servers with attitudes,” warns the menu.

We ordered Da Duke and Da Bum, sticking with our purist attitude toward this review of local hamburgers. By the way, spring for the fries.

The burgers were large half-pounders, hand formed and outstanding for flavor, with a good texture in the beef and a light dusting of cornmeal on the bun. Ebbets Field burgers feature Black Angus beef, which we found to be consistent across all of the better places on our tour.

Be sure to tell them how you want it cooked. Unlike a lot of places now that only cook hamburgers to well-done temperatures, we found Ebbets delivered medium – too rare for one of us and a little overdone for the other. They came with the usual toppings except for onion, which would have been a nice addition. We asked for a side of ranch dressing, which was too vinegary to use.

The verdict

Our Ebbets Field experience was somewhat uneven, given the fact that the underdone burger took way too long to be redone, our water glasses took too long to be refilled, and several gnats and flies seemed determined to eat our food before we could – even sitting inside. However, the stated philosophy of the place is “to try not to take things too seriously.” So considering the flavor was good, ask for an onion with your burger, skip the ranch dressing and enjoy a bit of local history with your meal.

Review by Paul and Kay Logsdon.[[In-content Ad]]