MINDBLOWN…Utah Invented this TYPE of BURGER??

Let's go through some of the stuff that Utah has invented. Television (Philo was born basically in Beaver), fry sauce, JELL-O with vegetables in it, and churches with basketball courts. I thought that was it until I discovered that Utah gets credit for inventing/popularizing the Pastrami Burger.

Now Pastrami burgers are all the rage nowadays. You can get them anywhere finer things are sold.

You can get one in any state in any city heck you may be able to get one in Vegan-ville California these days. But Utah deserves the credit for popularizing the Pastrami burger.

According to Salt Lake City Magazine the Burger was invented in California but popularized at Crown Burgers in Utah: (full article here)

"The Pastrami Burger is quite the genealogical riddle. The mind boggles when you discover its Utah prominence can be laid at the feet of a Greek immigrant who learned to make it from a Turk in California, where Hebrew delicatessen food had found its way into a few burger stands.

It was Crown Burgers’ founder Manuel Katsanevas from whose head, like Athena from Zeus’, sprang the Pastrami Burger, fully formed and ready for battle. Katsanevas learned of the mythical pairing of pastrami and burger from his late brother James, who had picked up the combo in California, from the aforementioned anonymous Turk. But Katsanevas doesn’t like to admit that. Turks and Greeks don’t get along as well as pastrami and ground beef.

The resultant creation is served at almost every Greek originated burger spot. In the Socratic tradition, the essential burger is the logos and each restaurant imparts its particular impression. At the Apollo it is dubbed the Apollo Burger. At Olympus Burgers they call it the Olympus Burger. At Crown Burgers it is the Crown Burger, and so forth. The combination and the unique whole it creates informs them all. The paprika-spicy pastrami melds with the smoky char-grilled beef to create a pile of salty flavor, designed, it seems, by the old gods to make your mouth water. In Utah, it’s all Greek to us."

So add this to the list of things Utah has brought to the world. Not too shabby...