Hamburg Inn #2 Revisited
Half of the people reading this will understand. The rest can only wonder. On a trip back from Davenport last week I went thru Iowa City. After a wrong turn on Linn Street, I saw the Hamburg Inn #2 bldg. and screeched to a stop knowing I had to go inside after a 45 year absence. Nothing had changed. Same tables, signs that said Regan sat here, Clinton sat here . . . same menu boards on the wall with the same foods ... same off-campus population eating there . . . same closet-size kitchen in back. I had my usual cheeseburger & butterscotch shake (formerly eaten at 2 a.m. after studying). All tasted the same. . . the best ever. I told the waitress I may cry in my shake it was so good. She said I wasn't the first to return after decades to relive the experience. There, I feel better telling my feeble story. (P.S. I was in Ames recently & thought the whole downtown should be bulldozed and started over . . . must be the ugliest mainstreet in Iowa). Iowa City remains in a league of its own.
Hamburg Inn is out of this world good - Shannon was the one who introduced me to this place in college. Every time we go back to Iowa City we stop for the food .. and .. I ALWAYS get the butterscotch shake. MMmmmm MMmmm GOOD! Shannon has a T-Shirt from there that she still wears.
The current (August) issue of Outside Magazine lists Iowa City as "Best Town in the Midwest". They even include Hamburg Inn as part of the "perfect 48 hours" itinerary.
The Hamburg is quite possibly one of the best places, ever. Once discovered mid-way through my freshman year, I ate breakfast there every Sunday also after a study session at 2am. ;)
I've made it back once a year for a game and we always find time for a stop(sometimes two or three times). They have the best chicken fried steak, it's my meal of choice, and yes you've got to finish it off with a shake.
Oh and yes, BEST SHIRT EVER. I have five, some of them no longer have arm pits. :)
Ah, yes - Hamburg Inn. The B'scotch shake is so flavorful. The burgers are great too. One doesn't serve bad beef to Iowans and stay in business this long. And, as much longevity as the Airliner has, I don't give a bar (esp in a prime spot on the Pentacrest) as much credit as I feel Hamburg Inn deserves. The local family Pizza place (Paglia's?) still seems thriving, too. With the writer's workshop some of IC digs are even immortalized in fiction.
Speaking of the Burg.. randomly, my buddy out west sent me a pic of our breakfast last fall during a football weekend trip.
His favorite (bacon cheese burger) on the left, mine (chicken fried chicken with gravy) on the right.
click here to view photo
omg .. that is the best picture ever craig. I'm sooo hungry right now!! I wonder if they fed-ex?
Can it be? The toast on Craig's plate looks like cinnamon swirl. I'm soooo tempted to drive there tonight and get a platter! Anyone want to join me?
ha! cinnamon swirl it is. if i could make it, i'd be there.
for the right price, they just might fed-ex... that would rule!
they definitely need the extra money to put some work into their web site. maybe they'd be interested in some trade? :)
http://www.hamburginn.com/
You bet, Craig. Their burgers are much better than their web site. For example, what's with that nasty bouncing window in front of their site? Pleease stop that....
> How do you make an entry like your Aug 9 blog above, where you embed a "click here to view photo" link in a comment? Is that what you mean by an HTML tag, and is it relatively easy to do?
Ya, you have to type in the html code to link to a url using just text. It isn't too difficult - I'll post a quick tutorial under the help desk soon.
If you want to link to a web page you can also just type in the full url and it will automatically link.
When I last went back to Iowa for the first home game, we (of course) went back to the Hamburg for a delicious breakfast.
AND they have new coffee cups for sale - so I got myself one.
Click for photo