A Michigan Delicacy: The Olive Burger

Something not touched upon in my "Best Burger" article from January was a ubiquitous sandwich seen on the menu of many Michigan burger joints: The Olive Burger. It's pretty self-explanatory - a burger topped with olives, or an olive sauce. Usually olives soaked in mayonnaise, and if it's served with cheese, it's swiss. Incredibly salty and bland, no doubt, combining the worst in salted vegetables (in olives) with the most disappointing part of the Whopper (the mayo).

Let's explore this abomination, and how it came to wreak havoc on restaurant menus across the state:

Tom Rademacher of the Grand Rapids press, wrote an article in 2008 tracing the origins of the olive burger to 1929, at a Kewpee restaurant in Grand Rapids, MI. Haley Hansen of the Lansing State Journal puts the roots of the olive burger at 1923, at a Kewpee in Flint. In any case, two major Michigan newspapers put the roots of olive burgers at Kewpee Burgers in the 1920's.

In Hansen's article, she interviews writer and filmmaker George Motz, author of The Great American Burger Book, who claims that his first exposure to an olive burger was in the process of researching his book - exemplifying the idea that, perhaps, this monstrosity is contained to the Midwest.

Rademacher explores the recipe of the sauce, saying that the concoction was "mouth-watering" and "exotic." To that, Mr. Rademacher, I submit this scene from The Office (Season 6, Episode 24) where Michael Scott eats "exotic" mayo and olives as a joke:

Doesn't matter if the secret lays in olives, garlic, oregano, and feta. Doesn't matter if it's paprika, or anchovy paste. It's terrible, just like Yesterdog (who popped up in the middle of Rademacher's article and said "I have the secret recipe, and I'm not giving it to you," just like that kid on the playground in 4th grade who claimed to have a model girlfriend who went to a different school), and should remain hidden deep in the annals of history.

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