Lee's Hamburgers — Restaurant in Louisiana

"A trip to ancient grease...."

I grew up on these slices (or slabs--your call) of heaven. Old Mr. Lee used to work the docks, selling his burgers. Easy menu then to remember: onion burgers with raw onions and onion burgers without raw onions.

Over the years he decided that he could do better at the RKO, so he moved his operation there. He'd show up with a cart and some meat and onions and sell burgers until he ran out of meat, then go home. He'd show up when he showed up and when he didn't...he didn't. No one had a clue where he was when he wasn't there. Maybe there was no there there.

He opened an actual restaurant on Tulane Avenue sometime during the 40's or 50's. It wasn't easy to know when he was open since, though he had a phone, he didn't list his number. Why? Dunno....

Hurricane blew the original restaurant more or less down; opened new one two blocks away, also on Tulane. At some point, my high school sweetheart and I were there and I saw a phone siting on a step well behind the counter--which he had salvaged from the old place, along with the stove and the seats. I pointed out to him that he had a phone. He asked me "so what?" Well, you don't have a listed number. So? So if I had the number, I could call and see if you're open. Do you eat here a lot? Not as much as I probably would if I knew that I didn't have to drive halfway across town to find out that you're closed.

Hmmmmm....then (to his "sous chef"), grinning, "give him the number." I felt like I had just gotten a Top Secret security clearance.

In time, the elderly Mr. Lee started cooking burgers in heaven, but a local member of the NOPD had somehow come into possession of the shop. That lasted about half a year--business conflicted with being a cop, so he sold it to some young yahoo who didn't understand the deep ethic of Lee's hamburgers. He even put lettuce and tomato on them. Blasphemy. That attempt lasted about two weeks and he closed up.

Several years passed and eventually someone else--don't know who and don't care--opened a Lee's hamburgers that are very nearly identical replicas of the originals. Proving just how reliable Dr. Pavlov's findings were, I'm salivating as I'm writing this. And planning of grabbing a few on my way to pick up friends at the...

seriously...i wish I would of known these people could not even provide something as simple as a plastic knife.. they didn't have a single one in the entire place.. I looked, nothing. I asked the cashier and he looked and he couldn't find one. Then some other guy came out of nowhere when I complained about not having a knife ..gave me lip and said they were right where they always are.. I went up front again and nope...not one knife. AND not one apology for the attitude. I have no teeth, I lost them as a result of a chronic illness so a simple thing that most take for granted like a knife is a big thing to me. Being treated with the disrespect I was treated with just made things that much worse....OOO and the guy behind the register had the nerve to call me rude. YES he called me rude because I got upset at the way I was treated. Apparently I was suppose to smile and endure without mentioning my...

Always had good food here. Even parked here during the parades because it is a place I know. The restaurant as a whole is a 5* review. But the entrance is a 1*. I drive a Prelude so it is factory built a little lower than a normal car. I can not enter the driveway without bottoming out and scraping my front bumper. No matter what angle I take it slow speed I take holding up traffic behind me I feel it scrape. I actually eat here less than I want to because I don't want to damage my vehicle so I keep driving down Veterans to a place with a better driveway entrance. I just finished paying $2,900 on a new front end and don't want to ruin it using your beyond bad driveway entrance. The parking lot isn't in the best condition either. Fix the terrible entrance and you will probably get more people wanting to use it to buy your...