Laura’s Little Burger Joint
47141 M-51There are so many great burger places across the state. Mlive has done their best burger search. There are blogs just focused on burgers in the Detroit Metro area. There are just so many great burgers in the state of Michigan.
One of the places that comes up quite a bit when talking about good burgers is a small drive thru place just outside of Decatur. It has taken me many, many years to be in Decatur while the place is actually open but last week, I finally made it.
Laura’s Little Burger Joint is southwest of Decatur on M-51. The small blue and white burger stand is near Celery Center Road in Hamilton Township. It’s a walk up type place with a parking lot on one side and a drive thru pick up window on the other.
I’ve always had trouble finding Laura’s Little Burger Joint open because they used to be seasonal. I seem to always go towards Decatur in the winter. They’ve switched to year round service this year.
I was in Decatur last week in the morning. The restaurant didn’t open until 11 so I made excuses to hang out in town until then. I was able to distract my co-worker longer enough to make it to 11.
The order window is just that. A window in the side of the building. The menu is on a board next to the window and, as you’d expect, the main focus is burgers. Sure they have other sandwiches….and even some Mexican options, but it’s the burgers that you go to Laura’s for.
I ordered the Jalapeno and Swiss burger with a an order of fries. The cost was not much over $10 which I paid for in cash. I took a seat on a bench near the order window to wait. It took close to 20 minutes for my order to come up which was really surprising. There wasn’t a long line…there was only one other person in front of me and the business had just opened about ten minutes before I got there. This was supposed to be a pretty quick stop to get food and get back on the road.
Laura’s Little Burger Joint is, for the most part, a carry-out place. There’s no indoor dining but they do have a dozen or so picnic tables so you can eat on site, even during the current COVID restrictions if you choose to.
It took a while to get my food but everything was hot when I got it. I opened up the bag and it was really steamy. I unwrapped the burger and set it on the dash to cool while I dug in to the fries.
The fries are pretty simple frozen fast food fries. They came in a white paper bag and, like the burger, were super hot when I got them. I burned my mouth a couple of times because I’m just not patient enough to let everything cool down. For $2.25 the portion size is pretty big. The fries could benefit from a dipping sauce but I was in the car so I ate them as is.
I grabbed the burger when I finished the fries. I had given it enough time to cool…but it was still really hot.
The burgers from Laura’s Little Burger Joint are simple. The patty is 7 oz. of fresh ground beef. The burger is what really makes Laura’s something special. The meat is lightly seasoned, very loosely packed, and picks up a nice char around the edges from the grill it’s cooked on. The cheese just oozes into the crevices of the burger so you end up with a gooey bit of cheese and beef in every bite. There were only a few thick sliced jalapenos between the cheese and the pretty standard white bun but those few jalapenos were enough to give this sandwich a pretty big kick.
Laura’s Little Burger Joint is special because it keeps things simple but does things really well. The burgers are done the way burgers are supposed to be done. They’re not going to have fancy toppings or fancy bread. They keep it simple and that works….really well….for them.
SW Michigan Dining 