Ed’s Burger Joint
Ed’s Burger Joint https://www.facebook.com/Eds-Burger-Joint-625654774244154/?fref=ts is now open. It’s Robert St. John’s fifth or sixth restaurant open in Hattiesburg, depending on whether you think Branch is the Purple Parrot’s bar, or really its own thing. St. John remains the preeminent restaurateur of the Pine Belt. If you’ve never eaten at Tabella, The Mahogany Bar, the Purple Parrot, Crescent City Grill, or Branch, the keys to Robert’s success are the following: high quality service (typically the best in town), tight concepts, focused menus, and top shelf alcohol, with innovative menu items liberally sprinkled across the menus.
Ed’s Burger Joint continues that trend with everything but top shelf alcohol; only beer is available. St. John took the defunct and decrepit Little Tokyo building, gutted it, and constructed a charming faux-vintage tin-roof shack that would be far more at home on the beach in Gulfport than on Hardy Street in Hattiesburg. The decor and menu highlights Mississippi icon Elvis Presley, and the interior art features vintage hubcaps and dank memes starring Elvis and other pop culture icons (more on that later).
The menu is simple and a la carte, with burgers starting at $6 and going all the way up to $7.50. I had the basic burger, with a side of fries, a Yuengling, and an Oreo milkshake. The burgers come with two patties, totaling 7 oz. pre-cooked weight. The meat was well-seasoned, and cooked past medium, yet was not dry. The bun was a little large, but capably held the toppings and meat together. One of our party had the vegetarian black bean burger, which looked and smelled very meaty indeed; it came in one patty, presumably to easily differentiate it from the meat burgers. The pickles were not overly salty or sour, and worked well with the crisp onions, leaf lettuce, and tomatoes.
As an aside, visitors to Mississippi will not be aware of this, but there is a strong culinary tradition throughout the state of there being in every town one good plain hamburger joint. In Brookhaven, there’s the Star #1; in Jackson, there’s Big Al’s or the Cherokee Drive in; Corinth has the redoubtable slug burger; etc. Hattiesburg, notorious for having more restaurants than it has churches, and the most churches per capita in the state (or so it seems) had an embarrassment of riches in hamburger joints from the 60s to the 90s. Depending who you ask, there were at least a dozen, and each neighborhood had its favorite. By the time I moved here in 2002, we were down to Gus’s #2, the Coney Island Cafe, the Gold Post, and Po-Boy Express.
Ed’s harks back to that tradition, with the addition of horrifyingly expensive 80s arcade games (no one should pay $1.00 to play Galaga or Ms. Pac Man, except an embarrassingly man-bunned hipster; quarter a play or GTFO) and an inexplicable bocce ball court (yes, I love bocce; yes, I look forward to playing it there and at the Keg and Barrel’s new expansion; no I would not locate a bocce court within throwing distance of the intersection of 38th and Hardy Streets for obvious risk-averse reasons).
The fries and sweet potato fries were crisp and thoroughly cooked, but over-salted, particularly the regular fries. The side items that most intrigued were tater tots and onion rings, and they are on the list for a return visit, as is the blue cheese burger with bacon and caramelized onions. The Oreo milkshake was tasty; however, it is a crime that a pseudo-beachfront diner that exalts Elvis does not serve malts. Also, the lack of fruit flavors beyond banana in the milkshakes disturbs the Force.
The service was excellent. As always, St. John hires bright young things (male and female) who know how to smile and serve food, and never get you down. I question identifying customers by name, and having food delivered by shout-out, because frankly, none of the servers were loud enough to be heard more than 20 feet away. This did not unduly affect speed of service, but I foresee a change to either louder servers or numbers on tables.
Ed’s Burger Joint is a nice, kitschy mix of nostalgic elements and excellent burgers, and a solid beer menu featuring Mississippi craft beers and some macro-brews which all go well with the focus, which is, after all, the burgers. Not the best burgers in town (I still can’t decide between the Branch Burger and the Keg and Barrel’s burger menu for that honor), but definitely a good, unfancy burger that tugs at the heartstrings.
