Hamburger America<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nMany Texas Tavern diners order a double-beef Cheesy Western. Burger maven George Motz feels he has settled on his favorite, with three fresh beef discs and chile. It tastes from this perspective like one patty too many, though. Two burgers give substantial beef flavor to the bite but don\u2019t overwhelm the rest of the ingredients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And to be sure, Motz is right about chile atop the egg. That has long been the way to go for the best possible version.<\/p>\n
None of these are on the menu. Longtime Texas Tavern customers know about the joint\u2019s secret menu. Owner Matt Bullington, whose great-grandfather Nick Bullington opened the place in 1930 and brought both the relish and the chile onto the menu, let Cardinal News in on some of those items.<\/p>\n
The Travis is named for a bartender who used to stop in after a late-night shift to find longtime TT employee Cecil Spradlin waiting to take his order. \u201cHe started getting the Cheesy Western with grilled ham on it, and then he liked to get hot dog chile on it, so we started calling it the Dirty Travis,\u201d Bullington said.<\/p>\n
The Diesel Dog is a hot dog wrapped in an egg and a slice of cheese, then all the toppings. \u201cSee, that one you need to serve on a plate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe normally sell hot dogs on wax paper. That\u2019s definitely a plate one. That\u2019s a pretty popular one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jumbo Jumbo is two double-meat cheesies stacked one atop the other, \u201ckind of like Big Mac-style,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have too many people order that one anymore. I named it after a guy who used to work at the VA who would come in and get one of those, plus a pint of chile and two hot dogs with a large buttermilk for lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doc spawned a book deal that took him to eateries across the United States. Motz said that his friend John Anderson, a Roanoker living in New York, told him about the Texas Tavern. Motz, trusting Anderson\u2019s opinion, headed for the Star City in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the day he came in,\u201d Bullington said. \u201cAnd he was just, you know, planning on getting a burger. I was like, \u2018Well, you need to get the Cheesy Western.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Cheesy Western, what\u2019s that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Motz, deep in his research by the time he got to Roanoke, had partaken of many griddled beef varieties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all of my travels, I had never tasted a burger like this,\u201d Motz said. \u201cIt was completely unique, and I think it was the combination of the cheese, the relish, and the egg.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the years passed, he has amended his cheesy order. Nowadays, he opts for three of the 1.4-ounce patties, with chile on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat seems to be the platonic ideal, right there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not simply the unique flavor he craves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat burger tastes so much better because of where you\u2019re eating it,\u201d he said. \u201cLocation really can define how your experience is going to taste, and without a doubt, if you sit at that dimpled, beat-up counter, beautifully aged patina on that counter, and you can hear, you could smell, you could see it all being done right in front of you. It makes it actually taste just a little bit better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to say it\u2019s like if you get a great pina colada and you\u2019re on the beach in the Caribbean, it tastes so good. There\u2019s something about the sights and the sounds and the smells and the salt air, but then when you go back and make the same exact pina colada in your kitchen at home, it never tastes the same. And so part of the flavor of the burger actually exists in the experience you can have when you\u2019re at Texas Tavern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Long Island, New York, native opened his own place in late 2023 to honor the vibes created in the joints he\u2019s chronicled. The restaurant, with a lunch counter that features a photo of the Texas Tavern and other spots, features his all-time favorite \u2014 the Oklahoma-style fried onion burger \u2014 a smash burger and a green chile cheeseburger, along with other luncheonette favorites.<\/p>\n
The menu has a spot for a rotating lineup of burgers from around the globe \u2014 singles or doubles of fresh ground chuck. Replication is a culinary science, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8740.jpeg\")
Texas Tavern owner Matt Bullington displays his restaurant\u2019s signature burger, the Cheesy Western, during a visit Wednesday to New York City\u2019s Hamburger America restaurant. At left, in a baseball cap, is Hamburger America owner George Motz, who is featuring the cheesy during May and has included the Texas Tavern in every edition of the eatery\u2019s namesake book, \u201cHamburger America.\u201d Courtesy of Molly Bullington.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get deep into the forensics and the granular details of each one of these [monthly] burgers and make sure that we\u2019re doing it correctly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe correct bun, the correct beef, every single thing is designed to be intentionally the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
His version of the Cheesy Western will be slightly larger, he said, as he wants a flavor resembling the triple-meat version he prefers in Roanoke, but with two patties. His will cost $13, compared to $3.95 for the Texas Tavern version. But it\u2019s New York City, where that\u2019s a good price, Motz said.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s median burger price was $21.21, the Bloomberg news service reported<\/a> in late 2025.<\/p>\nOn Wednesday, Bullington and Motz took turns slinging cheesies for a gathering of food reporters and others. Motz said he grew up cooking, learning from his mom and grandmother, so his early days as a hamburger maven held an easy learning curve when it came to preparing the sandwich for which the world knows him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did Motz\u2019s version hit the mark? \u201cYes!\u201d Molly Bullington replied via text message.<\/p>\n
In a video she shared, Motz stood in reverie with one half of a cheesy, having taken his first bite right through the center.<\/p>\n
\u201cMmm. Oh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it good?\u201d Matt Bullington said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d Motz replied. \u201cI nailed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Georgeatcounter.jpeg\")
George Motz at work in his New York restaurant, Hamburger America. Motz\u2019s monthly burger special for May is the Cheesy Western, from Roanoke\u2019s Texas Tavern. Motz has featured the tavern in every edition of his book, \u201cHamburger America: A State-by-State Guide to 220 of the Greatest Burger Joints Across the Country.\u201d Courtesy of Molly Bullington.<\/p>\n