Hamburger Restaurant | Tommy’s Burger California Style | Memphis, TN (tommysburgercastyle.com)
Restaurant openings happen so often you can drive down a street on Tuesday and the next month a restaurant on that street will be a completely different joint. We’ve taken to using the streets more often because when you’re on a highway you miss the changes in neighborhoods. Since we had to pick our daughter up from summer camp in South Memphis and we live on the opposite side of town, we started taking the two streets that will allow you to drive the 40 minutes across the city, Park and Poplar. While stuck at the intersection of Mt. Moriah and Park Avenue, we noticed a new sign on the bright yellow building which was formerly a breakfast spot. The spot can be considered a dive/diner, but it’s a location we never wanted to really try for food previously. The new sign was eye-catching. As former San Diegans, anytime we see Cali-styled Burgers we go into Homer Simpson drooling over donuts mode. We think about our college days and In-and-Out Burgers. Wifey and I made a decision to come back and try the spot as soon as we could.
Recently we’ve had a rash of Whataburger openings happening across the city and the lines have been insane. After finally getting a chance to try it, my immediate response was “Tommy’s Burgers are better.” Especially when it comes to price. Whataburger is obviously more convenient as a drive through, but if I were telling someone about options for fast food burgers Tommy’s has moved to the top of my list for the city. Here is the thing though… neither beats LBOE (which was bought out and closed by TJ Mulligans for some dumb reason) and the burgers don’t quite match up to Belly Acres:
But if I wanted to grab a burger at cheaper price than Belly Acres, that kind of reminded me of In-and-Out and was better than an extremely overhyped Whataburger, Tommy’s would be the spot. Take a look at the picture of my burger (only one pic since we ordered the same meals when we finally stopped by) and I’m sure it’s not a mistake that the family run operation is using those checkerboard wrappers. There were a variety of options for customizing the burgers and they also carried some Mexican food options. This plate stood out because of the use of corn meal on the onion rings. There was a touch of spice in the breading and the flavor was a welcomed surprise. In a city with so many options for eating losing LBOE left a hole in the market. While there are burgers joints touted as being the best, Tommy’s is the new kid on the block with a lot of promise as a challenger to the throne… although nothing will ever replace LBOE for us.
4969 PARK AVE, MEMPHIS, TN 38117
CALL US: (901) 572-1586