Posted by Michael Stern on April 25, 2009
This pleasant suburban restaurant with an outdoor patio under tall silver poplars is one of a small local chain that built its reputation on hamburgers. Huge hamburgers, about the size and shape of a toy football: one-half pound of rosy beef, encased in dark crust, arrives at your table with dark rye bread, the implication being you could eat it like a sandwich. But it is way too big to pick up in your hands, and the juicy red meat tends to fall apart. So you dig in to the mighty mound with knife and fork. A Hackneyburger comes with French fries, cole slaw, and sliced raw onion, but those in the know pay extra for a fried onion loaf – a great tangled brick of fried sweet Spanish onions with a devilish crunch.
Hamburgers are Hackney’s glory, but we must also tip our hats to dandy daily specials that have been on the menu at least since we became regular customers back in the 1960s: bratwurst on Monday, hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes on Tuesday, meat loaf on Wednesday, corned beef and cabbage on Thursday, and a crunchy fish fry on Friday, when the choice includes midwestern favorites lake perch and walleye pike.
Autumn is an especially good time to visit for Octoberfest. You’ll have to choose between the magnificent burgers and plates of bratwurst with German potato salad and braised red cabbage. We are glad to be two people at such times, because we are able to divide our loyalties, splitting both a burger and a bratwurst plate and, of course, an onion brick. But we are unified when it comes time for dessert: identical-twin plates of warm apple strudel a la mode.
Overall: Worth planning a day around
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Reviewers "Must Eats" List
onion loaf
($8.00)
hamburger
($8.00)
"Hackney's signature appetizer is the onion loaf, a tower of tangled, crunchy onion rings. This is big enough for three to easily share."
buffetbuster
"It is possible to order the half-pound Hackneyburger on a regular roll, but those in the know get it on dark rye."
buffetbuster
"While there is plenty of indoor seating available, the seats of choice during warm weather are on the comfortable oudoor patio."
buffetbuster
"For gigantic hamburgers and fried onion loaves to die for, this sign is a beacon of excellence."
Michael Stern
