Hamburger Station

Hamburger Station is a small chain of fast food stores in the Northeast Ohio, USA area. The hamburgers they serve are offered in a variety of quantities and are similar in size to White Castle hamburgers. The hamburgers are served on small buns with pickles, mustard, and loads of fresh onion. Eventually, cheeseburgers, fries, and ketchup were introduced as the boss caved in to customers' desires. French fries are fresh cut "fair style," fresh cut and battered onion rings, and lemonade is made from squeezed lemons on site. Also popular are Reuben Balls, the ingredients of a reuben sandwich rolled into a ball, breaded, and fried; Gyros and Chicken Sandwiches. The Canton Road location also serves breakfast.

Jim Lowe was a longtime employee of Thacker's Peppy Service Lunch counter- a very old and successful hamburger restaurant located on Akron's East Side. Thacker's opened their doors in the mid-20's, as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Plant #1 expanded rapidly to keep up with the burgeoning automotive industry. It was the hamburger of choice for many tired, hungry rubber workers, who worked only steps away, across the street. Eventually, workers from all over East Akron, nearby Ellet, and even downtown Akron beat a path to the delicious hamburgers. Over the years, Lowe acquired the recipe for the cooking oil that Date and Ted Thacker made up behind closed doors. As Goodyear production floundered in the early seventies (during the first US oil crisis), so did the phenomenal business done by Thacker's. Precipitated by the demise of the late Date Thacker and the elimination of the graveyard shift at Goodyear, Jim Lowe, in partnership with developer Arthur Michaels, opened the first Hamburger Station at 105 S. Main st. in downtown Akron, directly across from the First National Bank tower (now FirstEnergy Center) and below the studios of the now-defunct WSLR country music-format radio station. The small burger joint was an immediate success, with standing-room-only noontime crowds and lines of hungry white-collar workers lining up on Main Street waiting to get their hamburgers and watch Lowe (who worked side-by-side with his employees every weekday at lunch hour) and his team of speedy grille cooks in action in the front window of the shop. Originally, the menu was simple- burgers, soft drinks, coffee, milk, water, and pie by the slice, closely resembling that of Thacker's. With two small griddles (Thacker's single griddle was even smaller) and lots of hungry people on the same lunch hour, the guys had to be fast. Each grille man would not only cook, but would also cut and separate the buns and dress the burgers to order. All orders and requests were strictly oral- Lowe had no patience with people who had to write things down and even less patience with cooks who could not remember their orders. The grille cooks would often help each other out with forgotten orders or requests. They maintained their equipment, replenished their food supplies and sharpened their knives right there before the customers' eyes. The fast, skillful cooks (all were trained and approved by Lowe and several worked with him at Thackers) were often an interesting and entertaining sight to customers, especially first-timers and kids. Oftentimes, curious visitors would see the burger-flipping going on in the shop window and finally succumb to their appetites (and the aroma) and would come in to eat. The burgers were good- virtually no one could eat just one! Many times Lowe or one of the grille men would toss a handful of minced onion on the grille and the aroma would bring people in off the street- it usually worked. The burgers cost 35 cents each and a dozen burgers 'on wheels' (as Lowe would often yell) were just $3.99. A burger could be had 'plain','without'(onions),'with'(onion), and 'onion only' (no pickles). Grilled onions were added by request. Fresh, hot coffee was always mandatory with Lowe in charge. The restaurant's busiest days were the Saturdays featuring the All-American Soap Box Derby Parade, when several "hundred" "dozen" burgers were carried out of the shop. The success inspired Michaels and Lowe to expand their business, and in November 1976, Hamburger Station #2 was opened on Akron-Cleveland rd. (now called State rd.) and Bath rd. at Northampton Square, a rapidly developing portion of northern Summit County that had been recently annexed to the city of Cuyahoga Falls. Being in the more upscale, suburban locale, and on busy State Route 8, The Northampton Square location was originally open around the clock, but the nighttime traffic was lighter than anticipated as Route 8 was being relocated a few miles to the west, and the store hours were shortened in early 1977. Business was still good as word got out, and several years later, the chain consisted of several stores spread throughout Summit County and the greater Akron area. However, since Lowe's death in 2000, all of the locations except three were closed. The location of the original Hamburger Station is now a small park at the corner of S. main and Mill st. As of 2008 there are four locations: Canton Road in Akron, Manchester Road in Akron, State Road in Cuyahoga Falls, and Kent Road in Stow, which opened in April 2008.

Hamburger Station is the preferred hamburger restaurant of Akron blues-rockers the Black Keys. A photo of a Hamburger Station is featured in the collage on the cover of their 2004 album "Rubber Factory".