Akron site of first National Hamburger Festival
By Maria Lindsay

DOWNTOWN AKRON — Akron has been labeled the “home of the hamburger” and relishing it for years.

The city will finally get to show the rest of the country that it knows hamburgers better than anyone else at the first National Hamburger Festival set for Aug. 12-13 at Canal Park.

“This is food history,” said David “Coondog” O’Karma, a Cuyahoga Falls resident and nationally known competitive eater.

O’Karma was on hand at the Menches Brothers Restaurant & Bar at Canal Park April 7, along with a number of officials, to announce details of the local event.

Mayor Don Plusquellic said Canal Park was built not only for the Akron Aeros, but also as a venue for other events that would draw people to downtown.

“This is probably the best place to stage a national tribute, since Akron is the home of the hamburger,” Plusquellic said.

The festival has been several years in the making. In fact, it was O’Karma who tapped Drew Cerza, the promoter of the highly successful Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, N.Y., to help organize the local two-day festival.

“This summer, Akron will be able to brand itself as the ‘Hamburger capital of the world,’” said Cerza, president and chief executive officer of the RMI Promotion Group of New York.

The festival has all the ingredients that will mark it as a truly historic occasion.

First, four families from around the country will compete for the title of inventor of the hamburger during the “Hamburger Hearings.” Among those competing for the honor are: the family behind Menches Brothers, who claim their ancestors Frank and Charles Menches, two brothers who lived and worked in Akron, invented the hamburger at the New York State Fair in 1885; the family of Charlie Nagreen, of Seymour, Wis., who claim he created the hamburger in Seymour in 1885; the family of Fletcher Davis, of Athens, Texas, who claim Davis created the sandwich in 1904; and the family of Louis Lassen, of New Haven, Conn., which claims Lassen created it in 1900.

“The Menches family has long laid claim to the invention of the hamburger, and we plan to support them,” Plusquellic said.

In honor of the event, Menches Brothers, which also has a restaurant in Green, introduced its latest culinary delicacy, The Coondog Burger — a 10-pound hamburger named in honor of O’Karma. The restaurant’s latest invention will help to serve up one of the festival’s other activities — the Ohio Hamburger Eating Contest. Coondog started training for the event by stepping on a scale in preparation of chowing down on the monster burger, prepared by Menches chef Jim Lewis.

“199 pounds of hamburger hungry,” announced O’Karma.

After just a few bites, Coondog stated, “Menches makes the best hamburger.”

The National Hamburger Festival will include a number of other competitions — the best burger by an amateur and a restaurant, a baby burger contest and the crowning of Miss Hamburger Festival.

Also planned are cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, live music including Pirate Dreams, a Jimmy Buffet tribute band, and servings of hamburgers from more than 20 different restaurants.

Akron Children’s Hospital also will benefit from net revenue raised from the festival and will provide volunteers for the event. Money raised will go to the “Campaign for Kids,” the largest fund-raising initiative in the hospital’s history, with a $100 million goal for hospital endowment, equipment and programs.  


Tickets for the festival are $5 for adults and children ages 8 years old and older and free for children 7 and younger.