Fort Worth named one of best burger cities in the U.S.

It’s no secret that DFW.com is burger-obsessed, having done a Battle of the Burgers every odd-numbered year since 2009. This year, we even started a Burger of the Week series to keep the momentum going in a non-Burger Battle year.

Readers of Conde Nast Traveler agree: Fort Worth has found a spot among the magazine’s Best Burgers in America: Top 15 Cities list, which was compiled from the mag’s 2015 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Fort Worth burger fans might not agree with the placement — No. 6 — or with the city that tops the list, Oklahoma City (Austin is also on the list, at No. 9 — time for a 388-mile I-35 burger road trip?).

The magazine cites four burger joints, three of which, coincidentally, are former Burger Battle winners: Fred’s Texas Cafe (2009 winner), Rodeo Goat (2013 winner) and Dutch’s Legendary Hamburgers (2015 winner and current champ). Also noted is the more old-school-leaning Greasy Bend Burgers in the Riverside Arts District just east of downtown Fort Worth.

Not that the descriptions are always on target: “At Fred’s Texas Cafe, chow down on Tex-Mex inspired specialty burgers.” Well, yeah, there’s the famous chipotle-topped Diablo Burger and a serrano burger, but the bulk of the burger menu leans toward such fare as the Fredburger, a bacon-mushroom burger, a blue-cheese burger and a BBQ cheddar burger. (You really want the Tex-Mex-inspired burgers? Go to Chuyito’s Texican Burgers on North Main Street between downtown and the Stockyards.)

Then there’s “The burgers at the Greasy Bend are true to their namesake.” Their namesake, according to the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association, was a rural community east and northeast of Fort Worth that was known as Greasy Bend in the 1800s, then known as Sylvania and later Riverside. Greasy Bend’s old-fashioned, thin-patty grill burgers are more of a tribute to burger cafes of the past such as Morris Neal’s Handy Hamburgers in Cleburne.

Some of Fort Worth’s longest-running burger joints — Kincaid’s, Tommy’s, Charley’s — aren’t mentioned in Conde Nast Traveler’s list. Some semi-hidden gems, such as Navajo Burger and Casa Burger, also go unmentioned. We’d also suggest checking out M&O Station Grill, Thurber Mingus, Swiss Pastry Shop’s burgers, Love Shack, Shaw’s, the burgers at some non-burger specific joints such as Little Red Wasp and the Bearded Lady, and some close-to-but-not-in-Fort-Worth joints such as Nicky D’s in Crowley and Bronson Rock in Keller.

H/T CultureMap Fort Worth, which spotted the list first (and has a photo by contributor Malcolm Mayhew, who has eaten a lot of burgers for DFW.com).

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 9:13 AM with the headline "Fort Worth named one of best burger cities in the U.S.."