In Fort Worth, Dutch’s Burgers is still an all-star in the lineup of TCU restaurants
Good TCU football seasons are great years for Dutch’s Hamburgers.
The 15-year-old burger grill, 3009 S. University Drive, is built to honor a century of Horned Frogs history.
It’s all a tribute to 1930s national championship TCU coach Dutch Meyer, a Hall of Famer known for telling teams to “fight ‘em till hell freezes over, then fight ‘em on the ice.”
Dutch’s, a former Texas Monthly top-50 pick for burgers, has added an adjacent bar, a rooftop terrace and a burrito stand since chef Lou Lambert and partners opened it in 2007.
But the prices haven’t changed much.
Everything costs less than $10 for burgers, or less than $15 with a side and drink. That’s for burgers that won a past Star-Telegram “Best Burger” judging.
“The faculty, the staff, the students have been just wonderful to us,” said Kay Hanson Greenlee, Dutch’s manager.
The students who started with Dutch’s 15 years ago are returning with their children.
“Now they come back as parents, year after year — it’s so fun,” Greenlee said.
It’s difficult to think of Dutch’s as a Fort Worth burger old-timer.
When it opened, it ushered sweet-sourdough buns and other extras into a city that mostly knew 1960s-1970s burger grills like Kincaid’s Hamburgers (served since 1964, although the grocery is much older), Fred’s Texas Cafe (since moved to Ridglea) and Charley’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers (opened in 1992 in a 1961-vintage burger stand).
But Dutch’s also had a retro feel, like a 1950s grill.
Now, it’s the old favorite in a neighborhood that also includes the new Jon’s Grille, 2905 W. Berry St.
There is no reason to pick favorites between Dutch’s and Jon’s. Both serve classic burgers. Jon’s has later hours, staying open until 2 a.m. nightly.
But fans come back for Dutch’s half-pound burgers, green chile burritos or first-rate “Frog Dogs” and Frito pie with serious Texas chili.
The prize-winning original burgers remain on the menu, such as a bacon-blue-cheeseburger with chipotle mayo or the “Vaquero” bacon-cheddar burger with fried onion-and-jalapeno strings and barbecue sauce.
Dutch’s has added a classic country-fried steak sandwich on sourdough.
And cooks have experimented with a few “extreme” items — a fried chicken sandwich with peanut butter, for example — but Dutch’s has generally avoided novelty toppings.
“It’s fun to mess around with burgers,” Greenlee said. “You never know what flavors are going to go together.”
The restaurant is a separate business from Lambert’s other projects, the Paris Coffee Shop, 704 W. Magnolia Ave., and Roy Pope Grocery, 2300 Merrick St.
Dutch’s is open for lunch and dinner daily; 817-927-5522, dutchshamburgers.com.
This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
