Spent the last week or so with the family in the sparkling town of Des Moines, Iowa.  A few weeks back, while watching Rick Sebak’s excellent Sandwich documentary, we learned about the legendary chain known for it’s loose meat burgers (made famous, at least around our house, by the last few seasons of Roseanne).  So, we were thrilled to find out there was one at the mall around the corner from my parent’s house!

The Maid-Rite is more of a burger than a traditional sandwich, but, for those not from the mid-west, it’s quite the strange little guy, and well worth a few hundred words on the site, I reckon.  It’s a small chain, with a few dozen or so location around the mid-west.  They’re speciality, as I mentioned, is a loose meat sandwich, which means essentially ground chuck on a bun.  They throw some onions and pickles as well as ketchup and mustard and present it to you as a burger that rivals even Los Angeles’ own In-N-Out as far as being much more than you expect it to be.

If you got  Maid-Rite, you get a spoon.  That’s because there’s going to be left overs.  Except, here’s the amazing part.  It’s  not a messy sandwich.  Because it’s relatively low grease, there’s very little dripping of anything other than glorious mid-western grown beef.   Each sandwich is suprisingly filling, and despite being only slightly bigger than a McDonald’s hamburger, I found myself more or less full after just two of them.  They do cost a bit more than your usual fast food, but, again, there’s a big step up in terms of quality.

That right there is the remnants, for which the spoon is required.   It’s just a great sandwich, that fills you up and leaves you feeling that grand old feeling of home.

So, look, if you find yourself in the Mid-West, do yourself a favor and look up how close you are to a Maid-Rite.  Swing by the website here: http://www.maid-rite.com/

I give it a Rating: