Saturday before the Super Bowl, it was warm and sunny. I had my three boys with nothing planned. Sounds like a perfect recipe for…
ROVINSKY CHEESEBURGER ADVENTURE!!!!!
We headed to a Dallas Cheeseburger institution. Goff’s Hamburgers.
This place has a lot of history with my family. Let’s go back to when Goff’s first opened in 1950. The location was at Lovers and Devonshire. The Dallas Rovinskys lived at the corner of Greenbrier and Devonshire. My Zada was intrigued by the new hamburger place. He thought it would be good to try for a Sunday night dinner. He pulled out a $5 bill and handed it to my then 17 year old dad.
“Boy, go to the new burger place and get 4 burgers, 4 orders of potatoes, and 4 drinks”.
Dad headed down the street and came back with the order as directed.
“Boy, where’s my change?”. Dad looked around sheepishly…
“There is no change.”
“WHAT?!?! That place will be out of business in six months!”
Here we are 75 years later…but I digress.
One other point that is important to address in this story, in 1982 – summer between 8th grade and freshman year for me, I worked at Goffs. I worked there through my senior year in high school. I started at the Northaven location by the JCC. Then Harvey Goff would farm me out… Sometimes to Beltline and Midway, once in a while to the Lovers Lane location. I learned lessons about workplace survival that I carry with me to this day.
Goff’s is a charcoal grilled hamburger. 4 inch patty, 4 inch bun. An architectural masterpiece as far as burgers go. If you need a 12 inch skewer to hold the burger together when you’re done building it, you’re doing it wrong.
Goff’s is a burger known for it’s simplicity, and when simple things are done great, the outcome is spectacular.
Burgers are ordered by number. #1 is relish sauce and onions. The relish sauce is tangy and bright. Not quite a Thousand Island, not quite a Russian dressing. The Goff’s relish sauce was smashburger sauce 60 years before smashburgers were a thing.
#2 is hickory sauce. Also fantastic in it’s own right. The hickory sauce is like a thick ketchup with a delicious, smokey flavor.
#4 Is chili, cheese, and onions. What you see is what you get. A hearty, meaty chili that really sticks together. No drippy chili mess here. The cheese is the burger stand by – with a twist. American cheese…GRATED American cheese. The grated cheese is formed into a pile (by hand) and placed on the bottom bun – UNDER THE BURGER PATTY. This allows for a fantastic melt, which leads to one of the best burger bites you will ever find.
The onions at Goffs are the stuff of legend. They are diced at the food prep commissary (where all of the Goff’s food product are prepared). They are the perfect size and they offer the perfect bite…and they are SWEET. I’ve never tasted an onion quite like it. I don’t know how they do it. When I worked there, a woman once asked me “do they soak these onions in milk?” I don’t know how they do it, but I’m glad THEY know.
The boys ordered their burgers , got our number, and waited for delivery. The burgers arrived, and they were perfect. The boys dug in. We ate our burgers and reminisced about what Dallas was like when I was a kid…then when their grandpa was a kid. Hiram’s middle name is Doak, named after legendary SMU running back Doak Walker. Whaddya know, there’s a picture of ol’ #37 on the wall.
The boys asked me if I remembered how to make each burger, and they were FLOORED when I recited, ingredient by ingredient, each burger. I got to regale them with my favorite celebrity encounter. In the spring of 1984 I got to make a #11 (the gourmet) for none other than The Beautiful Harvey Martin. It was a Thursday night. Harvey and I were the only 2 people in the store. When I close my eyes, I can still see the scene...
Two seater silver and blue mercedes pulls up to the door. A GIANT DUDE climbs out. Silk shirt, sans-a-belt slacks. I recognized him immediately. I was trying my best not to gush, but I was probably like Chris Farley when he was trying to interview Paul McCartney (You're awesome, Mr. Martin). I told the boys this would be like making a hamburger for Micah Parsons (if Micah ever won Super Bowl MVP).
Back in the day, Goffs had a reputation for being the most expensive hamburger in the city. Now, when you look at the burger landscape with all the Hopp-Hud-village designer burger options, the Goffs hamburger is actually quite reasonable…and the quality and flavor BLOWS those $20 burgers away!!!
Final result, the boys say Goffs is their FAVORITE burger in Dallas (not quite in the burger adventure top 3, but great none the less).
(Goffs is the 23rd Rovinsky Cheeseburger Adventure. The top 4 require some time and effort to get to.
1 – Herd’s Hamburgers Jacksboro, TX
Tie for 2,3, and 4
Boot’s Hamburgers – Rockwall
Morris Neal’s Handy Hamburgers – Cleburne
Burgerland – Paris, TX
Here are the Rovinsky favorites locally
1. Goffs
2. Keller’s (Garland Road)
3. Del’s – Richardson
4. Adair’s – commerce street
For the entire list – or for more stories about working for Goffs (would you like your shake in a bag, etc) send me a pm.))