26.Passage 2
According to one account, the hamburger was first sold at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg,New York, in 1885, by brothers Frank and Charles Menches. The two Ohio brothers had arrived onthe grounds of the fair too late to get a supply of chopped pork for their sandwich concession. Thebutcher sold them beef instead, and after some experimentationthey formulated a sandwich, which they named after theBuffalo, New York, suburb where they were doing business.
Hamburg′s claim to be the site of the first hamburger is,disputed by the town of Seymour, Wisconsin, where a mannamed Charles Nagreen is claimed to have served hamburgersandwiches in 1885.
Another story about the origins of the ubiquitous burger states that in the late 1800′s FletcherDavis, a potter in Athens, Texas, wasn′t selling enough pottery. Therefore he opened a lunchcounter. His specialty A ground-beef patty served between slices of home-made bread. In 1904Davis went to the World′ s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, with his recipe, which was, of course, a big hit.
At the Fair the ground beef sandwich was deemed the hamburger, because in Hamburg, Germany,ground beef patties were popular, though the patties there are more like meat loaf and lack a bun. (Itis believed that 19th-century German sailors learned about eating raw shredded beef, "SteakTartare," in the Baltic Provinces. A German cook eventually had the idea of cooking the Tartaremixture.)
Fletcher Davis is also credited with serving fried potato strips at the World′s Fair. A friend inPads, Texas, had given him the idea, but a reporter thought that Davis said "Paris, France," andthose potatoes are forevermore "French Fries."
Another contender in the "hamburger invention" contest is Louie′ s Lunch, a Yale off-campuseatery. This Ne