Mama Burger
The single-patty member of the family, dressed with the same classic toppings. It is a lighter, simpler burger that leaves room for onion rings and a float. The kind of order that fits a quick stop at a drive-in on a summer evening.
The story
A&W spent its first forty years selling root beer, and when burgers finally became the main event in 1963 the chain gave them a family instead of a name each: Papa, Mama, Teen and Baby. It was a neat solution to a problem every drive-in had — explaining sizes to a car full of people through a speaker — and it turned the menu into something a child could order from. The Mama is the single patty, and the family names have outlived nearly every other piece of 1960s drive-in marketing.
What’s inside
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the Mama Burger yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares beef
McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe (Copycat) - Shares beef
McDonald's McFeast (Copycat) - Shares beef
McDLT - Shares beef
The Heisenberg Burger
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Mama Burger.- Burgerizzr · beef
Classic Beef Burger - Agadir · beef
Angus (250 g) - Whataburger · beef
SignatureWhataburger - Hungry Jack's · beef
SignatureWhopper
More from A&W Restaurants
About A&W Restaurants
A&W began in 1919, when Roy Allen opened a root beer stand in Lodi, California, for a parade welcoming soldiers home from the First World War. Frank Wright joined him a few years later, and they combined their initials into the name. It became one of America’s first franchise restaurant chains and the model for the drive-in, where food and frosty mugs of root beer came out to your car.
Several hundred restaurants, owned entirely by the franchisees who run them.
Not affiliated with A&W Restaurants. Trademarks belong to their owners.