Photo: Johnny RocketsThe Original
The burger the first Melrose counter served, and still the one to judge the place by. A beef patty with chopped onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, relish, mustard and mayo, grilled in full view and handed over in a paper wrapper. The relish gives it a sweet, old-fashioned tang that feels properly retro.
The story
Johnny Rockets is a copy of a real place. Ronn Teitelbaum modelled his first restaurant, a twenty-stool counter on Melrose Avenue in 1986, on The Apple Pan, a burger counter that has stood on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles since 1947 — no tables, a horseshoe counter, burgers handed over in paper. The point was not nostalgia for its own sake: the Apple Pan format works, because a cook facing the counter can serve everyone at once.
What’s inside
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the The Original 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
Big Mac Taco
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the The Original.- Sunset Boulevard · beef
Hereford Classic - Halo Burger · beef
SignatureQP Burger - Fatburger · beef
Kingburger - Big Boy · beef
Best Cheeseburger on the Planet
More from Johnny Rockets
About Johnny Rockets
Ronn Teitelbaum opened the first Johnny Rockets in 1986 as a tiny 20-stool counter on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. He modelled it, down to the counter seats and the burgers wrapped in paper, on The Apple Pan, a West Los Angeles burger counter that has been open since 1947. The idea was a sincere, not gimmicky, recreation of the malt shops of his childhood.
Around 90 US restaurants and a large presence in more than 30 countries.
Not affiliated with Johnny Rockets. Trademarks belong to their owners. The photo is credited under it and is used to illustrate this menu item; it comes down on request.