The Original Tasty Hamburger
The plain one, the way an old lunch counter would make it: a patty cooked to order with lettuce, pickles, ketchup and mustard. Small, inexpensive and quick, the kind of burger you buy two of. It also comes in the Starvin’ Student meal with fries and a can of Narragansett beer, which tells you who it is aimed at.
The story
The burger chain borrowed its name from the Tasty Sandwich Shop, a tiny diner that stood at the centre of Harvard Square from 1916 to 1997. It was seven feet wide, had fourteen stools and stayed open late, so it fed students, professors and the homeless at the same counter, and it appeared in Love Story and, in a scene shot in 1997, in Good Will Hunting. When its landlord ended the lease that year, the closure became a cause célèbre about chain stores pushing out local businesses. The city preserved its doorway; the space itself became a clothing store, a bank and then a pharmacy.
What’s inside
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the The Original Tasty Hamburger 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
Zachariah's Shack Burger - Shares beef
McDonald's McFeast (Copycat) - Shares beefMcDLT
Variations
The The Original Tasty Hamburger, taken somewhere it was never meant to go.Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the The Original Tasty Hamburger.- Halo Burger · beef
SignatureQP Burger - Burger King · beef
Hamburger - Arctic Circle · beef
Black Angus Hamburger - Culver's · beef
SignatureButterBurger “The Original”
More from Tasty Burger
About Tasty Burger
David DuBois and Phil Audino, who ran the Franklin restaurants in Boston, opened the first Tasty Burger in 2010 in a former gas station and garage in Fenway, a short walk from the ballpark. The look is a cheap-and-cheerful burger joint with beer, and the menu leans on classics: burgers cooked to order, chili dogs, tater tots and milkshakes. A second branch followed in South Boston, then Harvard Square, and at its peak there were six, including one in Washington, D.C.
A handful of restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, including Fenway and Harvard Square, plus concessions at Fenway Park.
Not affiliated with Tasty Burger. Trademarks belong to their owners. The photo shows my home version, not the restaurant’s product.