The Olive Burger

Michigan has made its fair share of contributions to the gastronomic legacy of America. It gave birth to the breakfast cereal business, with both Post and Kellogg taking up residence in Battle Creek. Unquestionably some of the best Cornish pasties outside of Cornwall, England, can be found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And Michigan is one of the largest producers of asparagus and tart cherries in the United States.

But perhaps the strangest burger invention never to venture outside Michigan state lines (but profoundly popular within them) is the olive burger. The claims to the invention are varied depending with whom you consult. Some credit the Greek-owned Olympic Broil in Lansing with the creation of the first olive burger in the 1960s, but others say it was made much earlier at an original Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs location in Grand Rapids (which later became the flagship of a local burger chain called Mr. Fables). John Boyles, former owner of Mr. Fables, told me, “My father started putting olives on burgers in the 1930s when Mr. Fables was a Kewpee.” The restaurant sold a burger called the Deluxe Sandwich that came with a special mayonnaise and chopped olives. “Everybody called it the Olive Burger,” John explained.