The Pastrami Burger

It was not predestined that this burger would become a regional specialty of Utah. But like just about everything else in life, there’s a perfectly good explanation for this unlikely occurrence. It started with the Greeks, of course.

There are so many stories about Greeks in the burger business that it would take an entire book to track their remarkable achievements in American burger history. The Billy Goat in Chicago; South 21 Drive-In in Charlotte, North Carolina; Zaharakos in Columbus, Indiana; and Val’s Burgers in Hayward, California, are just a few Greek-American burger success stories. So it’s not surprising to me that the pastrami burger was the result of a Greek burgerman, namely James Katsanevas.