The Fluff Screamer

It may sound like a joke or an attention-grabbing stunt burger dreamed up for social media fame, but this is an actual regional burger and as such needs to be properly appreciated. From the heart of working-class Pennsylvania coal country comes a burger that is more science project than culinary delight, a burger oozing with pride (and sticky marshmallow goo): the Fluff Screamer. Two words I thought I’d never see together, but I’m sure glad I have.

Visit Girardville, Pennsylvania, and you’ll find yourself at the center of the Fluff Screamer universe. This strange concoction was invented in the 1970s when a sixteen-year-old girl would regularly visit and ask for Fluff on her burger. While Tony’s stocked the classic marshmallow spread for their hot chocolate, the staff would refuse to honor her request. Legend has it that eventually Tony’s niece, a waitress at the time, made it for her one day and people began to order the same. Half a century later the legend endures.