The Jersey Burger

New Jersey has made many contributions to the wide world of food. Saltwater taffy, the deep-fried hotdog known as the Ripper, and late night diner snack Disco fries, which are smothered in brown gravy and cheese, to name just a few. Jersey is also known for—but not the originator of—the slider. It is perhaps New Jersey’s immense number of working diners that have helped to keep the classic slider tradition alive and well. Places like White Manna in Hackensack and White Rose in Linden still make sliders the way White Castle did in the very beginning. Corporate White Castle today has nothing on the sliders of Manna and Rose, which serves a fresh-beef version that is probably identical to the burgers of 1920s America—small, simple, and addictively tasty.