by David Cecelski
Yesterday I stopped for a flour burger at a little restaurant on NC 41 in Chinquapin. Flour burgers are a local delicacy in the little country places there in southern Duplin County. They’re made out of roughly equal parts of hamburger, flour, and onion, served on white bread, and, in my case, eaten with mustard and extra onion.
I’ve heard they’re a relic of the Great Depression, when a lot of people couldn’t afford much beef and stretched what beef they had by adding flour. Rarely, but now and then, I see them in out-of-the-way little cafes or old city grills in other parts of North Carolina. When I do find them elsewhere, they’re called either “dough burgers,” “slug burgers,” or “breaded burgers.” But in southern Duplin County, I see them far more than anywhere else and it’s the only place I’ve ever heard them called “flour burgers.”
They’re not hard to find along NC 41, that’s for sure. Almost every little grill on a 10 or 15 mile stretch of that narrow 2-lane road has them. I got mine at the Chinquapin Restaurant and Grill, but you can also get flour burgers atDixon’s Grill, an old, local favorite on NC 41 a mile west of Wallace. You’ll find them as well at Barbara’s Grocery and Grill in Pin Hook, a little community on NC 50, a winding little road that passes through the swamps between Chinquapin and Maple Hill.
Also, if you go a few miles north of NC 41, you can get locally legendary flour burgers at Eva Sue’s Grill. Eva Sue’s is located in the back on an old cinderblock mini-mart at Charity’s Crossroads on NC 11. Even Thig’s BBQ, on NC 111 (just across the county line in Onslow County), serves flour burgers. I know you used to be able to get them at the Carolina Country Store and Grill on NC 41, just east of Wallace, too.
While I’ve never seen flour burgers anywhere else, they’re sure still popular around southern Duplin County. When I was at the Chinquapin Restaurant and Grill yesterday, I heard maybe a dozen customers place orders—they were serving all kinds of other sandwiches, plus daily specials like baked pork chops, roast pork loin with gravy, and fried chicken. I bet half ordered flour burgers.
Duplin county is my old stomping ground. I grew up eating flour burgers in beulaville nc. I have lived in Greenville nc for the past 11 years but all my family lives in Duplin county so when we go visit flour burgers are what’s for lunch. I get cravings for them because you can’t get them in Greenville nc.
I have eaten at this restaurant many times. I have even helped them out on occasion. Friday night Seafood Night. I have never had a bad meal from here. The biscuits at breakfast are homemade from scratch. They serve great food, with a great attitude. Southern hospitality for sure. It is a place pretty much where everybody knows you name, or at least something good about you!
Nothing like a flour burger I always get one at any restaurant that sell them. My favorite is in Kinston at Lovick’s but I like them all!!!!
I always crave these burgers alot now that I don’t live in Beulaville anymore I have taught my self to make these at home. My husband who is from Baton Rouge, La had never had them now loves them…actually likes them so much that i made them last night for supper, he said they were so good and ask me if I couldn’t make them again tonight. So we had flour burgers again tonight. 🙂
I was born and raised right along Hwy 111 …haha you could say between Thig’s BBQ and Chinquapin Restaurant! Hwy 111 runs into 41 so it’s a straight shot. You can enjoy some flour burgers from either end. There was a tiny little burger shack in Chinquapin back in the early 80’s when I was a small kid going to Chinquapin Elem. I can remember my momma treating us to burgers once in awhile and they were amazing! I still mention that place. Even in Lyman, where I grew up, a crossroads on 111 a few miles before you get to Chinquapin. We had a grill/gas station that changed owners several times but they all fried up the flour burger. All the local farmers and their farm hands would fill the place up at lunchtime. It had a long bar that had maybe 15 barstools and I can remember when every one was taken! If you couldn’t sit down and eat you called in your order and they’d have it ready in 10-25 minutes for pick-up. Those were good days and good memories! My sister and I will be headed to Lyman for a visit from our homes in Wayne County and we always say how we wish there was a “gut-buster” grill like there used to be! There were plenty of Great Depression survivors still living in this area when I was a kid, in fact, my grandparents and great-grandma raised us. This tradition of using flour for burgers became nearly every grandma’s regular way of making them and it’s passed down generation to generation. I showed this article to several friends and each one said that was always how their momma made burgers and they do it like momma now as well. So, if you are driving through FountainTown, Lyman, Chinquapin (Go the other way to Beulaville, Pink Hill, Albertson, Scott’s Store too!) and on to Wallace and smell burgers cooking….. I’ll bet 90% are good old granny’s flour burgers sizzlin’ in a cast iron skillet!
Use to get them at Carrolls Grill in Wallace when I was younger. Always good.