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| Yes, Gabe Antrobus’s hands are clean, and we requested his help with the photo! |
I have been eating and writing about burgers for many years, and to this day people still ask me about local food options and where to have lunch.
Burgers, however, have been the foundation of many of my ramblings since the first time I began writing small business stories. A woman at a local elementary once met me and said, “You’re the guy who eats cheeseburgers and writes about it, aren’t you?”
The best burger I ever tasted? That was a rare, hand-patted bit of heaven crafted by John McGlone for a cooking contest during a past Boyd County Fair.
The best commercially prepared burger?
That happened Tuesday when I approached The Drive-In’s food truck and Gabe Antrobus grilled up one of their new “Summertime Classic” burgers.
I walked to the pop-up shelter next door and picked up a few bucks worth of locally grown vegetables (cherry tomatoes, potatoes and a cantaloupe) while The Drive-In team cooked it up. Upon serving, Gabe pointed out the generous slices of tomato and onion came from the same family farmers I had just visited.
We ate in the car and my wife enjoyed her favorite, The Big T, with fries. For me, the Summertime Classic was “love at first bite with mayo in my beard.”
The Drive-In staff do an outstanding job of letting the public know where the food truck will be from day to day. The restaurant in Olive Hill has also become a certifiable tourist destination, with a menu drawing visitors who drive (literally) hundreds of miles to see if the good reviews are true.
I initially thought my Summertime Classic had too big a slice of onion, but in that first moment when you wait for your senses to react to a new thing , my actual thought was “That is the best burger I have ever tasted.”
The Summertime Classic is made with “two-ounce patties, American cheese, on the bottom, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. On top, tomatoes, onion and mayo!” according to The Drive-In owner, Todd Antrobus.
The owner later added, “Only garden fresh tomatoes. We won’t desecrate one of our sandwiches with store bought tomatoes!”