Three Great Burger Joints in Las Vegas Reviewed

It is said that the earliest people to visit the Las Vegas area were a nomadic tribe called Paleo-Indians about ten thousand years ago.  This is backed by petroglyphs they left behind.  About two thousand years ago, evidence of the Paiute and Anasazi tribes are said to follow.

Rafael Rivera, from Mexico, visited the valley in 1829.  The name, Las Vegas, means “the meadows” in Spanish.  There were desert springs and wild grasses that were helpful for those who traveled from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.  In 1844, John C. Fremont moved to Las Vegas and wrote extensively about the area which brought pioneers to the area.

The Latter-Day Saints Church built a fort to help move supplies from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles and vice versa.  The Old Mormon Fort was abandoned several years later.

Incorporated as a city in 1911, Las Vegas didn’t see much growth until 1931 when Nevada legalized casino gambling and granted divorces after a six-week residency.  The construction of Hoover Dam also brought in a lot of workers.

It is crazy to think that the first census taken in 1900 showed a population of only twenty-five people.  Today there are over seven hundred thousand residents and it keeps growing.  With so many mouths to feed, burger joints are very popular.

Bobby’s Burger Palace on the Strip is a popular place with visitors and residents alike.  Chef Bobby Flay is known for his travels on the Food Network on his show Food Nation.  While he is an amazing chef, he loves burgers and has over a dozen signature burgers in his restaurant.

Bobby has always been at home in the kitchen.  At the age of ten he requested an Easy-Bake Over for his birthday.  He loved to create complex after-school treats and took charge of his mother’s grocery lists.

Receiving the Outstanding Graduate Award from the French Culinary School, Bobby Flay went on to open both high end and down-home restaurants.  He moved easy with exclusive clientele as well as the masses.  Today there are over seventeen Bobby’s Burger Palace locations across the United States.  His Las Vegas location has over one thousand two hundred reviews online giving him a strong four-star rating.

Located at 8872 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 100 in Las Vegas, is Truffles N Bacon Café. The dream of Chef Jackie Lim who grew up in Modesto, California.  Chef Jackie started her career in a small diner in the late eighties.  This is where her passion for cooking and working as a chef grew.

As a self-taught Chef, Jackie moved on to work in many famous restaurants from Los Angeles to New York where her talents and hard work paid off.  Her range of clientele was from senators, ex-presidents and socialites to average people.

The other half of Truffles N Bacon Café is Magnolia Magat.  Magnolia grew up in the Philippines working in the family business.  She was never given a break and was expected to work harder than anyone else.  This paid off as she was able to prove herself and got a seat on the board of directors.

When Magnolia moved to the United States, she had to re-create her career path.  Taking a part time job in the customer service and retail industry, she took her work ethic to heart and within two years she moved from part-time sales associate to associate manager.

After fourteen years in New York and the disastrous 9-11 attack, Magnolia and Jackie started to dream of opening their own restaurant.  Their dream became a reality in February of 2014 when they opened Truffles N Bacon Café in Las Vegas.  Today they have over four hundred positive internet posts netting them a four-point-four-star rating.

Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers has been a tradition since 1946.  They have over thirty locations in California and three in Southern Nevada.  Their location in Northwest Las Vegas has over two hundred and sixty web reviews.

The concept behind Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers was to have a limited simple menu featuring low-priced high quality foods.  Simple things like hamburgers, hot dogs and tamales are on the menu to this day.

Son of Greek immigrants, Tom Koulax was the creator of Tommy’s Original.  The first restaurant was a small burger stand in Los Angeles at Rampart and Beverly Boulevards.  His hard work and commitment to the stand started to pay off in the mid 1950’s when the business took off.

Tom had to expand the operation in the 1960’s and opened a second location.  In the 1970’s, Tommy opened five new restaurants and the rest they say is history.

There are many knock off restaurants using the “Tommy’s” name but in order to get to the Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers, you need to look for the shack in the logo.