Want fruit with that burger?
Mixing meat with cherries, blueberries, and other fruits is a growing culinary trend.
The burgers at the Cherry Hut restaurant in Beulah, Mich., are a hit with customers. But these aren't ordinary hamburgers. Every summer, when tourists come to sample the state's bumper crop of cherries, the restaurant's co-owner Andy Case starts taking orders for the restaurant's popular burger. After broiling the patties in the kitchen, he slides them onto a bun and tops them with fixings. It's in this moment, before the first bite, that customers stir with anticipation because the Cherry Hut is home to an unlikely specialty – the cherry burger.
The burgers are filled with tart, or sour, cherries grown in northern Michigan – the cherry capital of the world.
Although people come to the Cherry Hut for the restaurant's cherry pies, the cherry burger has become a popular seller and a conversation starter. Mr. Case says he probably sells more cherry burgers than regular burgers. "People want to be more health conscious," he says. The cherry burger is "tasty, juicy, healthier."
A burger fit for Oprah
Adding cherries to burgers may seem a bit odd, but mixing tangy or sweet fruit with ground beef or poultry to form patties is becoming more common.
Donald Trump's restaurants – the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Sixteen in Chicago, and the Trump Bar and Grill at Trump Tower in New York – serve up the Mar-a-Lago turkey burger stuffed with diced Granny Smith apples and Major Grey's chutney and topped with an Anjou pear chutney that contains raisins or currants.
It's even turning the heads of celebrities. On her daytime talk show, Oprah said the Mar-a-Lago turkey burger "may be the best turkey burger in the entire world."
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