Manny’s Burgers: Plenty Big and Flavorful

Before McDonald’s flipped its first burger, before Hardee’s and Burger King and before KFC there was Manny’s Burgers, a popular, flat-topped, walk-up joint in Norfolk.

Debuted in 1950 at the dawn of America’s fast food era, Manny’s looks much the same as it always has: an asphalt moat surrounding a squat rectangle building with red trim around the roof awning. The fading sign out front still boasts a gigantic picture of Manny’s signature burger. Friendly workers still peer through two tiny sliding doors, scrawling orders for burgers and dogs on paper pads before tearing off the bottom and handing the number to the faithful.

On a recent sunny day before spring had truly sprung, I tooled on over to Manny’s to check out what keeps the faithful faithful. A short line had formed at the ordering window to the right of the building allowing time to contemplate the massive menu board between the two windows.

Would it be the revered namesake Manny Burger ($5.99), a recipe that puts the “ham” in hamburger? Here, a beef patty gets topped with a sturdy flap of deli ham, a fistful of shredded iceberg lettuce and a slab of tomato. Below, the soft, white bun comes slathered in yellow mustard and topped with shards of fresh onion.

Or perhaps I’d try a steak-and-cheese sandwich ($6.49) topped with lettuce, tomato and fried onions? Or the barbecue sandwich ($6.09), which workers pass through the window topped with cole slaw and plenty of hot sauce? Or the special, scrawled on a chalkboard - tilapia or whiting + fries ($12.29), or maybe just a plain old hotdog ($3.29).

Two Granby High School seniors, moments earlier sprung from the school day, lingered in line in front of me.

“Get the Manny’s Special,” Ethan Guerra advised. “It has a nice combination of flavors. The ham is a nice little touch.”

And so I did. Shortly thereafter a lady shouted through the window, “Number 94!” and handed me my “Manny’s Burger Special ($8.87) along with its 20-ounce styrofoam cup of shockingly sweet iced tea. 

A quiver of crinkle-cut fries (oddly packed in a cellophane pouch meant to hold an egg roll) poked from the top of the white paper bag. It hid the main event, the famous Manny burger, wrapped in white paper secured with a wooden toothpick. A small cup of catsup and two tiny packets of pepper and one of salt rounded out the meal.

The Manny burger is plenty big (the bun measured nearly 5 inches in diameter and the whole sammie weighed in at nearly 11 ounces). And it is plenty flavorful, the ham lending a bit of salty, porkiness to the beefy foundation. The absence of mayonnaise lent a welcome change of pace.

But looking around I wondered where to chow down on this old school feast? A Manny’s Burger website page that reads like AI prose, touts “Indoor Dining - Heated Outdoor Seating.” 

Don’t believe it.

A pair of aging, plastic picnic tables sits off to the side of the building under the canopy of a big, old tree. But the sloping seats seem to long ago have sunk into the ground.

Better to do what I saw a constant stream of the Manny’s faithful do: order up and take that goodness home with you. 

Food Find: 

Manny’s Burgers
mannys-burger.wheree.com/
2812 Lafayette Blvd. • Norfolk
757-855-7246

Mon.-Sat.: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Closed on Sunday

Combo meals: $8.87-$11.47
Burgers: $4.69-$8.87
Sandwiches: $4.89-$6.09
Baskets: $7.09-$11.29
Sides: $2.09-$3.99
Drinks: $1.49-$1.99
Soup and pots: $6.95-$19.95
Beef, lamb and pork entrees: $14.95-$17.95
Seafood entrees: $14.95-$16.95   

Lorraine Eaton, formerly with the Virginian-Pilot, is co-author of the “Food Lover’s Guide to Virginia,” and author of “Tidewater Table,” a local bestseller. She has won numerous writing awards, and her work has been included in “Best Food Writing.” Lorraine lives in Va. Beach.