Review of Meers Store & Restaurant [Meers, Oklahoma]

So, we've been heading up to Lawton, Oklahoma twice a month now to meet up with a great role-playing group. (See the "nerd" part of Road Trip Nerd!) Another good friend who lives in Oklahoma told us about this amazing burger joint we HAD to visit. It was apparently a bit of a hole in the wall, but very well known locally. According to GPS, it was only about 30 minutes north of our final destination, so the husband and I thought it would make a good lunchtime stop before our game session started.

We followed the directions on my phone, but I started to worry a little bit when we started turning down smaller and smaller country roads. I told the husband that I hoped this wasn't some sort of twisted Oklahoman ploy to lure unsuspecting tourists into a trap! However, we persevered and soon the Meers Store & Restaurant came into view!


The Meers Store & Restaurant can boast that they've been "a historic dining establishment since 1901." One of the big reasons why people come from all over to eat a Meers Burger is that they're made from high quality meat from the restaurant's own Texas Longhorn herd. And come from all over they did. The line for seating started behind a small chained off area, snaked down a ramp, coiled around, and then went out the door. I started to get worried when 20 minutes passed and the line didn't move at all. However, some big groups finally left and the rest of us in line started moving forward slowly.


When you sit down, you have a laminated newspaper-style menu that lists all of the food options (plus, some other commentary on politics, the "wife," and more). I got quite a kick out it! The restaurant also takes their burgers pretty seriously. The menu lists the "rules" on ordering your burgers correctly:
• Our famous burgers are cooked medium well done and are served with mustard, dill pickles, tomatoes, purple onions, and green leaf lettuce. We use American cheese because our burgers are American burgers. We have been fixing them this way since the beginning, for over 50 years and this is the way our cowboys like them. 99% of our customers like them this way so this is why we respectfully call this burger (and your hats off boys) the COWBOY BURGER.
• Some folks like mayo on their burgers instead of mustard but call burgers with this a SISSY BURGER! Other folks like ketchup on their burgers instead of mustard. We call burgers with this a YANKEE BURGER! Cowboys believe ketchup belongs on fries, not beef.
• A few folks out there want all three---mustard, mayo, and ketchup---on their burgers. The poor fools are simply confused.
We don't care how you want your burger fixed. We will fix it any way you want it. We cook your burger to order. Try one with bacon, jalapeno or both. However, if you order something other then a cowboy burger, please be patient; our cooks rarely encounter sissies, Yankees or confused souls.

While there were other options that looked interesting (I really had my eye on the chicken-fried steak), it seemed only fitting to have a Meers burger for our first visit. I also ordered the fried pickles. Rather than dill pickles, they were actually made with bread & butter pickle chips, and were delicious!


We also decided to try the house beer, Meers Gold Brew, which is apparently brewed from an original recipe from the Choctaw Nation. There are no other options than the big 22 ounce bottle! The Meers folks believe that's what it takes to wash down one of their enormous burgers!

I wish I would have had room to try their homemade cobbler and vanilla ice cream, but we were both stuffed after our meal! The husband and I will definitely visit the Meers Store & Restaurant again, because there's so much more to sample off the menu! If you decide to go, make sure you're not on a tight time frame and bring cash. (The store doesn't accept credit cards, but there is an ATM onsite) However, the most important thing to bring is a big appetite!