Wingfield's

I have never seen a larger hamburger, nor have I ever seen more meat on a grill at one time. Wingfield's in Dallas is bizarre. It's designed to impress, annoy, astonish, or petrify. It does all of them well.

It is a place for take-out only. We did not know that. We visited because we were in the neighborhood and because D magazine said it was the best burger place in Dallas. We decided to check it out. Really, a joint in the danger zone in Dallas (that is, the area of Dallas that is predominantly black, poor, and uncool by super-white standards) that has the best burger? Bullshit! No way! But we decided to try.

After wandering through a junk yard in the general vicinity (it was wild-crazy fun, me says!), we drove through the ugly streets of Dallas and found Wingfield's. It's in an area that one can easily interpret to be an uncomfortable area. I'm a white guy. I am OK with calling it that. People in the area are, for the most part, poor. And they are black. Or hispanic. Or without specific backgrounds, but poor anyway. Anyway, Wingfields's is an interesting place! It is take-out only. We did not know. We learned. And the menu is rather limited. Basically, you order burgers. You can get fries and onion rings, but you go to the place for burgers. They have doubles and triples on the menu, but they discourage ordering them. Another white group followed us in and the college-age guy ordered a double. The black woman asked if he was sure; she suggested to him he didn't really want that much meat. He backed off, which was a smart choice, we discovered. They have a triple on the menu. It must be something akin to eating a statue of ones self, but instead of marble, it's made of beef. My god, the amount of beef they cook for a single burger is phenomenol! I believe it must be a half pound, at least!

Anyway, when we finally got ours, we were delighted to be able to leave the place...outside, the temperature was only 102, while I am certain it was 119 inside and it was downright humid indoors! We wandered several blocks and found a Bank of America parking lot that looked friendly to us...so we stopped and ate our megaburgers! They tasted wonderful! But we want the place to build a patio. They are probably reeling from being named best burger in Dallas. It's a tiny little join in southeast Dallas, designed to serve a tiny poor clientele. Now, well-off Dallasites are visiting. It must be tough! But I hope they're bringing in the bread!