The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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July 23, 2009

Mike Pound: Biting into that Eastside pride

A couple of weeks ago, I drove up to Rich Hill to get on the outside of a cheeseburger at Swopes Drive-In.

I didn’t want to drive up to Rich Hill to dive into a great cheeseburger, but a couple friends of mine said Swopes turned out quite a burger, so I had to check it out — not so much for myself, but for the four or five people who read this column.

After I wrote about Swopes, a lot of very nice people wrote or e-mailed to let me know about other great burger places. It seems that just about every town has a burger place to which folks tend to flock. And it seems that just about every town believes its burger place is the best one around.

I think that’s a good thing. I think folks should take pride in their hometown burger place. Well, not so much pride that they go to war over the deal, but they should be willing to brag a little bit.

Laura Hammons e-mailed last week to brag a little bit about the Eastside Pizza and Grill in Lamar. Well, she bragged about the Eastside Station and Deli, but, as I discovered, the place also is known as the Eastside Pizza and Grill. It’s located at 1008 E. 12th St. If you don’t know, 12th Street in Lamar also is Highway 160, and the Eastside Pizza and Grill is located on the far east side of town.

Laura told me that the burgers at the Eastside are patted up fresh every morning. She told me that they serve up great homemade onion rings, and that they roll out made-from-scratch pies.

Laura’s e-mail spoke to me.

Laura also told me that her daughter owns the Eastside Pizza and Grill, so I figured I needed to factor a little parental pride into her burger-place recommendation. But I also figured that I owed it to the three or four people who read this column to drive up to Lamar and check the place out.

No need to thank me. I’m just doing my job.

I drove up to Lamar and found the Eastside Pizza and Grill without much of a problem. The place is attached to the Eastside gas station, hence the name. The place doesn’t have that small, walk-up-and-order-through-the-little-window roadside charm that Swopes has, but it still has a nice, comfortable “how ya doing?” feeling.

I walked up to the counter and scanned the menu on a large sign hanging from the ceiling. The first burger that caught my eye was the Jumbo Cheeseburger. According to the menu, the Jumbo Cheeseburger contained a full 1-pound burger. I thought about ordering it, but then I heard the voice of Rich, my doctor in Carthage, inside my head. So I passed on the Jumbo Cheeseburger. I also passed on something called The Heart Stopper, which, according to the menu, contained two third-pound burgers.

Instead, I opted for the Big Bear Burger. The Big Bear had only a half-pound burger. I could still hear Rich’s voice in my head, but it wasn’t as loud.

The Big Bear Burger was topped with cheddar cheese, grilled mushrooms and onions, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. It was, I can say without any fear of contradiction, a great burger. I also ordered some onion rings. They were as Laura said they were: homemade, hot and very, very good. I asked one of the six or seven women working in the place if the onion rings really were served up from scratch. She said they were, and I had no reason to doubt her.

The one thing I didn’t do was order a piece of homemade pie. I am, after all, a man of some moderation.

The woman who I asked about the onion rings also told me that the folks at the grill make a great Reuben sandwich. I love Reubens, so I made a mental note.

Look, I can’t spend all my valuable working days checking out great places to eat, but if you have a local favorite, drop me a line. I can’t promise I’ll get to all of them, but I’m relatively young, have some time on my hands and am quite determined.

To quote a famous Southern babe: “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again.”

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