Featured image: Visit Corinth
Never heard of a slugburger? Before your imagination runs wild with images of a soft-bodied gastropod on a bun, let me fill you in on the truth of this culinary creation with a surprising name.
A slugburger is a delicious, crispy burger made by mixing potato flakes, flour, or other extenders into ground beef or pork before frying. Like casseroles and dumplings, the fortified burgers were a way to save money by stretching the amount of meat in a meal, satisfying taste buds and filling tummies.
Served on a bun with mustard, pickles, and onion, they gained popularity in Mississippi during the Great Depression as a tasty, cheaper way to feed a family. Today, this humble food that sustained families during tough times remains popular throughout regions of the South.
A Corinth Creation
John Weeks, a Corinth, Mississippi, resident with a background in the beef processing industry, devised a way to save money during the Great Depression and World War II by adding potato flakes and flour into ground beef. He sold his creations for a nickel—also called a slug—leading many people to believe this is where the name “slugburger” originated.
Over time, various recipes evolved to include soybean grits and other extenders making it the perfect money-saving meal during lean economic times. Crunchy on the outside with a tender center, the slugburger gained a following for its combination of pleasing textures and flavors and a penny-pinching price.
Popularity Spreads
Weeks sold his burgers from a portable restaurant on bicycle wheels, and eventually bought an old trolley car that he turned into a freestanding café. Booming popularity led to four more trolley-car cafés, and slugburgers grew into the regional favorite we know today.
Who would have guessed that a humble patty would end up drawing crowds at festivals and lunch counters throughout Northeast Mississippi, West Tennessee, and Northern Alabama? Almost a hundred years later fans still hunger for that taste of home.
Pitmaster and Nashville restaurateur Pat Martin can testify to the Mid-South’s love of slugburgers. At his Hugh-Baby’s restaurants, customers line up every Friday for this nostalgic burger substitute.
“When they’re really hot out of the fryer, they’re addictive. More often than not, most of our folks come in to buy a sack of them to take home,” Martin says.
Nostalgia plays a part in the burger’s appeal too, as witnessed by the many who gather at Borroum’s Drug Store in Corinth, Mississippi’s, oldest continuously operating drug store. Multi-generational families sip a shake and dine on slugburgers as the tradition is passed to the next generation.
The late Camille Borroum-Mitchell owned and managed the shop into her nineties.
Borroum-Mitchell, who passed away in 2023, shared her insights into the burger’s popularity in a Southern Foodways Alliance documentary:
“When you go somewhere and you’ve been gone a long time and you come back to something that’s still the same, it kind of makes you feel good all over,” she said.
Slugburger Festival
If you really want the full slugburger experience, head to Corinth July 10-12 for the Slugburger Festival. Now in its 38th year, the event draws people from around the region. Some proudly display festival T-shirts, a highly anticipated collectible each year. In 2024, 8,500 visitors attended the festival.
“It’s the biggest festival of the year and it’s what we’re known for,” says festival organizer Angela Avent. The three day celebration includes entertainment, a car show, vendor booths, a carnival, and of course tons of “slugs” as the locals call them. Last year, about 4,000 burgers were enjoyed by festival goers.
There’s also a singing contest called Slug Idol that draws contests from around the Mid-South, and a beauty pageant. Winners, from tots to teens, are dubbed “Miss Slugburger,” and reign at town festivals throughout the year.
“Some people just want to try them,” says Avent. “But they’re good, and I’ve never met anyone who tried them and didn’t like them.” For some, grabbing a bag of burgers is a weekly thing; for others, it’s a pilgrimage from nearby counties. “We’ve even shipped to Reno, Nevada,” she says.
Slugburger Trail
If you can’t make it to the Corinth festival, there are plenty of other opportunities to experience this culinary symbol of the South. Corinth is the center of this nostalgic delicacy.
In addition to Borroum’s Drug Store, the city’s Slugburger Café serves these hot numbers to customers who gather at the bar on red swivel stools. Another option is The White Trolley Café, which has specialized in slugburgers since 1947. Just down the highway from Corinth, Willie Weeks carries on the family tradition at Weeks’ Diner in Booneville.
In Tennessee, Nashville-born Hugh-baby’s delivers them with a side of Southern hospitality at three locations. You can also try Wink’s Diner and Pat’s Cafe in Selmer.
If you find yourself in Alabama, stop in at NeSmith’s Hamburgers in Moulton and ask for your slugburger “all the way” with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and onion. At C.F. Penn Hamburgers’ red and white tile burger joint in Decatur, families have been enjoying the treat since 1927. Other legendary spots include Dub’s Burgers in Athens, and Busy Bee Cafe in Cullman.
The slugburgers’ continued popularity proves there can be sweetness in hardship, since many enthusiasts remember this simple survival meal as a treat of their childhood.
Hungry for a taste of the past? Slide into one of the local diners or burger joints mentioned above and experience a unique taste of nostalgia.
