Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:42:22 -0500
From: Gene Galin
Subject: Siler City’s Burgermaster
Siler City’s Burgermaster
– By Chris Gigley
– Photography by Taylor Mathis
They’re not fancy or complicated, but for 64 years the cheeseburgers at Johnson’s Drive-In have attracted a following of diners devoted to the mouthwatering creations coming off of Claxton Johnson’s griddle.
Claxton Johnson pulls into the parking lot of his burger joint shortly after sunrise to meet a delivery truck.
Inside the truck are massive sides of Western grain-fed, USDA-choice beef. Johnson inspects each like a museum curator. “The best quality beef is from cows that have been fed a lot of grain,” says Johnson. “You want to look for a nice marble in the meat. That’s where the flavor comes from.”
Johnson has the weathered look of an old tobacco farmer, his face creased by time and his gait slightly stooped from decades of standing at the griddle inside Johnson’s Drive-In in Siler City. Leaning in close to look for the telltale marbling, he shows why he is a culinary master known around the state.
Johnson selects his beef and has it hauled into the back room of his restaurant. There, he and his son-in-law, Daniel Routh, grind it, roll it into tennis-ball-size mounds, and pack it into tubs. One by one, the tubs are placed beside Johnson at the griddle, where he grabs several mounds at a time, drops them onto the hot, sizzling surface, and presses them into patties. He waits for the juices to bubble, then flips.
Read the rest of the article at http://www.ourstate.com/johnsons-drive-in/