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Redhot Ranch
Redhot Ranch was founded by Barry Nemerow and Jeff Greenfield — the same duo behind The Wieners Circle — starting with a single hot dog stand in 2005 near White Sox Park on the South Side, built around reviving the classic Chicago-style "Depression Dog": mustard, relish, onion, sport peppers, and fresh-cut fries, no ketchup in sight. The burger came later and almost as an afterthought, which makes its current popularity a bit of a reversal of the original plan. In 2014, the team opened two more locations and added a double cheeseburger modeled directly on In-N-Out's format — a style that barely existed in Chicago's home-grown fast-food scene at the time. The charburger caught on fast enough that it quickly outpaced the hot dogs that built the brand in the first place, developing its own cult following across Chicagoland independent of Redhot Ranch's original identity as a hot dog stand. That hot dog pedigree still matters for context: Redhot Ranch was inducted into the Hot Dog Hall of Fame as its 151st member, recognition for the original Depression Dog rather than the burger — a reminder that this is fundamentally a Chicago hot dog stand that happens to also make an excellent smash-style cheeseburger, not a burger restaurant that added dogs as an afterthought. Nemerow and Greenfield's earlier work at The Wieners Circle is worth knowing for anyone expecting a quiet counter-service experience — both businesses share a certain unapologetic, no-frills Chicago attitude, prioritizing the food over polish or hospitality theater. That same directness carries over to the burger: no elaborate build, no house sauce mythology, just a well-executed double-patty smashburger sold at a genuine value price point across three no-nonsense counter locations. Nemerow and Greenfield's first Redhot Ranch (originally called 35th Street Redhots) opened in the summer of 2005 near the old Comiskey Park/White Sox Park area on the South Side, well before the burger existed at all. The RHR charburger itself has a specific origin story: the pair got the idea in 2013 while eating at an In-N-Out in Las Vegas, and came home to build their own version — fresh patties, melted cheese, mustard, ketchup, sport peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a house special sauce — onto a menu that had spent its first eight years focused entirely on hot dogs. In April 2024, the city of Chicago gave Redhot Ranch an honorary day alongside its formal induction into the Hot Dog Hall of Fame, civic recognition unusual for a business that, by that point, had arguably become just as well known for its burger as for the hot dog stand that built its name. For a Chicago cheeseburger list, Redhot Ranch is the essential "West Coast smashburger format done by South Side hot dog guys" entry — an In-N-Out-style double cheeseburger built by two people whose actual expertise and reputation was forged making Chicago dogs, now sold at three counter-service locations across the city.
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Au Cheval
Au Cheval opened in Chicago's West Loop in 2012 and has spent over a decade as the reigning name in a city with no shortage of burger competition — of every hyped burger in Chicago, it likely has the longest continuous run of rave reviews, and it's regularly cited among the best cheeseburgers in America, not just the city. That's a genuinely rare thing to sustain for more than ten years in a food scene that turns over trends constantly. The restaurant itself is built as a diner-style bar with a real passion for eggs — the broader menu runs to chopped chicken liver, roasted bone marrow, and egg-focused entrées — but the double cheeseburger is what the wait is actually for. It's a thick, griddled patty built with real diner technique rather than smash-style speed, finished simply enough that the beef and cheese do the talking. That wait is a genuine part of the experience and not a small one: Au Cheval doesn't take reservations, seating is limited, and dinner waits upwards of two hours aren't unusual — a level of commitment most burger spots can't ask of customers and get away with. That it still pulls the crowd anyway, more than a decade after opening, is the clearest evidence of how the burger holds up against the hype. Part of what separates Au Cheval from a typical bar-and-grill burger is restraint dressed up as excess — the patty itself is thick and griddled with real technique, but the build stays close to a classic diner cheeseburger rather than piling on novelty toppings the way some "best burger in America" contenders do. The dry-aged, egg-forward menu around it signals a kitchen that could easily overcomplicate the burger and deliberately chose not to, letting the beef, cheese, and griddle char do all the work instead. That discipline is a big part of why it's held its reputation for over a decade in a city that churns through burger trends constantly. Au Cheval was Brendan Sodikoff's second restaurant after Gilt Bar, the craft-cocktail bar he opened in 2010 following a stint as a creative-development officer under Lettuce Entertain You's Richard Melman — training that shaped his approach to building out what's since grown into Hogsalt Hospitality, a group now running dozens of Chicago restaurants and bars. The space itself was remodeled from a former Greektown Gyros storefront to look like a diner that had already been there for decades, hand-painted signage included. Bon Appétit went further than most, naming the Au Cheval burger the single best burger in America outright, cementing a reputation Sodikoff then leveraged into Small Cheval, a faster-casual spinoff built around the same burger for people unwilling to brave the original's wait. For a Chicago cheeseburger list, Au Cheval is the essential "this is the one everyone talks about" entry — a diner-elevated, thick-patty burger from a kitchen that built its reputation on eggs and offal just as much as beef, in a West Loop room that still can't clear its own waitlist a decade in.
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