WAXAHACHIE, Texas –When heading to the ‘hachie for a hamburger, one of the hotspots in Ellis County is a former bank building ran by Lee Edwards, also known as ‘Pops.’ He’s the namesake for the place where you can get a delicious mom-and-pop burger: Pops Burger Stand.
While it may be missing the ‘mom’ in ‘mom-and-pop,’ Pops has a different partner helping out around the shack – his son, Ben. When Pops started the burger business, Ben was still in school.
“Ben’s been with me since day one. Could not do this without Ben, he’s really my rock here,” said Pops. “I think Ben was in college in year eight when I said hey, come to work for me. And he goes, ‘Yeah, but Dad, I can’t graduate,’ and I said yeah, but eight years – they call that a doctor.”
Now the father and son cure carnivorous customers with some creative burgers, and they’ve drawn in some big burger enthusiasts. Kerry Campbell is a hamburger loving local who also happens to be a huge fan of our weekly burger report. He decided to do a bit of local burger investigating himself and his findings.
“I ate 30 of the burgers last year… in Ellis County,” Campbell said. “He came out on top. You know, he came out on top.”
With that great of a recommendation, we went to the back to get to business. Ben got things started on the Low and Slow, a BBQ burger with pizazz.
“Pops kind of came up with it,” said Ben. “I kind of tinkered with it a little bit, so it’s kind of a mix of our both. It’s definitely ours.”
Ben throws on a pre-seasoned six and half ounce patty and seasons it some more. And then we waited, which is hard to do when you’re more than a little hungry! The burger gets flipped, seasoned again, and given a steam bath. Grilled onions and bacon are added and then comes the homemade BBQ sauce. Cheese would normally close things out, but Ben gets one last shot in there – a blast of barbeque sauce straight off to the toasted bun. Slap it together, and we’re ready for the full flavor of the force.
After visually taking in the burger, it was to time to taste. There’s so much savory sauce covering this creation with that sweet, tangy taste, on top of all those onions. That bacon and cheese and a burger cooked to perfection and sensationally seasoned.
“It’s the best place in town. Maybe the best place in Texas,” said Julie Nicotra, Waxahachie local. “It’s just good people, good folks, good food, nice atmosphere, easygoing, yeah.”
Well, you can definitely tell why Pop and Ben take such pride in these big ole burgers. Pop’s Burger Stand in Waxahachie, well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.
“When you get to wake up every morning and go make awesome burgers for people, it’s pretty awesome,” Ben said.