WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Wichita Falls is home to a place with some really big burgers made by Willie at Willies Place.
When this Wichita Falls local decided to open his own restaurant, he’d already been around the block a few times doing just about every job he could handle. But none them kept him content.
“Get tired of something then it’s time to quit, and just walked out picked up the phone and called my wife,” Willie said. “Well, I quit, and you know I’m in trouble again. Once we went to work for ourselves; kind of hard to quit. You can quit all you want, but you’ve got to get up and go to work the next day.”
Willie’s wife Lisa now keeps him in check by working side by side with her humorous husband. With a never ending good-humored out look out on life, Willie names his burger joint after himself and even gave the hamburgers some humdingers for names.
“They’re all just fun,” Willie said. “We’ve got a big willie, a little willie. Imagine where that goes. We got a wee willie, too. We’ve got a one-eyed willie. We’ve got a chili willie. We’ve got a wet willie. We’ve got a silly willie.”
With names like these, simple conversation can sometimes seem awkward. So what willie will we be busting out? The grilled cheese burger made with two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of a bun, a quarter pound patty, and all the traditional vegetables found on a burger.
Wesley Boren has been wiping out willie burgers for 6 years.
“When I do these we’ll have people come and make a run on these, and I can go through anywhere from ten to twelve loafs of toast in less than an hour,” Wesley said.
Preparation of the burger starts by making two grilled cheese sandwiches the way your grandma would, with lots of cheese. Next the quarter pound patty hits the grill unseasoned because the grill has been in the restaurant for 40 plus years and seasons the patties to perfection as they cook. Once the meat is done a piece of cheese is melted onto the patty.
Next Wesley takes one of the grilled cheese sandwiches and layers it with mustard, pickles, lettuce and tomato. He tops that will the patty and the secondary sandwich and that’s it.
With four pieces of Texas toast, that patty, and all that cheese you’d think it would be monstrous. But it’s not too bad. It’s about the size of an average burger, but the taste of this burger is as unique as the owner of the restaurant it’s served in.
With a crazy amount of queso, a plethora of pickles, and a major amount of mustard this burger got everything a Texan could ask for.
The grilled cheese cheeseburger at Willie’s Place in Wichita Falls is well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List.