DENTON, Texas – The square surrounding the Denton County Courthouse has changed over the years. What was once a rundown rough area has blossomed into a way beyond cool place to be, and that includes a burger joint with attitude known as LSA Burger Company.
Austin Reid’s family has roots that go back to the 1850s in Little D. His kin even had a hardware store in downtown many decades ago. Now, he’s the one working on the square at this lively burger bistro.
“What is LSA?” Austin said. “LSA is a triple decker, open air rooftop patio and venue where we celebrate everything from the setting of the sun, great burgers and food, live music, friendship, companionship, fellowship, really just as a sanctuary to celebrate life with it.”
The sanctuary includes a somewhat spiritual sketch as to what the last supper might be like with some special Texans.
“It’s what we call the great Texas super. It features the 12 disciples of Texas music,” Austin explained. “So you’ve got kind of the four fathers of great Texas music, the legends. They’re all there. They’re celebrating having drinks and burgers, laughing. It’s painted very similar to the Texas super. It’s supposed to be set in the Alamo, and you’ve got Willie Nelson and Stevie and George Jones and Janice Joplin all hanging out and that’s what we imagine Texas music The LSA Burger Company is so connection with Texas music that all of their food offerings are named after the greats.
“All the burgers are named after what we call the Disciples of Texas music,” Austin says. “So your Chili Willie, your Stevie, you’ve got the Janice as the crab cake burger. Nora, the UNT alumni Nora Jones, she’s the lamb burger. Just kind of ties in as fun ways to just again celebrate the culture of Texas music and this little funny place called Denton, Texas.”
It seems a lot of folks don’t really know the greats.
“I order it because it’s braised in the butter,” LSA regular, June, said. “I don’t know. Is there a Waylon Jennings musician? It’s named after a musician?”
Matt Elgiar has been at LSA since the beginning and for our burger blues, he’s slapping some sauce down on the Stevie, the burger we’re going to eat, not the musician.
The Stevie starts off with a monstrous 7 oz. patty. As we waited on the patty and couldn’t help but ponder how people ordered up their burgers. Do people order burgers according to what they feel like eating, or maybe they’re favorite artist?
“I would speculate with as many people as we see you get a lot of both,” Austin said.
Once the beef is cooked, it’s placed on a buttered brioche bun. Blue cheese crumbles and bacon are put on top of the burger along with blue cheese dressing and Frank’s hot sauce to finalize our feature.
Like hearing the man himself riff on the guitar, I found my happy place. You’ve got that bread from the local bakery, which is like a pillow for the beef. Then you get into the cream cheese and it gives you that very over powering blue cheese taste. But then you get into the hot Sauce and it just mixes together for that incredible flavor we all love when it comes to little wings, right? And then you’ve got the bacon topping it off and giving it that Stevie rock, rhythm and blues flavor that we all know and love right here in the Lone-Star State.”
“We put a lot of thought into celebrating this culture that we love so much,” Austin said.
Well it’s safe to say the house is a rocking, and please do come a knocking because the Stevie burger is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.