Sid's Diner

Sid's Diner is on Choctaw Avenue in central El Reno, a small chrome-and-stool counter joint that gets a queue at lunchtime and on weekends. The onion-fried burger is the order — a single by default, double on request, with the onions hammered into the beef on the flat-top so they turn deep brown at the edges.

A Coke from the fountain and an order of fries finishes the job. Service is fast and the room is loud. Sid's is one of the regular Route 66 stops on guided road-trip itineraries; arrive early or late if you want a quiet table.

eating out restaurant
A story
El Reno's onion-fried burger was born during the Depression, when local short-order cook Ross Davis found he could stretch a small patty of beef much further by pressing it down into a generous pile of shaved onions. The result is a thin patty fused to a caramelised mat of onion. Sid's, opened in 1990 by Marty Hall in honour of his father Sid, has done it the same way ever since.