The art of Fat Cow’s burger menu

Photo by Collin Richie

How Fat Cow created one of the most unique burger menus in Baton Rouge

Ask 10 of your friends to name their top burgers in Baton Rouge. We’d put money on at least half of them mentioning Fat Cow. One look at the casual restaurant’s giant chalkboard menu explains why. Dream it, and Fat Cow will make it, offering toppings that’ll have you asking, “You can put that on a burger?” The restaurant’s more than 30 different add-ons include banana peppers, Brie, basil, onion straws, red onion marmalade and apple slices.

The restaurant also offers 13 of its own burger concoctions, including one topped with foie gras. To develop such a versatile menu, co-owner and chef Doug Hosford did his homework: He ate burgers. A lot of burgers. He and his wife, Karry, cooked and consumed a different burger every night for months. In fact, some nights they would sample up to 10 in search of one stand-out.

Among the more memorable burgers was one topped with chocolate-covered bacon. “It was pretty good,” Hosford says. While you won’t find that one on the menu at Fat Cow, you will find The 120 Burger, topped with Benton’s apple-smoked bacon, Gruyere cheese, caramelized onion, fresh arugula, sliced tomato and horseradish mayonnaise—and aptly named because it was the 120th burger the Hosfords invented. The restaurant also offers a different burger special every month and won’t repeat the same special during a calendar year.

Hosford admits not everyone is brave enough to try some of the more unique creations, such as the Napa or The Hundred Dollar Burger (foie gras, balsamic vinegar, arugula, Parmesan cheese and truffle aioli). “It’s something we kind of talk people into trying,” he says. But once they do? “Everyone really loves it.”

And even if they don’t, Fat Cow offers a regular, old-fashioned burger, too.

This story was published as part of our March 2015 issue’s “Extreme Burgers of the Capital City” cover story. Read more here.