Find burger bliss at Fat Cow

Scan the menu at new eatery Fat Cow Burgers and Salads and certain ingredients will pop out at you: balsamic vinaigrette, black forest ham, fresh apple slices, marmalade, goat cheese. And no, those aren’t the salads; those are the burgers. Every patty that slides off the grill at Fat Cow is a work of art, piled with quality toppings that are fresh both in flavor and in combination, a perfect balance of savory and sweet. The idea is a quick-service restaurant that doesn’t sacrifice quality for speed, existing somewhere between fine dining and fast food.

But Natchez natives and co-owners Doug and Kerry Hosford didn’t start out intending to create a restaurant. This entrepreneurial couple—he a fine-dining chef and 16-year veteran of the industry, she an accomplished food photographer—just wanted to do one thing: build a perfect burger. They already owned a successful catering business called High Cotton in Mississippi, but, says Doug, “We just wanted to try making a really good burger.” It turned out to be easier said than done: It took months of tweaking and more than 250 recipes to get the taste just right. By the end, jokes Doug, “our kids were begging us, ‘Please, no more burgers!’ ”

But the trial and error paid off; they’d learned the secret to a perfect patty. Two secrets, really: First, start with quality meat. “If you start with really good meat, you can’t go wrong,” Doug explains. Second, a good burger shouldn’t need any seasoning except salt and pepper. “Once you add more than that, what you have isn’t really a burger anymore—it’s meatloaf.”

Fat Cow grinds their own meat in-house, using high-quality Angus beef, and the patties are cooked over a natural charcoal grill. The patties come in “regular” and “petite” sizes, the latter of which is perfect for those who don’t want their eyes to overreach their stomachs. Customers can build their own burger from a list of appealing toppings, or choose one of the whimsical signature burgers—from the Muffaletta burger, which combines ham, salami, Swiss and Provolone cheese piled high with olive salad, to the Hundred Dollar burger (a steal at $15), which features foie gras, balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese and truffle oil.

Sauces and dressings are all made fresh in-house, and although the burgers are unquestionably the stars of the menu, equal attention is paid to the salads and sides. You can play it safe with a classic Caesar with house-made croutons, or indulge with some sinful Parmesan and duck fat fries. And that’s not even mentioning the housemade milkshakes, whose flavors range from Creole cream cheese to Banana’s Foster.

More seasonal recipes will come as the restaurant and staff get into the swing of things. For now, there’s plenty on the menu to capture an adventurous diner’s attention. After all, the most important thing the Hosfords learned about burgers was this: They never go out of style.