Burgers are serious business in Iowa

[bedsitter23]

They got me.

I totally fell for this story, although it doesn't help that local news reported it as fact.

A local chef says he is joining forces with a rock legend to bring a new restaurant to Des Moines.

On Twitter, George Formaro, the man behind Zombie Burger, Centro and Django announced he is teaming up with Gene Simmons of KISS for a new venture called “KISS Burger.”

Formaro says he met Simmons in 2012, pitched the idea and within a few hours “hammered out the menu and overall concept.”

On the restaurant’s Twitter page it lists an opening date of spring 2015 and a sneak peek of a menu item

You have to forgive me, of course, if there is anyway that Gene Simmons can make a buck, he will; and the perfect partner may be the guy who runs a zombie-themed burger cafe in Iowa,

It was a hoax (though Formaro started hyping the project on March 31), though Formaro says he would certainly love to see if Gene was interested.

I should have known, as it's not the first time someone on the internet has promised Kiss Burger.  In 2009, a parody site announced that the restaurant would soon open with the slogan "Our meat...your mouth".



While Gene has been busy buying an arena football team, and Kiss mini-golf in Vegas (of course), anything seems possible.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Slate's recent article which "50 states, 50 steaks" which  assigns a specific meat to each state.


Loose meat
A loose meat sandwich is like a hamburger, except that instead of being formed into a patty, the ground beef is scattered all over the place like a big handful of wet sand. It is the only sandwich served at Taylor’s Maid-Rite, an Iowa institution.

There was outrage, but I am going to back Slate up.  Many wanted Iowa to be represented by Bacon, but every state wants bacon (Tennessee gets it by way of.Benton's).

Pork tenderloin certainly would have been a fine choice as it seems to have a prominence within this state's borders that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Still, one of the first observations I had when coming to Iowa was Maid-Rite.  I couldn't believe a regional chain had that much popularity with loose meat sandwhiches  (sloppy joes without the 'sloppy' if you will). 

Maybe that fact is overstated (Maid Rites aren't putting Burger King out of business), but it does seem like it is something that makes Iowa unique.