BubbaBurger

Fugler's Store in East Texas is famous for its Bubba Burger, a mouthful of all-beef hamburger made by hand every day. The burger got its name when customers requested Bubba, one of the Fugler brothers, to cook their burgers. Fugler's is also known for processing deer and other meats. The store, which started as a commissary in 1940, now serves as a community gathering place with authentic antiques and a surprise box. The Bubba Burger can be customized and even ordered without a bun. It's time for About Marshall with your host, Rich Lyons. You know you're in East Texas when you can stand in a crowd and holler, Bubba! And a third of the folks turn around. If you've spent much time in all around Harlton, you've heard of Fugler's Store, home of the Bubba Burger. If you haven't, it's located on Highway 154 on the left as you're coming into Harlton. Big Al, one of the Fugler brothers, says the famous burger is a no-holds-barred hamburger from the old school. Well, it's just a mouthful of burger. I'm telling you, it's all beef, and that ain't no bull. And just a big old, old-fashioned hamburger. Ain't no trash in it. We grind it every day right here at the store, and we hand-make every single patty. While John, or better known as Bubba, the oldest of the Fugler brothers, was out processing a bear. Yeah, really. More on that later. Dale shared with us how the burger got its name. It says Bubba, is it? Nah, but it's Bubba's brother. Are you the Bubba Burger cook? Who's cooking them right now? Yeah. Yeah, Bubba's my brother. We're all three brothers. What's your name? Dale. You want me to tell you how it got started? Yeah. When it first got started, man, them girls come in here. They said, I want a burger. I said, OK, baby, how do you want your burger? And they'd tell me how they want it. They said, but I want Bubba to cook my burger. I said, oh, you want a Bubba Burger? Yeah, give me a Bubba Burger. OK, that's what we... Bubba Burger. Yeah, I was about to hit my own self, because that meant I didn't have to get up there and cook. You understand? I bet they wanted a Bubba Burger. That's how it got started, right? If there's such a thing as a jack-of-all-trades, then Fugler's is a store of all trades. Oh, man, we've got some shrimp back here that's just dying to go home with somebody. And I got some oysters back there sleeping in the shale. And I'll skin them whenever somebody gets ready. We got some prime beef back there. It's Angus beef. It's sirloin. And we've got some rib-eyes back there. It's, man, they're good eating. We cook it to order, however you want it done. You know, rare, medium, well, whatever. Just cut his throat and drag him out if that's what you want. That's a little too rare for me. Anyway, Fugler's was the first place in Harrison County to take deer for processing, and it is still an important part of their business today. Man, look at him. We don't whack old Bambi up. We make summer sausage, smoked sausage, Polish sausage, make hot links, make breakfast sausage, hamburger meat, steak them out, whatever. We started doing it 100 years ago, it seems like. We just cut them up every year, you know. Been doing it, oh, since, I guess since 19, early 70s, back in there. We're about to figure out how it's done. We got them coming from all over, man. We get people bringing us some deer in from Kentucky. Every year, they'll bring anywhere from 10 to 12 down here just to get our summer sausages made. Of course, we get them from Arkansas and Oklahoma and Mississippi. We've got them as far out as Wyoming, and in fact, we just got another bear in today. We're processing a bear out there. I don't know. There's not a whole bunch we haven't actually processed, but we do a lot of deer. See, Bubba really was processing a bear. I asked Big Al just what kind of store Fugler's is. Is it a restaurant, a grocery store, a meat market? I don't know. Started out back in 1940 as kind of a little commissary, you know, what my father and my grandfather started doing. And of course, it's just a little, I guess, mom-and-pop, convenient type store, restaurant, community, watering hole, you know. Some of the old-timers gather for coffee and swap a few lives and figure out what to do on the next Friday night's football game or whatever, you know. And they just kind of gang up. And what's the most popular thing at Fugler's? The most popular thing? Probably spread a lot of fertilizer. I talk a lot of bull. Now, I think our signature would be the Bubba Burger. Big Al points out that all the memorabilia and antiques in the store are authentic, mostly ads and such that were actually used in the store in the early days. And when you're poking around amongst the antiques and such, back in the corner, you'll find a large wooden box. That's our little surprise box. Several folks have learned moonwalk using that box. You would be amazed. To find out what's inside, well, I could tell you, but I won't. Fugler's and the Bubba Burger changed with the times. You can get the Bubba Burger without the bun for those of us on the Atkins diet. I get mine double meat with cheese. Imagine calling a pound or so of meat a diet meal. And you can get a junior Bubba Burger, even though it's not on the menu, for those who are not up to the full Bubba Burger. For KCUL News with About Marshall, I'm Rich Lyons. You've been listening to About Marshall with your host, Rich Lyons.