Ted's Restaurant • 1959

When Ted Duberek opened his namesake restaurant in 1959, he brought central Connecticut's steamed cheeseburger tradition to hungry Meriden factory workers, cooking patties and cheese in custom stainless-steel steaming cabinets instead of on a griddle. The only restaurant in America that exclusively serves steamed burgers, Ted's still scoops fat-drained, impossibly juicy patties onto poofy Vienna rolls, each one crowned with a pour of molten cheddar straight from the steamer.