You won't find Bury's burgers at the York Fair
Editor's note: This story was originally published in August 2016. Bury's won't be at the 2017 fair either. Click here for a list of this year's fair vendors.
Talk with any long-time York Fair aficionado and they'll say you have to grab a Bury's burger from the Johnnie Eagle's stand.
For the first time in 76 years, those Bury lovers won’t get their fix this year.
“It was the hardest decision we’ve ever made,” said Harry Harman, one of the family members who have helped run the stand in recent years.
The legacy began in 1936 when Joe Bury and his brothers Arthur and Gerald opened a restaurant in York that featured a simple grilled burger simmered in tomato sauce. By the 1950s, they had opened 11 restaurants in the York area.
The Burys opened multiple stands at the fair. In 1940, according to a postcard from the time cited in a York Daily Record article from 2006, Bury’s served 61,000 hamburgers during the five-day run of the fair.
By the early '90s, the last restaurant had closed and the only place you could find the saucy burger was at a fair stand owned by Gerald's son Paul, the Johnnie Eagles fair stand operated by Betty Bury Harman, or a food truck owned by Joe’s son Vinnie.
More:Classic York Fair stands share secrets to success
More:Reader revealed Bury's secret recipe years ago
More:Nostalgia on a bun: Bury's Famous Hamburgers
More:York Fair chilly in 1937 but restaurant patrons hot
Betty, the daughter of Arthur, took over Johnnie Eagle’s after her husband, Johnny Eckert, passed away.
If Betty was the heart and soul of Johnnie Eagle’s, her eldest son, Phil, was the brains of the operation, taking care of the managerial side of the stand.
“He handled ordering stuff, handled the financial end… made sure everything was taken care of,” Harry said. “He was the glue that held everything together.”
The family was raised at the fair. Betty, 89, had worked at the fair for 76 years, working with her father and his brothers.
“We grew up there,” Harry said. “We were all around my grandfather’s stand, then we moved down to where my mom was with John. The fair has been a tradition with us.”
In November, Phil lost a battle with cancer. He was 68. It was soon after his death that the family decided they wouldn’t open a stand at the fair in 2016.
“There’s too many memories that makes it too hard for us to come back this year,” Harry said. “It was bittersweet.”
Phil was buried at Greenmount Cemetery across from the York Fair. On the way to the grave site, Harry said the funeral procession took Phil on one final trip around the fairgrounds. On the way in, fair organizers placed a sign that said “Goodbye Phil. We’re going to miss you.”
“That’s what the fair meant to us,” Harry said, holding back tears.
Neither the stand owned by Paul nor the food truck owned by Vinnie will make an appearance at the fair this year. The food truck still appears sporadically throughout the area.
The spot formerly held by Johnnie Eagle’s will be held by Bob & Min’s, another food vendor who Harry said will hold up Betty’s tradition of making a special luncheon for veterans on Tuesday at the fair.
Harry said the toughest part about not opening the stand is thinking of his mother.
“It’s killing me that she’s not going to be at the fair because it’s killing her,” he said.
Two of his siblings will take Betty on a two-week vacation at that time because “it would be too hard (for her) to be here.”
Harry will help set up the stand for Bob & Min’s, and plans to attend the fair at least once.
“I feel like I have to,” Harry said. “I feel like I need to go out at least one day, to walk around and get some closure.”
And Betty told Harry he needs to go for the collectible York Fair truck.
“Mom said to me, ‘Are you going to the fair and get our trucks this year,’” Harry said laughing, adding that they have the whole set dating back to the 1990s.
“Nostalgia on a bun”
For some, a Bury’s burger isn’t just food, it’s a piece of York’s past.
Carole Bradfield, a staff support member with the York Fair who has attended the fair since the late 1940s, expressed her sorrow for the lack of Bury’s burgers at this year's fair.
“I’m sad and I’m sure that a lot of York County people are going to miss them,” she said. “It was just a tradition. I’m going to miss them so much.”
York Daily Record editor and local historian James McClure called the famous burgers, “nostalgia on a bun” in a 2007 Daily Record article.
“I wondered why something this good was available to the public only about once a year,” McClure wrote. “The recipe may be a secret, I thought, but it could be duplicated. Could be a business opportunity for someone, but then I thought, it wouldn’t work. Because it’s not only the sauce that makes Bury’s burgers special. It’s the name … and particularly the nostalgia … You just can’t copy all that.”
A recipe for the burger was published in the York Sunday News in 2000, but the family disputes any claim that is the real recipe. It is often replicated, but never duplicated.
In a 2006 Daily Record story, columnist Mike Argento asked Phil if he could divulge the recipe.
Phil’s response?
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“He wasn’t joking.” Argento wrote.
Anthony J. Machcinski is the Food and Drink reporter for the York Daily Record. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter, or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com.