Kevin Brown Burgers is a popular hometown spot serving classic-style burgers, sandwiches, and barbecue in Ooltewah, Tennessee!
I’m a major homebody, you guys. During the week, I do my best to never leave the house after I arrive home from work. Usually I am successful. I kind of get stuck in patterns on the weekends as well, and we tend to stick close to home or to downtown when choosing places to eat. For that reason, Chattavore is heavy on reviews of spots in Soddy-Daisy, Hixson, and Downtown Chattanooga. Ooltewah and Cleveland have been terribly neglected. Sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to leave you out…you’re just so far away! In the search for new blog material, though, I realized what a large market I have yet to really venture into, so I started searching for some places in that area to try.
Since I have been planning for a while to update my burger list (I’m going to make it a top ten), I’ve been thinking that I need to make it to a few places that I’ve heard are great for burgers. It made sense, then, that I’d start my Ooltewah dining experience with Kevin Brown Burgers. After a Google Maps fiasco (really, it isn’t that hard to find! I’m just not very familiar with the Ooltewah area), we arrived at Kevin Brown Burgers around 2:00 in the afternoon and found a packed out parking lot. The tables in this tiny, quaint diner (formica tables, booths, a dining counter, and sparse decorations) were all full, but a couple of diners got up right after we walked in so we were seated quickly. A very friendly lady took our drink orders while we checked out the menu, which consists of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, dinner plates, salads, and specialties (like nachos, barbecue, and stuffed potatoes).
We decided to order the fried pickles (served with a side of ranch) because, well….fried pickles. You know I always have to try out the fried pickles. The fried pickles were spears coated in a seasoned crumb breading. I have begun to recognize when I’m served a food service frozen fried pickle and, well, this was one of those times. I like those well enough, but it’s always a little disappointing when the fried pickles are frozen. I was here for the burger, though.
The large burger is an 8 ounce patty and the small burger is 5 ounces. The man at the table next to us had the large burger and it. was. gigantic. Like the size of my head, I do not kid. Now, I love a gigantic burger as much as anyone but I’ve set a goal for myself to be able to button my smallest jeans ASAP and that burger was not going to contribute to meeting that goal, so I went for the small cheeseburger-5 ounce patty with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion (which I skipped, of course), pickle, mayonnaise, and mustard on a small hamburger bun. It was a delicious burger, a classic burger-well-cooked, well-seasoned, with just the right amount of toppings and condiments-not so much that stuff was dripping or falling off of it.
Philip decided to order the brisket sandwich. It was a heaping pile of smoked, sliced brisket on a large hamburger bun with mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. The meat was perfectly tender, falling apart and very moist. It was seasoned beautifully and had a great smoky flavor. Philip did say that he would have rather had it on some other type of bread, but thought that the toppings, which one would probably not normally put on a brisket sandwich, went really well. We also ordered steak fries, which were the standard frozen variety.
While the sides and the appetizers were pretty much the same as you’d find in just about any other roadside diner, the burgers and the smoked meat at Kevin Brown Burgers are definitely worth venturing to the other side of town from time to time for. The people here were very friendly and this is clearly a neighborhood favorite-and an affordable one, at that. Pre-tip, our appetizer, sandwiches, and fries were around $16 and some change.
If you’re looking for a great burger on the Ooltewah side of town, give Kevin Brown Burgers a try!
Kevin Brown Burgers is located at 8228 Mahan Gap Road, Ooltewah, TN 37363. You can call them at 423-344-8344. Their Facebook page says that they are open Tuesday-Saturday 11-8, but when we were there we found out that they actually close at 3:00 on Saturday so that the owner can spend the weekend with his family (several Urbanspoon reviewers also caution that you might want to call first to make sure they haven’t run out of burgers…apparently it happens sometimes). They do not have a website, but you can like Kevin Brown Burgers on Facebook.
