(Read the intro post for background on this trip.)

Today was our first three burger day as we drove from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio. The first was at Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The first Powers was opened in 1935; we went to the only surviving location, opened in 1940. This is a little shop with counter seating. As soon as you walk into the restaurant, you’re hit with the smell of grilled onions. The burgers are small, just bigger than a slider but smaller than a McDonald’s cheeseburger. The thin smashburger patties are covered in thinly sliced, grilled onions; these sit on a steamed locally made bun. We had doubles with cheese.

These were really good. Well-balanced and tasty; the onions were a major part of the texture but were not overwhelming. The buns were soft. It’s what White Castle should be, frankly. The place was loaded with regulars; the older guy sitting next to me had been coming since he was a kid and clearly had a lot of fond memories when the restaurant used to be a 24 hour operation, coming in on the last stop on the way home after a night out. Enjoyable burger and stop.

We drove into Ohio and stopped in Lima to visit Kewpee Hamburgers, the second oldest burger chain in the country, after White Castle – founded in 1928. We visited the original downtown location. The burger had a loosely formed patty and topped with American cheese and the standard fixings. We opted out of fries here since we had just had the Powers Burgers not too long ago. This was a really good, solid burger. I thought the bun was especially tasty. We probably should have ordered doubles to improve the meat-to-everything-else ratio. This was probably the closest to an In-And-Out burger that we’ve had on this trip so far.

We headed to Dayton, Ohio next to visit the National Museum of the US Air Force. This is the world’s largest military aviation museum. Unfortunately, in my planning I forgot that we’d lose an hour when we crossed into the Eastern time zone; we also got a late start out of Chicago. This meant we only had an hour to see the massive museum. Still, I was excited to see planes I’ve never seen before, like a Twin Mustang and an F-22 Raptor. They also had historically significant aircraft like Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped the second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki Japan. I really want to come back here. The whole area has a lot of flight-related museums and history since the Wright Brothers were from this area.

We finished the day up at Swensens Drive-In in Columbus, OH. This is a regional/Ohio-only drive-in burger chain founded in 1934. They are famous for their Galley Burger – a double cheeseburger with two special sauces. Naturally, we got that, one “with everything” – mustard, dill pickles, and raw onions, and one without. We also ordered their potato puffs – shredded fried potatoes. We wanted to try their potato teezers – potato/cheese/jalopeno combo but they were having supply chain problems and didn’t have them. We tried the substitute – fried mac and cheese balls. We also had their shakes. Frankly, I was disappointed. The burgers were reasonably well constructed and seasoned, but one of the special sauces tasted like a too-sweet barbecue sauce that overwhelmed everything. It was fine but not special. The potato puffs were just tater tots; I felt deceived. The mac and cheese balls were good but not special as were the shakes. Maybe we were just burgered out after our third round for the day, but we were unexcited about this dinner.