Representative photography. Actual appearance may vary.
Northwest Indiana's 78-year smashburger institution. Named Indiana's best fast food by Food & Wine, #3 American burger chain by The Takeout, and 'Best Hamburger' by NWI Times readers for 25+ consecutive years.
Representative photography. Actual appearance may vary.
Allen Schoop opened the first Schoop's on Calumet Avenue in Hammond, Indiana in 1948, living above the restaurant while selling burgers for $0.15 each. His first month brought in $2,055. Schoop's has now grown to 18+ locations across Northwest Indiana and the southern Chicago suburbs — and the formula hasn't changed: fresh beef, smashed on a well-seasoned flat-top, cooked until the edges crackle.
The Mickey is Schoop's signature — a ball of fresh, never-frozen beef thrown onto a screaming-hot griddle and smashed into a thin patty with practiced force. The edges flare out and fry in the beef's own fat, creating a lacy, cracklingly crispy crust while the center stays moist and deeply beefy. Two slices of American cheese. Classic condiments. No shortcuts in 75 years. Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune called it 'a brawny Chicago-area classic' — and Sandwich Tribunal declared it simply 'the place to go for a smashed burger in south Chicagoland.'
Schoop's is a Northwest Indiana institution in the Chicago media orbit. The score reflects the Hammond flagship and the Schoop Burger/Mickey specifically, while noting that execution can vary across the broader regional chain.
Brawny Chicago-area classic with distinctively crisp-edged griddle-seared burgers.
The place to go for a smashed burger in south Chicagoland. The Mickey has cracklingly crisp edges while the middle has a deeply beefy and moist core enhanced by the Maillard reaction.
I have never had anyone who I took to a Schoop's tell me anything less than 'that was amazing.' Things of beauty. Perfect bang for buck.
There's this unsinkable, workaday charm to Indiana's industrialized northwest corner. If you're looking for one place to sum up the area's suspended-in-time, rugged/homey energy, drop by Schoop's.
They take a ball of beef, throw it on the griddle and then with what surely takes some practice they smash the ball of beef into a patty with the most perfect edges each and every time.
Flat half pound pattys that have a great flavor...truly one of a kind!
The finest hamburger this side of the moon.