Wichita burger lands on list of 50 best in the United States

One of Wichita’s legendary hole-in-the-wall burger joints has been included on a new list of “The 50 Best Burgers in America.”

Bomber Burger, Chris Rickard’s 21-year-old restaurant at 4860 S. Clifton Ave, was listed as No. 16 on the list, which was put out late last week by bigseventravel.com, a site that covers travel, food and hotels for “a mobile-first, millennial audience.”

The site said that its travel team “scoured every state in the U.S.” for the best burgers, and Bomber Burger is the only Kansas restaurant that was included.

“An old-school vibe and flavorsome layers of the best beef patties in Kansas make Bomber Burger a real winner,” the entry read. “They use 81% lean ground chuck for a lean, meaty, manly burger.”

Around Wichita, Bomber Burger is known as much for its manly burgers as it is for its outspoken owner, who’s famous for saying just about anything that comes to his mind. (And for his love of the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

He inherited Bomber Burger, an 800 square-foot-restaurant with atmosphere to spare, from his father, founder Paul Rickard, in the late 1990s.

Rickard was pretty excited about the inclusion on the list, even though his restaurant makes lists all the time. Just last year, Bomber Burger was included on a list of best hole-in-the-wall burger joints in Kansas.

The other near-Kansas burger joints that made the list include Kirby’s Sandwich Shop in Sikeston, Missouri, which landed at No. 25, and Tucker’s Onion Burgers in Oklahoma City, which made the list at No. 36.

This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 8:57 AM.