Discover Walla Walla

The Yelenich family has owned and operated Fat Cats Tavern & Grill, located on the north side of Main Street (between 6^th and 7^th Avenues) in Walla Walla for many years, and they offer, at the very least, two distinctive pleasures.  One is arguably the wildest proliferation of humorous signs and sayings posted for the amusement of those seated at the bar, and the other is their hamburger. 

I have long considered the Fat Cats hamburger one of Walla Walla's less-widely-known treasures, and have enjoyed introducing friends to its delights.  Always served with grilled onions, arriving in a wax-paper-lined basket with a pickle and a small cup of a cold deli salad (I recommend the potato salad), there is something reliably wonderful about this burger.  They are very consistent in their preparation, so that if you develop a fondness for it as I have, it will be the same the next time you come in for one.  It sounds funny, but there are many reasons why a unique, family-owned, small-town grill might not want or be able to sustain a high level of consistency of preparation from one visit to the next.  But the Yeleniches can and do.

I was surprised to find that this burger turned out to be a four-napkin burger (I was expecting, from memory, a two- or three-napkin burger experience), and for this reviewer, that's a good thing.  If you are a soda pop person, it may be of interest to you that they serve it in cans with a glass of ice, rather than pouring from a tap.  Again, a focus on consistency.

The patty is not oversized, and is always just slightly more well-done than I would prepare at home (of course, this is true of all meat-cooking establishments these days-just call me a wild, living-on-the-edge sort of guy for wanting medium rare), but there is something terrific going on here with the modest but precise use of condiments and those grilled onions.  (The photo accurately shows the absolute deluge of onions on the thing.)  This is a burger that is defined by its whole, rather than the sum of its parts.

So stop by Fat Cats, enjoy one of Walla Walla's most consistently pleasing burgers, and tell the Yeleniches that the Bürgermeister sent you.