Stop for This Legendary Burger Inside an Authentic Wild West-Style Saloon

On a lonely stretch of Highway 50, in the middle of desert, there is a shack on the side of the road that serves a dish that has become legendary: It’s the Middlegate Station monster burger.

Middlegate Station is located along a desolate stretch of desert road on Highway 50, known as America’s “Loneliest Road.” And this isn’t an exploration: Around 17 people live in the town of Middlegate. The building has an interesting history, too: According to Travel Nevada, Middlegate Station was erected in 1806 as a stop along the Pony Express (a short lived mail delivery service).

The Middlegate Station bar and restaurant is what people in Nevada call a Sagebrush Saloon, a historic bar usually on a dirt road that harkens back the history of America’s Wild West. Outfitted in 19th century wooden planks, Middlegate Station is one of the places that Americans seeking their fortune in the country’s early days might have passed through.

The Bureau of Land Management eventually purchased the building, and restored it into the motel and restaurant it is today. There’s also spaces for RVs and a nearby campground. These days, the restaurant is known for its monster burger – a culinary creation so big, most people can’t even get their entire mouth around it.

A pound of ground beef split into two patties is topped with piles of lettuce, tomato, and onion, then stacked on sourdough buns bigger than the average adult’s open palm. The massive burger is then topped with two onion rings held up by toothpicks with olives in the middle to give it a set of bulging eyes. Remember, this is the monster burger.

The Middlegate Station monster burger is large enough that even picking it up is a challenge, but if you can finish the whole thing, you get a t-shirt in return. So if you need to refuel on a Nevada road trip, or you want a peek into what a saloon from Old West might have looked like, add Middlegate Station to your itinerary.