Lost Tables: Hamburger Heaven

Hamburger Heaven

I always tell people when I’m sitting on an airplane and somebody says they're from St. Louis, I say you may recognize my dad's restaurant from the sixties called Hamburger Heaven. So naturally the first thing they say is the sauce, because that’s what differentiated him from any other burger place that was around. You could dump the bun one time or double sauce on both sides of the bun or float the french fries, and it was kind of unique in that way.

Larry Shriber

Aaron "Ernie" Shriber was born in St. Louis on January 5, 1914. He had two older brothers, Maurice and Bernard (Bud), and two younger sisters, Hildegard and Erma Jean. Tragically, Maurice drowned at age 19 when his canoe was upset in rough water in the Meramec River.

Shriber lived with his family in the city at 1417 Granville Place. He graduated from Soldan high school with the yearbook epitaph: "A man of strife and a man of contention."


1934 Soldan Yearbook	Aaron Shriber, 1934

Shriber married Ida Edelstein in 1937. In 1940, the couple lived with Ida's parents at 4114 Fairground Place. Shriber worked as a salesman with Edison Brothers Shoes.

In February of 1946, Shriber and his brother Bernard purchased a two-story building at 2929-31 Big Bend in Maplewood, with plans to "open a cafeteria, dining room and ice cream parlor." In December of 1945, they had registered the name "Ted's Corner" at the address with the state of Missouri.

Ted's Corner, attributed to Ted Lazarcheff, had been a famous Maplewood eatery at the site since the 1930s. After "Bud" and "Ernie" Shriber took over, Lazarcheff went on to be a prominent east side developer.

Ted's Corner, 2929-31 Big Bend, February 1949

By the end of the decade, the Shriber brothers would part ways. In May of 1947, the two addresses at Ted's Corner bore the younger Shriber's name – "Aaron Shriber’s Restaurant" at 2929 Big Bend and "Aaron Shriber’s Ice Cream Parlor" at 2931.

Bud Shriber would go on to operate the Loop Inn at 567 DeBaliviere. And on June 1 1951, Aaron "Ernie" Shriber registered a business with the state of Missouri at 7001 Olive Street in University City with the name "Ernie's Hamburger Heaven."

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According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch classified ads, it would appear that the misshapen little building at the corner of Olive and Pennsylvania predated Ernie Shriber.

May 5, 1928: Woman—To run refreshment stand, 7001 Olive St. Road.
May 9, 1942: Young Man—17-18; to manage and operate small drive-in sandwich stand; evenings; with chance to obtain one-half interest in business; apply 7001 Olive St. Rd.
Jun 8, 1942: Car Hops—Apply Parkway Drive In, 7001 Olive Street Rd.
May 21, 1948: Car Hop: Hogan’s Hamburger Heaven, 7001 Olive Street Rd.

Not only was there a refreshment stand at 7001 Olive Street Road in 1928 and a drive-in sandwich stand in 1942, but there was already a "Hogan's Hamburger Heaven" at the address in May of 1948.

It's not clear who "Hogan" was. There was a "Hogan's Grill" at 5301 Easton as early as 1942 and at 5620 Delmar as late as 1960. In 1958, brothers Hieatt and Harold Hogan worked as cooks at a Hogan's Grill they owned at 6727 Jennings.

In any event, Shriber appears to have purchased the restaurant at 7001 Olive Street Road from the mysterious Mr. Hogan, just as he and his brother had purchased Ted's Corner from Ted Lazarcheff. Shriber opened his new restaurant sometime in 1949, or at the latest, in early 1950. If he changed the name from "Hogan's Hamburger Heaven" to "Ernie's Hamburger Heaven," it wasn't for long. The name of Shriber's new restaurant would be shortened to simply "Hamburger Heaven."

Hamburger Heaven, 7001 Olive Street Road at Pennsylvania, 1968
University City Historical Society

Hamburger Heaven was a drive-in restaurant with curb service, complete with carhops. Customers could eat in their cars or carry food home. There was also limited seating inside, with four or five stools at a small counter.

Shriber and his wife could usually be found behind the counter. Ernie worked the grill, filling orders clipped to a line overhead. He handed sandwiches off to Ida, who would dress them and fold them into wrapping paper adorned with winged hamburger logos. She'd then hand them out a window to the carhops or to customers at the counter.

The Shribers hired high school students to staff their restaurant. Dr. Alan Londe had a storied career as a plastic surgeon, but his career started at Hamburger Heaven.

When I was 15 years old I started working inside at the grill at Hamburger Heaven. I lied about my age because I didn’t think he would take me unless I was 16. I think I even changed my Social Security card to say I was born in 1934 and not 1935.
On the grill we used to do these thin little steak sandwiches and hamburgers and hotdogs. At the end of the evening, the grill was covered with grease and char. He had a brick with a handle on it. You used that brick to clean the grill down to bare metal again.
So for the first year I worked inside on the grill. I came home every night covered in grease. I had fun doing that, but the carhops were making more money than me. So the following year, in 1951, I began working as a carhop.

Hamburger Heaven, 7001 Olive Street Road, 1968
University City Historical Society

While attending University City High School, Londe worked after school, on weekends and in the summer as a carhop.

I think we got a dollar a day plus tips, and I think we got 50 cents a day for food allowance. In those days the food was not that expensive. There were usually two or three of us working at a time. They had a bench sitting on the west side of the car lot and the three of us would sit on the bench and alternate going to the cars. Of course, we knew who were good tippers and not good tippers.
We had a little book – like a little receipt book. We wrote the order down and took it in and came out with the tray that fit on the window.
I think we wore a little white hat and that’s it. I’m not sure if we had white shirts or not. But we didn’t have anything that said “Hamburger Heaven” on it.
We’d work pretty late. Ernie Shriber was of the opinion that if there were customers, you stay on and keep the place open. He didn’t have a definite closing time. If there were people coming in, you continued to serve them.

Londe's fellow carhops were Jason McManus and Jerry Greenwald, also from U City High. Greenwald would later say that he learned "hard work and sacrifice" at Hamburger Heaven. That hard work and sacrifice would spring board McManus to Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. and Greenwald to President of Ford Motor Company, Chairman of Chrysler Motors and Chairman/CEO of United Airlines.


Jason McManus, 1952	Jerry Greenwald, 1953	Alan Londe, 1953

Hamburger Heaven was a gathering place for U City High and Mercy students. After midnight on weekends, they could be found sitting on the hoods of their cars, opening and closing doors, laughing, whooping and having fun.

Hamburger Heaven, 7001 Olive Street Road

Hamburger Heaven was a family affair. The Shriber children – Marilyn, Linda and Larry – all worked there while in high school. Larry, the youngest, was born in 1948, a year or two before Ernie opened his restaurant.

I played a lot of sports so I couldn't work after school, but I worked on weekends and naturally in the summertime. And a lot of guys from the team, a lot of my buddies that needed jobs, worked for dad too.
Dad hired a lot of police officers. Dad always had good reliable people running the place when he wasn't there and that was the key. He always took care of the policemen – free coffee and everything else whenever they came in.


Marilyn Shriber	Linda Shriber	Larry Shriber

Larry and his sisters worked the fountain, securing Cokes and cherry phosphates, and took orders at the counter.

People came in and they wanted their steak sandwiches and people liked the chili – the tamale with chili was always a good thing. The chicken fried steak, what we called the Chuck Wagon, was a big seller too, beside the double cheeseburgers and everything else. Dad really made a very good product so people would come back.

Hamburger Heaven Menu, 1968
University City Historical Society

The burgers at Ernie Shriber's restaurant may have on occasion been served with ordinary ketchup or ordinary mustard. But what made Hamburger Heaven iconic was its extraordinary sauce.

Most everything at Hamburger Heaven was served with its special tangy-sweet barbecue sauce – double sauce and triple sauce. The burgers were drenched in it, their soggy buns adherent to the beef patties. The fries were thick and stubby – not the thin fries served at Steak ‘n Shake or McDonald’s. They came out swimming in sauce, in a rectangular cardboard trough, and could be eaten with sticky fingers or the plastic fork that came with each order.


Burger & fries drenched in sauce

From day one, customers tried to charm the secret of Hamburger Heaven's sauce out of its employees. In a 1985 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, Mary Lee Guillory of Overland seemed to let the cat out of the bag.

At one time, there were two Hamburger Heavens, in University City and Overland. The employees there were constantly being asked how the sauce was made, but it was our "secret." I worked there for years and mixed many gallons of it. Since the "Heavens" no longer exist, I feel safe giving out the secret.
It was simply Brook's barbecue sauce mixed with simple syrup (sugar mixed with warm water).
We must settle this matter once and for all!

However, Marilyn Shriber Comensky, the Shribers' oldest child, contacted the Post-Dispatch and told them Ms. Guillory's formula wasn't quite right. But she was unwilling to share the secret recipe "because she might produce the sauce commercially someday."

Fast forward to 2019, when Larry Shriber set the record straight. Sort of.

The sauce basically was Brooks barbecue sauce that was bought by the gallon. They delivered gallons of the stuff and then dad did his own concoction. He dissolved a bag of sugar with hot water to get sugar water. He mixed that in and then a couple of other little things that was his specialty. From the one gallon of barbecue sauce, we make two gallons of the sauce that we used.
I remember buying the stuff from Brooks. They went out of business now; they’re not even around.
Off the record, I think there was a little schvitz in there. There was something that gave it a little tingle. I can’t exactly tell you what it is. Really nobody knows. The majority of it was the simple syrup and the Brooks barbecue sauce . . . ninety percent of it . . . ninety-five percent of it.
I don’t think there were any spices. I don’t know if he put in a little lemon water. It was something that was nothing that just topped it off.
Everybody keeps coming up with all these diagnoses of what it is and it was a lot simpler than what they’re all saying. It was pretty much Brooks barbecue sauce with simple syrup and some other little something.

Alan Londe remembered mixing up many batches of the sauce.

It was just simple syrup and barbecue sauce. We had these gallon bottles and we just mixed it. I don’t remember the proportions, but it was just simple syrup and Brooks barbecue sauce, and that’s all it was. That was the secret sauce.


Marilyn Shriber Comensky	Larry Shriber	Alan Londe

The Shribers actually opened three Hamburger Heavens. In 1957, they purchased the "Moo Shop" at 10854 Manchester Road in Kirkwood from the National Dairy Association and reopened it as their second location, complete with curb service. It had significantly more inside seating than the cramped space on Olive. However, this venture was short lived; the property and its contents were sold at public auction in May of 1961.

Hamburger Heaven, Manchester Road and Clay Avenue, Kirkwood
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 23, 1957

In 1958, the Shribers opened their third Hamburger Heaven at 1919 Woodson Road in Overland, just north of Page. Woofies now serves hotdogs at the same location.

Woofies - 1919 Woodson Road, Overland

The Shribers closed Hamburger Heaven in 1973; Aaron "Ernie" Shriber died in May of 1974. His wife Ida remarried and lived until 2012.

In December of 1985, Gary Levinson opened "Hamburger Heaven" at Chesterfield Mall. According to both Larry Shriber and Linda Shriber Collins, this Hamburger Heaven was unsanctioned.

Levinson served burgers and fries with sauce until the restaurant closed in 1995. He claimed he "learned where to buy the sauce," but for those who grew up in University City, it wasn't the same.

Hamburger Heaven, Chesterfield Mall

The funny little building at Olive and Pennsylvania in University City had outlived multiple businesses and multiple owners. The property had been on the market many times; the asking price in 2000 was $60,000.

7001 Olive Boulevard, University City, 2019

But the hope that one day someone would again serve burgers and fries in the space, drenched in Ernie Shriber's tangy-sweet barbecue sauce, vanished in 2023.

7001 Olive Boulevard, University City, April 11, 2023

You can hear Larry Shriber and Alan Londe tell the story of Hamburger Heaven in the Lost Tables Podcast Series.