Staggs Grocery

Florence, Lauderdale County

This joint is on the AL.com list of 22 Greasy Spoon Burger Joints in Alabama you have to visit before you die. 

This is one of those places where no tourist will ever set foot in. Instead, it is filled with hordes of indigenous people. The Sheriff will be there, with a couple of his deputies, a heating & cooling maintenance crew, some old timers with War Veteran caps on, a few local farm hands, and the occasional Lexus driver. They all come to this place not because it is fancy, modern, pretty, or even remotely cozy. It is situated at the end of a run-down storefront in an area that maybe has never seen better times. The people who come here apparently don’t mind that the weathered green marquise over the entrance looks if it could come crashing down during the next heavy rainstorm. Nor do they mind to sit with perfect strangers in soiled work clothes at one of the half dozen large plastic lawn tables in the dining room, where everybody just sits wherever there is a free space available. They certainly do not mind the naked walls, where no picture or piece of memorabilia blocks the view at the green paint on the walls, and where the only decoration is an odd Pepsi clock. Some of them will come exactly because of this unique atmosphere, but all come because of the burgers.

In Staggs Grocery in Florence, the burgers are made to order, out of fresh ground beef, with fresh veggies and they come in the usual varieties of plan and cheese, with or without bacon, single or double. I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a fountain drink, and did not mind at all that I had to pay not even nine Dollars for it.

After I ordered the burger at the big counter that separates the kitchen from the dining room, I sat down at a table with some young guys who talked about metal music the whole time. The burger was brought out by one of the lovely ladies who take shifts in serving, flipping, and assembling of the burgers. It came with raw red onions, tomatoes, pickles, bacon, a beef patty, cheese and mayonnaise based cole slaw. On the burger, not as a side. Cole Slaw. Yummy! At first, I thought that ketchup would be a good idea, but after the first bite I realized that the cole slaw gives this burger a very special note, which would be destroyed by putting anything else on it. I must say, this burger was different, but in a very good way. The substitution of the ubiquitous lettuce with the indefinitely more tasty slaw is a stroke of genius. It gives the burger a very fresh presence and a distinctive taste. Different. Good. Yummy.

I used the ketchup for the fries, instead, which were very crisp and also top notch.

Staggs Grocery is in business since 1953, and it is one of those places where you can still feel America as it must have been back then. Apart from the great food and the unique atmosphere, I enjoyed a nice chat with the cashier, took a picture of the lovely ladies in the kitchen, and generally had a jolly good time.