It’s International Hamburger Day on Wednesday, 28 May, and for one day only, we’re serving up our delicious hamburgers for just R99 each at all Courtyard Hotels, City Lodge Hotels and Town Lodges, and for only R95 each at all Road Lodges. Each hotel brand offers its own menu variations, with flavour and quality the common denominators.

Take your pick from a hearty Beef Burger, classic Cheese Burger, a Mega Burger with extra fillings for the famished, or a tasty Mediterranean Chicken Burger with sundried tomato pesto and paprika hummus. For vegetarians, there’s the delicious BBQ-basted Plant-Based Burger.

Town Lodges and Road Lodges also serve up the Mzansi Burger with chakalaka for extra tang. All burgers come with golden hot potato chips (aka French fries), and some include side salads.

Pop in for your favourite, or try something new, for only R99 this Hamburger Day, and we promise you’ll be back for more the rest of the year!

And while you savour your meal, here are ten juicy facts about hamburgers:

1. Americans consume nearly 50 billion hamburgers every year. While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how many hamburgers South Africans consume each year, a 2021 Uber Eats report indicates that we order 2 million burgers annually.
2. The roots of hamburgers go back over 10,000 years to the domestication of cattle in Mesopotamia.
3. Hamburg, a German trading city known for quality beef, gave us the term “Hamburg-style” chopped steak.
4. After the 1848 revolutions in Germany, immigrants introduced traditional meat dishes that laid the groundwork for the hamburger.
5. Ground beef was once considered a health food. In 1867, New York doctor James H. Salisbury advocated for cooked ground beef patties as a remedy, giving rise to Salisbury steak.
6. Before readymade mince, the home meat grinder made homemade hamburgers possible.
7. The hamburger-on-a-bun likely appeared in the late 1800s in the US, with several states claiming to be its birthplace.
8. The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair gave hamburgers their big break, alongside waffle cones, peanut butter, and cotton candy.
9. A meat industry scandal nearly ruined its reputation – Upton Sinclair’s 1906 book “The Jungle” exposed poor meatpacking practices, briefly making hamburgers a symbol of unsafe food.
10. White Castle helped clean up the burger’s image. Founded in 1921, it promoted hygiene and transparency, paving the way for modern fast-food giants like McDonald’s (1948), Burger King (1954) and Wendy’s (1969); and in South Africa, Steers and Wimpy (1960s).

Source: "Where Hamburgers Began—and How They Became an Iconic American Food" by Nate Barksdale, history.com