MERIDEN - It started off Tuesday as it has for the last 50

years - a gob of cheese and beef stuffed into a little metal tray. That tray joined a pack of dozens in what Ted's Restaurant owner Bill Foreman calls the cabinet, which cooks his famous burgers in a steam bath until they're ready to be dished out.

The patty comes out of the steamer cooked, and after it's placed onto a Kaiser roll, the molten cheese oozes on top. Lettuce, onion and tomato are piled on before the finished product is presented to patrons of the small eatery with an international reputation.

Five decades after Ted Duberek founded his restaurant based on the steamed cheeseburger, a culinary curiosity indigenous to central Connecticut, word of the place has leaked out to burgerphiles across the country.

The restaurant was featured in "Hamburger America," a 2004 documentary about famous hamburger eateries. More recently, it's been featured on "Hamburger Paradise," a series on the Travel Channel.

In the midst of a tour of East Coast colleges, the Bradford family of San Francisco decided to make a detour to Ted's to try the burgers Tuesday.

"We saw this on the Travel Channel," said Kerry Bradford as he gestured around the restaurant.

Between bites of food, Charlie, Kerry's 17-year-old son, said he planned to check out the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University, and indicated that the food had been worth the side trip.

The restaurant's fame is spreading, but Foreman - who bought it from his uncle, Paul Duberek, who inherited it from his father, Ted - said he doesn't intend to do anything different to mark its 50th year, and is unsure if there will be any special celebration.

There have been little changes, he said. Air conditioning has been added along with some new appliances, and this year some new picnic tables were placed outside to expand seating, but for the most part things are done exactly as they were in 1959.

The restaurant is a hole in the wall - just four booths and a counter - but Foreman said it's a business model that works.

At various times, the restaurant has tried to expand its offerings, Foreman said. Chicken, soup, tuna fish and chili were all tried but then discarded when they were ignored by the public.

The restaurant will cook up a hot dog, BLT, grilled cheese sandwich, or steamed hamburger without the cheese, he said, but practically no one wants anything besides steamed cheeseburgers and home fries.

But Ted's can't claim to have come up with the central Connecticut delicacy.

Paul Duberek told the Record-Journal in 2006 that he felt his father hadn't invented the food, but that the distinction belongs to the now-defunct Jack's Lunch in Middletown, which he believed came up with it in the 1920s.

But 50 years of experience seems to have given Ted's the crown.

Meriden native Chris Lippitt said he'd been coming to Ted's for years, and although he'd tried the steamed cheeseburgers at many area eateries over the years, nothing comes close to the little restaurant on Broad Street.

"I've had a lot, and this is the best," he said.

Gary Nogueira, a cab driver with Metro Taxi, said he's been stopping by Ted's for lunch every time he drives through the city for 35 or 40 years. He even has vague memories of when Ted himself reigned over the steam cabinet.

"They're still great," he said. "This place is a landmark."

The source of the cheese that covers the burgers in gooey, lava-like layers is a secret, Foreman said, but the rest of the elements of his burger's tastiness are not.

He picks up fresh beef every three days, gets the buns delivered daily, and all the other ingredients are also fresh, he said.

Business is good, Foreman said, and he has no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.

"This not a short time deal for me," he said.

"We don't try and do anything fancy," Foreman said. "And the product itself we're not touching. People come back for the cheeseburger. ...I'd like to thank our customers for the 50 years of support."

aperlot@record-journal.com

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