In 1951, an Oklahoma staple was born in Tulsa: the Lot-A-Burger.
Still widely voted as one of the top 10 old-fashioned burger joints in the state, Lot-A founder Leo Waller created the famous burger known for its fresh, never-frozen Oklahoma-grown beef, with a unique, proprietary seasoning, and set up shop on the northwest side of Tulsa at 2807 Charles Page Blvd not far from U.S. 412.
Waller’s wife June hired her brother Johnny Akers to work for them at that first burger joint before Johnny married and moved back to Bartlesville to open another Lot-A location in 1958.
In the meantime, Leo expanded the franchise to Enid in 1952 and chose to open the original Lot-A location on Grand. Upon the return of another of June’s brothers, Gene Akers Sr., from the Korean War and subsequent retirement from the U.S. Army, Leo sold the Enid location to him and he moved his family to Enid in 1964.
Gene Sr. renamed his burger joint Lotta Burger to separate his place from the six Lot-A locations in Tulsa and three in Bartlesville. Twenty years later he built the building that Lotta Burger stands in today at 310 W Willow.
Nicknamed “Mr. Lotta Burger” by the cult following that quickly favored this burger joint, he eventually retired in 2005 and handed over the reins to his son Gene Jr., whose wife, Kim, is the daughter of the late Oklahoma senator Norman Lamb.
Gene Jr. ran Lotta Burger for 10 years before deciding to retire to the farm and sell it Kim’s niece Kalli Turnbow and her husband Brandon to keep it in the family.
“Kalli worked here for a year under her uncle to learn the ropes,” Brandon said during an interview in February. He himself did maintenance for the burger joint while still working full-time at Northcutt Chevrolet as the used car sales manager. “We had zero experience. We had never worked in the restaurant business. We had to learn how to run it.”
Like many from the Enid area, Lotta Burger was a family favorite.
“I ate here from the time I was 2 years old,” Brandon said. “I came here all the time for a cheeseburger with ketchup only. Still do.”
Still the same
For over 60 years the grill has been seasoned the same, and the one time it broke, Brandon said, he had it repaired regardless of the expense so “it wouldn’t change the taste. There is a flavor to it no one can replicate.”
The menu is simple and the same as it was in the 1950s. Food is made at the time it is ordered—there are no heat lamps for the burgers or fries as nothing is pre-cooked. And the meat is still quality beef, bought from the locally-owned butcher T&C Meats, with no fillers or preservatives.
One of the only things Brandon changed when he and Kalli assumed ownership was adding a credit card machine so customers could use a debit or credit card to pay; prior to that buying items at Lotta Burger was cash only.
He also took the image of the iconic neon sign out front to a graphic designer so they could create a logo for marketing purposes. Customers can now purchase apparel branded with the Lotta Burger logo.
Today there are a dozen employees, both full-time and part-time, working split shifts in an attempt to accommodate everyone’s schedule and lives, Brandon said.
“During COVID, our employees didn’t miss a paycheck,” he said, adding he kept the restaurant open during the pandemic, serving food through the drive-thru only.
“Loyalty has allowed us to stay open,” Brandon said. And despite the pandemic and rising food prices and taxes since then, he said they’ve only raised the price of their hamburgers 15 cents to offset expenses.
“We’re not trying to increase profits or take advantage of our customers,” he said. “It’s just so we can keep the lights on. We know what business we do every week and what it takes to pay the bills.”
Lotta Burger staff are like family and Lotta Burger patrons are his friends, Brandon said, so he takes care of them accordingly.
“We care what our customers are served. They eat here and I eat here,” he commented.
An Enid tradition
Since Brandon has other irons in the fire, he isn’t actually at Lotta Burger most days. He leaves the day-to-day operations to his general manager Marie Nafus but handles to hiring and firing along with the payroll.
Brandon sells real estate through Lippard Realty and only left Northcutt last June after 20 years. Plus, he and Kalli have two children, Kit, 10, and Millie, 7, enrolled in Drummond Public Schools so that means running them around to and from school and their extracurricular activities.
“We love living here, raising our kids here,” Brandon said, and Lotta Burger is one of the reasons they stay in the town he was born and raised.
“The nostalgia of this place keeps people coming back,” Brandon said. He and Kalli have changed very little within the restaurant.
Aside from remodeling the bathrooms and spending $8,000 on a top-of-the-line crushed ice machine, they’ve kept everything else the same—the tables, the chairs and booths, the window treatments still dating to the 1980s, the wall décor.
Gene Sr., who passed in 2016, was a Shriner clown named Salty back in the day. His Shriner photo remains on the wall and the Turnbows have zero intention of removing it.
Also adorning the walls are several local awards recognizing Lotta Burger for its commitment to the community.
“It’s the food,” Nafus said, as to why patrons return day after day, week after week. She has been pressing patties for 14 years; she joined Lotta Burger under the direction of longtime general manager Claudia Bentley, who had been there since 1962 and spent her whole life behind the counter peeling potatoes and grinding the hamburger.
Then-owner Gene Jr. told the Enid News & Eagle in 2008, “Truthfully, I don’t think Lotta Burger would have done so well all these years if it hadn’t been for Claudia. I may be the owner of this establishment, but what she says goes.”
Brandon concurred that Lotta Burger wouldn’t run without Nafus, who filled Bentley’s shoes when Bentley retired due to not being able to flip burgers anymore after 50+ years of service.
“He’s harsh sometimes, but he’s good,” Nafus kidded in Brandon’s presence. He grinned at that.
“I’m a workaholic,” she said, adding she puts in 50 to 60 hours a week, “and I’ll do it ‘til I can’t. My grandmother was Bohemian, which meant you work 110%.”
Someday the Turnbow’s kids will work behind the counter as their first afterschool job.
“Lotta Burger is a staple of Enid. You go to college and come home and you want to eat here,” Brandon said. “We wouldn’t be here without our customers.”
Lotta Burger is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call-in orders are welcomed: (580) 237-1471. Cash and credit cards are accepted. Follow them on Facebook @lotaburgerenid.
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See the article and photos in full-color in the May-June edition of ETown: etownmagazine-cnhi.newsmemory.com