This local trolley burger comes with a side of spicy history | Highly Recommended

I think the magic of the Ollie Burger is lost on us. It seldom appears on any best burger lists. Even yours truly has largely overlooked it in recent years. That’s odd since I once wrote a complete history of Ollie’s Trolley for an online publication called The Bitter Southerner.

The history of Ollie's Trolley ? a once mighty burger chain with more than 100 locations ? is fascinating. Ollie’s was the brainchild of former Kentucky governor and Kentucky Fried Chicken owner John Y. Brown. The burger itself was invented by a man named Ollie Gleichenhaus who ran a popular Miami burger stand that attracted the likes of Dean Martin, Rodney Dangerfield and Don Rickles.

Brown told Gleichenhaus he wanted to buy the recipe and make him the next Colonel Sanders, to which the grouchy Gleichenhaus responded, "Go (expletive) yourself," before eventually caving for a million bucks.

Ollie’s grew like wildfire in the 1970s before Brown himself doused the flames. The problem? It didn't have a drive-thru. Only three Ollie's Trolleys remain, all of them independently owned. One in Louisville, one in Washington D.C., and one right here in Cincinnati's West End. Ours is owned by Marvin Smith, who runs it out of a walk-up window at a red trolley surrounded by toy cars and random ephemera. Paintings of Black leaders such as Frank Allison and Mark Mallory decorate the brick wall behind it.

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The burger at Ollie's is seasoned with Ollie’s special blend of spices, which – based on my taste-bud interpretation – include oregano, garlic, cumin, rosemary, cayenne and Old Bay. The most recent burger I ate there seemed a bit light on those spices, but it was still scrumptious ? the lettuce, red onion and tomato were cool, fresh and crisp. The bun was squishy. The Thousand Island-ish "Ollie sauce" was abundant. The spices were more pronounced on the fries, which come sprinkled with the same mixture.

I ate it outside at a rusty metal table on a patio where two cats were prowling the grounds. I looked across the street and gazed at the looming construction around TQL Stadium. One of the cats sauntered over and laid down at my feet. I gave him a pet and said a silent prayer that Ollie's would never, ever go away.

Highly Recommended is a weekly feature spotlighting some of food writer Keith Pandolfi's favorite finds as he eats his way across Greater Cincinnati. Find more of his recent food writing here or in the list below.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ollie's Trolley burger has wild history in Cincinnati's West End