Moses Lake’s Space Burger Takes You Back To The World’s Fair

Last year when I was at the National RV Show in Moses Lake at the grant County Fair Grounds it seemed like everyone was telling me I had to try a Space Burger.

“A Space Burger... what the hell is that?" I thought to myself.

The Space Burger originated across the Cascade mountains, at the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. One attendee remembered in a 1987 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about the fair, “There was this Space Burger, a hamburger patty compressed between two slices of bread in a machine so that it looked like a flying saucer. I just went nuts over it.”  

How the Space Burger machines got to Moses Lake remains a mystery. Space Burgers debuted at the Grant County Fair in 1964, and today, the Lioness Club raises enough funds from Space Burger sales to fund an entire year’s worth of projects.  Operating their five machines, the Lioness Club booth turns out about 5,000 Space Burgers on every day that the Grant County Fair is open.  

You start with two slices of white bread go in a special sandwich-making machine that seals inside a mixture of seasoned ground beef, sauce, and shredded lettuce. At a blistering 400°F degrees, the machine toasts the bread in a mere 30 to 40 seconds while also crimping shut the sandwich edges and cutting off the crusts, making flying saucer-shaped burgers.   

photo by Dave Keefer

The Lady Lions were making and selling them all weekend. On Friday they sold 1800 and I have no idea how many they sold on Saturday.

All the money will go to local charities in need.

Thanks to I-fiber 0n3 news