In and around Lincoln, Nebraska, there is a fast food chain found nowhere else: Runza Drive-Ins. Trademarked in 1949, the term Runza was originally used by nineteenth-century heartland settlers known as Volga Germans. To avoid religious persecution, the Germans fled their homes some two centuries ago and settled around the Volga River in Russia; when the Communists seized power in Russia, they fled again for the United States. They brought with them recipes for a baked yeast-dough bread pocket filled with onions and beef, cabbage, or sauerkraut. These portable meals (similar to the Upper Midwest’s pasties) were a favorite lunch among farm workers; today they are served at church suppers and fund-raisers throughout Nebraska and Kansas. The settlers called them runzas, runzies, or bierocks, and they still are popular in community cookbooks. Beyond the Runza chain, which owns that particular name, the dish is rarely found on independent restaurant menus. A common appellation throughout Nebraska is cabbage burger, a food that can be found not only at lunch in town cafes but in bakeries as well—sold either warm for dashboard dining or ready to take home and heat for supper.