In 1924, David Heglin made a sandwich of steamed, seasoned ground beef to serve at a Sioux City restaurant he ran called Ye Old Tavern. It was a time when many Americans, worried about the ill effects of frying meat, turned to steam cooking as an alternative (see steamed cheeseburger). In 1934, Abe Kaled bought Ye Old Tavern, further antiqued its name to Ye Olde Tavern, and also tinkered with the formula for ground beef on a bun. Kaled and his wife, Bertha, sold their spiced-up sandwich, known as a “tavern,” for a dime. It inspired imitations for miles around, and by the time Ye Olde Tavern closed in 1971, Sioux Citians were smitten with the sandwich, which had come to assume many aliases in the places that served it, including Big T, Charlie Boy, Tastee, and, most popular of all, loosemeats. Like Santa Maria barbecue in the ranchland east of Santa Barbara or Brunswick stew in southern Virginia, loosemeats has become the favorite thing to dish out at fund-raising suppers; it continues to be a staple on school lunch menus; and it is served at virtually every drive-in restaurant and bar throughout the counties of Sioux, Plymouth, Cherokee, and Woodbury.
The pride of Siouxland: A loosemeats sandwich.
Loosemeats are customarily dressed with pickle slices, mustard, and a square slice of American cheese—a remix of the cheeseburger with fragmented harmony. Like grits and burnt ends, it is a name for which the singular form never is used, although it can be either singular or plural. Usually one sandwich is a loosemeats; a batch in the kitchen or a bowlful without the bun are loosemeats.