NEW YORK — Is a Maid-Rite a hamburger?

Well, not exactly, but at the very least, it’s burger adjacent, according to author, historian, documentarian and restaurateur George Motz, the owner of Hamburger America in the SoHo area of Manhattan. Each month, Motz offers up a new regional special at his diner alongside the two mainstay burgers on the menu, and until May 7, the beloved loose meat sandwich from a Marshalltown institution, Taylor’s Maid-Rite, is being featured.

“The greatest thing about the Maid-Rite is that it’s a hyper-regional specialty of Iowa, and to me, that’s always exciting because there are a lot of people in New York City that don’t know what it is,” he said. “And so part of my job is to educate people to these different food ways and different burger ways in America, and unquestionably, the Maid-Rite is a big part of that.”

Motz first heard of the Maid-Rite through fellow food writers Jane and Michael Stern, and he began to study the history of the Midwestern delicacy.

“Before we opened the restaurant, we had a plan to give back to the people that I call my hamburger heroes and to make the restaurant sort of come to life. It’s a piece of living hamburger history, and when you walk in, there’s lots of history on the walls with photos and captions that guide you through hamburger history, and Taylor’s is on there for sure,” he said. “But to bring it to life, we decided that the best thing to do would be to bring in my hamburger heroes once a month.”

Sandy (Taylor) Short, the owner of the eatery that dates back almost a century, remembers meeting Motz all the way back in 2011 while he was doing research for his book (which shares the same name as his restaurant), and a few months ago, he reached out to Short to see if she’d be interested in traveling to New York City as part of his showcase. Naturally, she enthusiastically accepted the offer.

At an introductory press conference, Short got the chance to explain her famous loose meat sandwich, beloved for its simplicity, and made a subsequent TikTok video. They sold 100 Maid-Rites during the first day of the special, and a few native Marshalltonians even stopped by to enjoy a taste of their hometown.

Motz described the Maid-Rite as “esoteric” because he felt that it confounded customers who couldn’t understand whether or not it was a burger until they got encouragement from someone nearby — “Come on, it’s an Iowa tradition, you’ve gotta try it!”

“We’re selling a lot of them. We’re definitely selling a lot, but I think we’re selling more out of curiosity than anything else. There’s a fair number of people coming into the restaurant who are from Iowa and are coming for a taste of their childhood. It’s pretty amazing,” he said.

Although it went a bit out of order, Taylor’s Maid-Rite has now been owned and operated by four generations of the Taylor/Short family — Cliff Taylor bought the franchise for $300 in 1928, his son Don Taylor and his wife Polly took it over in 1944, their grandson (Sandy’s son) Don Short took the reins in 1985, and after an extended stint in North Dakota, Sandy and her late husband Con took over in 2006.

“We have a wonderful product, and we have good help. And I think people enjoy our help because they interact with them and pick on them a little bit, maybe, but the main thing is a wonderful product always,” she said.

Short, who will turn 87 soon, is wintering in Arizona for a few more weeks before she heads back to Marshalltown, and she can’t wait to return to the restaurant she loves so much. Motz found himself incredibly impressed with her, describing Short as “unbelievably sharp” and describing how she handled the shipping of merchandise and even the custom Taylor’s sandwich wrappers to New York City — not to mention that she got behind the line and helped Motz and his crew scoop loose meat before it was served on the first day of the special.

And as for the difficult question that kicked off the story, Motz has ultimately decided the Maid-Rite is “burger adjacent” and a welcome member of the burger family.

“By the way, it’s the only burger we serve with a spoon,” he said.

——

Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or r

maharry@timesrepublican.com.