The 1970s Restaurant Remembered For Its 'Ollieburger' And Beer-Steamed Hot Dogs

Of all the defunct casual restaurant chains in the United States, one in particular stands out for its eccentricity. For starters, it never seemed to decide how to spell its own name, and unlike most casual American restaurants of the past, it made its name on beer-steamed hot dogs with toppings like chili and sherry-spiked sauerkraut rather than burgers (although it had those, too). It was called Lum's (or Lums, sans apostrophe), and it began as a hot dog stand in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1956, had its heyday in the 1970s, and was drastically diminished by the following decade.

While other 1970s restaurants relied on gimmicks, like PoFolks and its Mason jar glasses, Lum's focused on other goals to help grow. Besides its unusual hot dogs, the chain boasted low prices, beer on tap, and elaborately seasoned fries that were ahead of their time. In the '70s, the chain introduced the Ollieburger, a 5.3-ounce hamburger on a fresh-baked bun that was supposedly so juicy and delicious that no ketchup or mustard was required. It was alleged that the company paid $1 million to its inventor, Oliver Gleichenhaus, for the burger's secret recipe, which included 23 different herbs and spices (the same ones used to coat the fries). But it all started with those beer-steamed hot dogs.

In 1956, brothers Stuart and Clifford Perlman bought a hot dog stand in Miami Beach, kept the original name, Lum's, and quickly began expanding. By 1961, they had four locations featuring somewhat unusual hot dogs that didn't fit into any discernible regional hot dog style. They steamed their quarter-pound hot dogs in a mixture of beer, water, caraway seeds, spices, and onions. The company continued to expand and went public in 1969, the same year it bought the famed Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas. Two years later, the brothers sold Lum's, deciding that gambling and not grills was the future.

The new owners of Lum's included John Y. Brown Jr., the former chairman of KFC and Kentucky governor who helped bring the Ollieburger to the chain. At Lum's height in the 1970s, there were more than 400 locations across the United States and in Europe, and the comedian Milton Berle was the company spokesperson. Then, in 1978, a Swiss company bought Lum's, with less-than-stellar results. By 1982, they'd declared bankruptcy and locations began to quickly shut down. The original location closed the next year, with the last Florida Lum's shuttering in 2009 and a lone holdout in Nebraska hanging around until 2017. Now Lum's is only a memory, like so many other vanished restaurant chains. It's also a piece of cinematic history, having been featured in a scene in Martin Scorsese's 2019 film "The Irishman" that helped revive nostalgia for the chain and its steamed hot dogs.