I've been to Booches in Columbia, MO, geez, I don't know, maybe three dozen times since I first found the place back in the 80's. Since then, I haven't found many other places in my travels that makes a cheese burger as good as the one at Booches. I had a meeting in Columbia recently and purposely came to town early to get a couple of their small cheeseburgers one afternoon.
Booches was established in 1884 - yep, that's right, 1884 - by Paul "Booch" Venable. For over 90 years Booches was a male-only establishment. That was pretty hard to believe when I first heard that, considering the Columbia area is one of the more progressive and liberal areas in the Midwest.
In 1976, three friends - Mick Jabbour, Jerry Dethrow, and Bob Rappold - who all shared a love for creative writing and poetry, bought Booches and transformed it into what is the present day incarnation of the place. They quickly became known as having a killer cheeseburger and became a favorite lunch-time hangout for University of Missouri students and professors. Over the years, I've had a number of people from the St. Louis area tell me about how they used to get Booches burgers when they were going to school in Columbia.
Running Booches gave the three friends time to dabble in their love of poetry and they ended up publishing five poetry reviews called "Review La Booche" that featured work from local writers. Rappold eventually left the trio in the mid-80's and opened a small cafe with his wife near Booches. Dethrow eventually bought out Jabbour's share of Booches in 1993 and he ran the place until 2004. He then sold Booches to longtime managers Charlie Kurre and Rick Robertson who continue to run the place today.
For years, Booches was primarily a pool hall featuring a number of full-sized pool, snooker and no-pockets billiard tables. Jabbour, Dethrow and Rabbold moved two or three tables out of the building to make room for a dining area up front near the bar. First and foremost, Booches is still a pool hall that hosts a number of specialty tournaments. But the massive draw continues to be their cheeseburgers. In 2000, USA Today called Booches one of the Top 10 burgers in the nation. The little secret that a lot of area residents knew about for 24 years suddenly became a national phenomenon. But notoriety hasn't changed Booches one bit and the burgers are still consistently great.
Booches is located in downtown Columbia, not far from the University of Missouri campus (see map). It was about 1:30 when I got into Booches on a cold day recently. There was still a pretty good sized lunch crowd in the place at that time. And it was very diverse in ages. There was a large group of college-aged students seated at a big table up front, an elderly couple was seated near the bar, and a number of middle-aged men and women were having Booches burgers for lunch. Now that Columbia bars and restaurants are smoke free, there's no longer any of that gray haze that lingers over the place from the number of pool players who smoked while they played. I've been told the smoking ban has hurt Booches' billiard business, but they've more than made it up with the amount of people coming in for their burgers.
Booches menu is located on the wall opposite the old ornate bar. In addition to burgers, Booches also has grilled chicken sandwiches, pork loin sandwiches, hot dogs and chili dogs, and breakfast sandwiches. It had been a couple years since I was last in Booches and I noticed they'd raised their prices a bit. Their cheeseburgers are now $3 bucks apiece.
In addition to the menu on the wall, there's a number of vintage pictures and a lot of St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia. Actually, the amount of St. Louis Cardinals pictures and memorabilia on the wall is pretty impressive. A Cardinals fan could easily spend a half-hour just looking at all the stuff they have on display.
I took a small table near the front door. Each time the door opened, a blast of cold air came up my back. It was sort of uncomfortable, but I didn't mind it all that much knowing that a couple Booches cheeseburgers would be worth waiting for in the occasional cold.
Booches cheeseburgers are not all that big. Two can easily be eaten in one sitting. I did see one of the college-aged girls seated near me order three. And she wasn't that big of a girl. I'm sure I could have had three, myself, but I was going out for dinner with a prospective dealer later in the day and I didn't want to spoil my meal.
I ordered up a couple cheeseburgers and a beer. And don't think just because the burgers are small they're gonna be out quickly. The grill Booches uses isn't all that big and it's located next to the bar. It took nearly 20 minutes (and a second beer) for my two cheeseburgers to show up.
Booches cheeseburgers are served on wax paper, just as they have been for years. Everything on a Booches burger is ketchup, mustard, raw onion slices and pickles. The cheese is on the bottom of the burger as it's served.
The bun helps Booches cheeseburgers. It's light and fluffy and stays together as you eat the highly juicy Booches burger. As small as they are, it doesn't take long to devour one of the burgers. From the first taste to the last, a Booches burger is still one of my all-time favorite burgers.
As soon as I finished the second burger, I damn near came close to ordering a third one. I had the time, but I reminded myself that I didn't want to overeat - still trying to watch the waistline and keep the weight off. So two Booches burgers were enough for me that day.
I'm in the midst of "fine tuning" my Top Ten burgers list. But, Booches remains firmly ensconced on that list. Their burgers are consistently very, very good to great. I view it as a treat each time I have the opportunity to go to Booches. Now, if I can land this new dealer in Columbia I'll have more chances to visit Booches in the future. If you make the trip to Columbia over a weekend for a Booches burger at some point, be sure to take note that Booches is not open on Sundays, or as the sign says, "Closed on Sunday - See you in Church." I'm guessing that's a tradition Booches has had from the days of being a men only establishment. And Booches is one of those places where you don't have to worry about traditions being changed.
Oh man Booches! Come on, your killing me! I miss Booches!
Posted by: Tim Lake | April 14, 2010 at 10:37 AM
I am happy that you found their cheese burger palatable. When I was there, I ordered the same also but ended up eating something not so good for a customer. They should have been more careful next time.
Posted by: Paul Downs | January 04, 2013 at 12:51 PM
used to shoot snooker and play backgammon at Club LaBooche back in the mid 70's. Nothing like a Booche Burger!!
Posted by: Kevin Hume | January 16, 2019 at 01:55 PM