The Enduring Simplicity of Fountain Porter’s $6 Burger

Fountain Porter’s burger / Photograph by Chloé Pantazi-Wolber

Welcome to Just One Dish, a Foobooz series that looks at an outstanding item on a Philly restaurant’s menu — the story behind the dish, how it’s made, and why you should be going out of your way to try it.

The cheeseburger from Fountain Porter was the first thing I ate after moving to Philly. Almost two years later, I visit the East Passyunk bar to eat the same burger at least once or twice a month, sometimes more. It’s there when I’m having a bad day, and when I’ve just gotten back from out of town and I’m too lazy to cook. And it was there when I watched the credits roll at the end of The Menu and all I wanted was a damn burger.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of trying it, let me describe the Fountain Porter burger for you: a juicy, slightly salty beef patty — cooked medium-rare — under a melted layer of American cheese and atop a crisp slice of lettuce and tomato, all tucked inside a soft potato roll. And on the side, two pickle chips for good measure.

At $6, it’s a great burger. Reliably delicious, it has all the components of a classic cheeseburger. And in the best way, it’s messy to eat; you can expect drips of fat to accumulate on your plate as you go — proof the patty is cooked just right. The taste and low price, plus the fact it’s available seven days a week until 1 a.m., keep me coming back for more. I’m not the only one. Fountain Porter’s owner Evan Clancy tells me the bar sells anywhere from 800 to 1,000 burgers each week.

Part of the burger’s appeal, besides its simplicity, is that it’s tasted the same for years. The bar began slinging them in 2013, and though I tried it for the first time in 2018 (then as a visitor to Philly), it still tastes exactly as I remember it. The consistency is impressive. When I ask Clancy how they do it, he tells me it’s easy to get it right when it’s one thing.

The burger is one of just a few items on Fountain Porter’s food menu, but, without a doubt, it’s the star, supported by the fries and dill pickles, carrots, jalapeños, or green beans — perfectly respectable sides that pair nicely with anything off the bar’s beer or wine list. In previous years, the bar has offered charcuterie boards, breakfast sandwiches, and a veggie burger, though the latter left the menu after the oven broke (which was required to cook the tempeh and roasted beets used to make them). Clancy no longer eats meat himself — but he’ll still taste the beef burger whenever he’s hiring a new cook — and won’t say never to the idea of another veggie option in the future.

Fountain Porter’s burger with a side of fries. / Photograph by Chloé Pantazi-Wolber

While Clancy says “there’s no secret” to the burger the bar has become known for, there is of course a method that ensures the quality remains top-notch. “We weigh out each patty,” he says, “so the weight of each burger is the exact same.” The beef is also seasoned and cooked consistently — nothing fancy, he says, just “high heat, salt, and pepper.” And there’s even a guide for the cook, with the grilling technique baked into the kitchen’s ticketing process, down to the minute. “Each ticket has two times on it: when you’re essentially ready to flip it, and then when you’re basically ready to pull it off,” Clancy says. It’s a simple, but effective system in a two-person kitchen, where one cook makes the burgers and the other plates them.

The ingredients are, unsurprisingly, just as no-frills. “We don’t source from, like, a farm in Bucks County,” Clancy says. “It’s not sexy in that sense. It’s straightforward.” The bar gets Martin’s potato buns from a bread distribution company, beef from the Italian Market, and the lettuce and tomato delivered from a produce vendor.

The cost of these ingredients has, naturally, fluctuated over the years, and at one point impacted the price of Fountain Porter’s burger, which was previously $5. Sometime before the pandemic, the price went up by a dollar — a hike that Clancy says was necessary, given the increasing cost of beef at the time. It was not as dramatic of a price increase as Southwark’s burger which went from $17 in 2019 to $24 in 2022 (their double cheeseburger with fries currently costs $25). Still, it’s one of the most affordable burgers in the city outside of a fast-food joint, and the bar owner says it’s always been important to him that the cost of the burger remain low.

When he opened Fountain Porter, Clancy knew he wanted to serve a burger — “something simple that we could offer at a good price point” — in part inspired by corner bars like Cherry Street Tavern and Nick’s Roast Beef, places he says don’t try to do “too much” with their food. In that spirit, Clancy consulted a former colleague — the late chef, Al Anderson — to help find the right formula for the burger, factoring in everything from portion size to seasoning, so the bar could price it fairly.

When I ask Clancy how the burger is still so affordable today, he points to the operation at Fountain Porter as a whole. “As long as, at the end of the day, it all shakes out and people get paid and the bar is still open, that’s what guides me,” he says.

Thankfully, people like to drink beer which certainly helps. And more often than not, they’ll come in for a drink and stay for the burger.