Roy’s Big Burger at 5200 Lakeside Ave.
Beef patties spitting grease with a topcoat of American cheese and buffed by two soft buns is a sandwich as classic as the road trip. Located on the roads now less traveled than the interstate highway system, mom-and-pop burger stands sizzled along what were once major thoroughfares in the 1950s. Richmond has several remaining from this heyday. The longest running — in the same location, that is — Roy’s Big Burger was established in 1961 in Lakeside.
Technically What-A-Burger (unrelated to the Texas-based Whataburger chain) is the oldest local burger spot, but its current Chester location at 9901 Jefferson Davis Highway isn’t its first in the region. It originally fed Route 1 travelers near Moore’s Lake, a now-defunct water park that closed last year.
Today, David Nunnally owns both Roy’s Big Burger and the Chester What-A-Burger. The menus are nearly identical. The history of how this came to be, like the history of the hamburger itself, is both simple and complicated. Like a family tree, the two walk-ups share a common root: a Newport News What-A-Burger opened by siblings Jack and Paul E. Branch Jr. in the 1950s.
Roy’s Big Burger owner David Nunnally
Roy Horne began his burger career managing a What-A-Burger for the Branch family near Richmond’s Diamond District. Down the street was Kelly’s, one of a local string of burger stands. Boulevard Burger & Brew operates there today, and while it may have more outdoor seating, its restored red-and-white awnings recall the building’s beginnings.
In 1961, Horne left What-A-Burger to open Roy’s Big Burger (the same year Ray Kroc, the former CEO of McDonald’s who is credited with taking it global, purchased the business from the McDonald’s brothers). The menu at Roy’s was simple: 35-cent burgers, chips and bottled sodas.
At the time, Malcolm Bruce Nunnally, David's father, operated Quality Meats on Main Street. He sold fresh patties to all of Richmond’s burger joints, including Soble’s, which was across the street from his packing plant, Kelly’s, Roy’s and What-A-Burger.
When Horne decided to sell Roy’s Big Burger, Malcolm snapped it up. It has stayed in the Nunnally family to this day. In 1989, David bought the Chester What-A-Burger from the Branch family, who still own the Newport News and Petersburg locations.
“The food is cooked pretty much the same way [at What-A-Burger and Roy’s] with a few minor differences,” David explains. “We use all fresh-ground beef, grilled on a gas flat top. We still cut up our veggies every day. Fresh bread is delivered every three days.” Unlike What-A-Burger, which has inside seating, Roy’s in Lakeside is a walk-up stand with a few picnic tables. Though business is weather dependent, Roy’s serves about 300 burgers a day, seven days a week. The fare and process are simple — put unseasoned, 80-20 quarter-pound burgers on the grill, press, cook through and top with lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion and pickle.
In these days of grass-fed beef and wagyu, smash burgers and chef-driven ground round, is there still room for an inexpensive, unseasoned patty that’s a step above the ubiquitous fast-food burgers? Lakeside says yes — if Nunnally doesn’t change anything.
“We have three generations coming here to eat. Folks bring in their grandkids to show them where they went as kid,” Nunnally explains. “My family has no plans on taking this place over. They all have different careers. But I have no plans to retire. I’ll be here as long as I can.”
