The Fair’s Earthquake burger and fry stand celebrates its 23rd year

During a road trip to Yakima many years ago, Larry Ball made a pit stop at Miner’s Drive-In Restaurant and had one of its famed hamburgers.

Ball knew he could make a better burger than the legendary Miner’s.

After working as an usher in the grandstands for 15 years and trying to make ends meet through seasonal jobs, Ball decided he would start his own burger stand.

He headed to the Tacoma Library and grabbed phone books from Puyallup all the way to Los Angeles, looking for butchers he could buy eight-inch burger patties from.

“I didn’t care about rejection,” Ball, a Puyallup native, said. “You never surrender when you’re going after something you want.”

Eventually, Ball decided he would just press his own burger patties. Then the hunt for the perfect burger press began — until Ball decided to make his own press machine.

Once he settled on the design of his press, in 1992, the first Earthquake Burgers were born. The stand was built out of plywood with a plastic roof, located outside the gates to the fairgrounds.

“When I started selling burgers, I knew I hit something good,” he said. “I paid my rent on the property by mowing lawns.”

His stand was outside the main gates for two years before making it inside the fairgrounds.

From there, word of the giant burgers spread, and now 23 years later, Ball is seeing the fruits of his labor every September.

His burger stand now goes through 20,000 pounds of hamburger, 50,000 pounds of potatoes and 38,000 hamburger buns each fair season.

“All of our 40,000 burgers we make each year are made fresh,” Ball said. “We use the best possible ingredients, and don’t cut any corners.”

Ball’s parents worked at Effie’s Restaurant at the fair while he was in grade school. He remembers the days at the fair fondly.

“The best days of my life have been here at the fair,” Ball said.

Ball’s wife, Lois, says her husband is always thinking of ways he can improve his business.

“Even in the off-seasons, he’s thinking of what he can do better,” she said.

While there’s no doubt an Earthquake Burger and a brick of curly fries are more than enough food for a sitting, Ball says it’s all part of the Washington State Fair experience.

“You don’t go on a roller coaster every day, you don’t eat cotton candy every day, and you sure don’t eat an Earthquake Burger every day,” he said.

“We have people who buy fair admission just to eat our burgers,” Lois said.

Each year, Ball works 16-hour shifts each day during the 17-day run of the fair.

“It’s really the adrenaline rush that keeps me going,” he said. “Every year, I can’t wait to fire everything up once the fair opens.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 11:24 AM with the headline "The Fair’s Earthquake burger and fry stand celebrates its 23rd year."