First Burger

above, May 1957 - 1st Burger Chef, 6170 N. Keystone Ave., Indianapolis IN.

Across from Little America Amusment Park

Car hops were not used as this picture implies.    

Burger Chef was franchised in 1958, the restaurants were redesigned to have a consistant look and menu.

First beginnings
There are several accounts of the invention of the hamburger.
15th century
Beginning in the 15th century, minced beef was a valued delicacy throughout Europe. Hashed beef was made into sausage in several different regions of Europe.
17th century
Ships from the German port of Hamburg, Germany began calling on Russian ports. During this period the Russian steak tartare was brought back to Germany and called "tartare steak".[citation needed]
18th and 19th centuries
Hamburg steak
In the late 18th century, the largest ports in Europe were in Germany. Sailors who had visited the ports of Hamburg, Germany and New York, brought this food and term "Hamburg steak" into popular usage. To attract German sailors, eating stands along the New York city harbor offered "steak cooked in the Hamburg style". The Oxford English Dictionary defined Hamburg steak as salt beef. It had little resemblance to the hamburger we know today.[clarification needed] It was a hard slab of salted minced beef, often slightly smoked, mixed with onions and breadcrumbs. The emphasis was more on durability than taste.
Immigrants to the United States from German-speaking countries brought with them some of their favorite foods. One of them was Hamburg Steak. The Germans simply flavored shredded low-grade beef with regional spices, and both cooked and raw it became a standard meal among the poorer classes. In the seaport town of Hamburg, it acquired the name Hamburg steak. Today, this hamburger patty is no longer called Hamburg Steak in Germany but rather "Frikadelle", "Frikandelle" or "Bulette", originally Italian and French words.[4]