FOOD NEWS
The Iconic Burger Restaurant In An Illinois Town With Zero Residents
BY Gene Gerrard
In the middle of a wide expanse of Illinois farmland, three-and-a-half hours south of Chicago, you'll happen upon Moonshine, a town with no residents.
Although you'll never find Moonshine on a map, thousands flock there annually to gobble down The Moonshine Store's famous Moonburgers.
Every day, current owners Jackie and Lisa Tuttle serve hundreds of Moonburgers. While annually voted one of the top 25 burgers in Illinois, The Moonshine Store is hardly typical.
Customers arrive and put in their orders. Since there's always a line, they wait patiently on folding chairs or old church pews until their name is called.
The Tuttles only do plain burgers or with cheese; no shoestring fries or milkshakes, but you can get a bag of chips and a soda. You can’t eat inside, but picnic tables are outside.
It's actually not a secret what makes the Moonburger so good. The unconventional recipe was published in Illinois Farmer Today in 2023 in the form of a poem.
The Moonburger is basically a smashed patty, but once the Moonshine Store was featured on "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2003, people came by the droves to try the simply prepared burger.