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In 2024 the Arkansas Beef Council put the 1921 Burger in the top five burgers in the state in its Best Burger in Arkansas competition. AY Magazine named it a top three finalist for Best Burger the same year, alongside our steak and our cocktails.
We didn’t win either one. We came close in both, out of a town of nine thousand people, with a burger that costs twenty-six dollars on a menu that also has a forty-nine dollar ribeye.
Here is exactly what’s on it.
The Original
Aged cheddar, sharp enough to stand up to what’s under it. Candied bacon — the same thick-cut bacon we slow-smoke and glaze with brown sugar and honey for the appetizer, laid across the patty. House aioli. Arugula. Pickled red onions, made here, bright against the fat.
And the pickles. Spiral-cut, made in our kitchen, and the single item on this plate people ask about most.
The Spicy
Same burger, three changes: pepper jack instead of the aged cheddar, fried jalapeños, and a spicy aioli in place of the house one.
It is not a novelty version. If you like heat, start there rather than working up to it.
The fries, which are not a side note
Double-battered. Fried twice so the outside sets hard and stays that way through the last one on the plate, which is the whole point and is harder to do than it sounds.
They come with our secret sauce, made in house. People have been asking for that recipe for years. We haven’t given it up.
The burger comes with both. No additional side to order, no decision to make.
Lift the bun
Branded into the crown of every bun is the silhouette of Lefty himself — the same mark in our logo, pressed into the bread.
Most people find it by accident, lifting the top bun to see what’s really under there. It’s the most photographed thing we put on a plate, and we’ve never once mentioned it on the menu.
Why 1921
The building was a hotel before it was a restaurant. An Irish immigrant named Francis “Lefty” Miller won it in a card game in 1921, on a hand of three threes — which is also where the 333 Club gets its name.
The burger is named for the year he won. The long version is over in Lefty’s Chronicles.
Where you can eat it
Anywhere you’re sitting.
The Inter-Stella Bar is full service, so a seat at the bar is a seat for dinner — same menu, same kitchen, no difference except the view. Thirty-five feet of it, lit from underneath.
If you’re coming in alone, or it’s a Thursday, or you don’t feel like making a night of it, the bar is the answer. You don’t need a reservation to sit there.
Visit
Lefty’s on the Square — 124 N. Court Square, Magnolia, AR 71753 · 870-901-3000
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 4–10 p.m.