🍔 Hamburger emoji

Do you know the all-American hamburger is probably not an American invention? The beef patty (usually pan fried or cooked on a grill and then topped with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and condiments like mayonnaise or ketchup) is believed to ultimately come from Hamburg, Germany.

First, in 1758, the “Hamburgh sausage” appeared, a sausage served on warm bread, and later, in the mid-1800s, roasted beefsteak appeared on a warm bread roll.

The first American version of a hamburger may have been served by Louis Lassen of Louis’ Lunch in 1900 in New Haven, Connecticut. There are a few other claims that put the burger on American plates slightly earlier than 1900.

The first hamburger chain restaurant? White Castle. And the first McDonald’s location opened in California, way back in 1940.

The Hamburger emoji 🍔 was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010. Despite the emoji’s official name, most major platforms depict a classic cheeseburger on sesame buns with lettuce and tomato. The layering of those toppings has been subject to some popular controversy. An early Google version once had the cheese underneath the patty; it was corrected after the internet chastised Google for getting it wrong. Apple and WhatsApp place the lettuce under the patty.