One of the Best Burgers in North Texas Is Finally Back, Here's How to Get It

Has it really been over five years since the world shut down?

Time is certainly a cruel mistress, and in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, you were excused if you wondered what day it was, how long since you’d left the house or if it was too early to start drinking (answer: no). We all have memories of how we adapted to a strange version of the new normal.

For Rich Vana at The Heritage Table in Frisco, the limits on gathering in public hit his restaurant hard, like many others. Near the end of 2020, Vana shut the doors on his dining room and turned the restaurant into a to-go sandwich and provisions shop, at which time a new creation was born: The Impractical Sandwich, so named because the detail the team put into this creation were impractical for most people to do at home. In addition to brown-bag lunches and an eclectic menu of sandwiches, the shop also sold meats, sauces, spreads and soups for takeout by the pint and pound.

The Impractical Sandwich was the crutch Vana and his staff needed to stay afloat during some truly trying times. The concept shuttered in 2022 when Heritage Table itself reopened, albeit as a dinner-only establishment (brunch and lunch service have yet to return). Since reopening, it’s been ho-hum for Vana and his team; a James Beard nomination in 2024, plus a glowing review in these pages and reentry into our Top 100 Restaurants. You know, nothing big.

So imagine our surprise when we saw the Impractical Sandwich was making a return this summer, starting with a double cheeseburger for the ages. No less of a burger authority than Jack Perkins of Maple & Motor shared a photo of the new burger last week, which Vana had brought by the northern Maple & Motor outpost for Perkins to try.

“I’ve known Jack forever, and been to Maple & Motor a million times,” Vana told us. “I knew I had to bring him a burger to try out.”

The photo Perkins shared on social media showed a double-patty sandwich, along with a note that he “took down the whole thing.” It’s nice to see game recognize game, and we knew then what we would be doing the following Friday.

Yes, a downside: for now, the Impractical Sandwich is only available Fridays at lunch, to-go. You can pre-order from their website along with a pickup time between 11:30 and 1:30, and your burger will be waiting for you when you arrive. You could also try dropping in with no pre-order, but expect to wait about 15 minutes for your order. Also, the number of sandwiches is limited each day while Heritage Table’s team gets a feel for the process. Be smart here: get your pre-order in and plan accordingly.

When we popped in just a few minutes before our pickup time, it was a brief wait before Vana himself popped out with our order and we seized on a brief moment to say hello. And when he handed us the bag, the weight of it almost caused us to drop it. We cut short our chat with Vana rather hastily (sorry, chef!) so we could make our escape and dig into lunch. I’ve a friend who lives about five minutes away in Frisco, and for the price of a burger of their own, they let me eat in their kitchen much more quickly than if I had driven all the way home.

In our hefty paper sack were two of the famed cheeseburgers ($14 each) and two orders of fries, held in their own smaller bags. The burger is impressive in its simplicity. The two 4-ounce patties of Ranch Hand Meat Company prime beef are seasoned, smashed and seared to perfection on a flattop. There’s a flavorful, crunchy exterior, but still a perfect line of medium pink underneath.

Off-the-shelf cheese might work, but Vana is no off-the-shelf chef; his team makes their own American cheese with Rollertown Brewing’s Kolsch beer, then melts a slice onto each patty. The buns, based on the stellar milk and honey rolls available regularly at Heritage Table, are dressed simply: a dash of yellow mustard, house-cured pickle slices and a caramelized onion jam.

We also ordered a side of fries ($4), which are exquisitely done. The fries are the perfect thickness for our preferences; not shoestring thin nor steak fry thick. If we had to guess, there’s either a light batter or some pre-boiling technique to give the potatoes a starchy exterior that crisps up nicely while remaining fluffy and light underneath. Furthering the attention to detail, both the burger and fries are half-wrapped, so nothing gets soggy while you travel home with your meal.

Like Perkins the week before, we took down the whole burger without a touch of shame. The cheeseburger is simple enough, but the flavors and textures on hand sing in multi-part harmony, as if "Seven Bridges Road" by the Eagles were a sandwich. The fries want for nothing, although Heritage Table drops in packets of Heinz ketchup should you like to dip. Maybe our only surprise was that Vana and team hadn’t whipped up some elevated house-made ketchup to match everything else's homemade slant?

But those are the kind of pedantic points food writers make so the reader knows we’re not on the take. The fact is, the Impractical Sandwich’s cheeseburger return is magnificent by any measure. The next burger Friday can’t get here quickly enough.

The Heritage Table, 7110 Main Street, Frisco