The Menches story began long before the hamburger became an American icon. Rooted in family, entrepreneurship and passion for food, the Menches family would travel to fairs and expositions serving food to generations of Americans. Brothers Frank and Charles Menches carried that spirit forward, beginning a food legacy that would make history - more than once.
Long before the Menches name became associated with restaurants, Frank and Charles were building businesses in Canton, Ohio. An 1891 Business Review of Stark County documented “C. Menches & Bro.,” their cigar manufacturing business at 21 East Tuscarawas Street.
The brothers operated two factories and employed an average of eighteen workers, manufacturing their own brands of cigars and establishing themselves among Canton’s growing business community.
Business Review of Stark County, 1891 — Canton, Ohio
Before the fairs, the hamburger and the Liberty Theatre, the Menches family was already in business in Canton, Ohio.
The family operated grocery and tobacco businesses, establishing the entrepreneurial roots that Frank and Charles Menches would carry into their own ventures.
These rare family photographs preserve a glimpse of the Menches name in Canton before the family story eventually moved north to Akron.
“Dad’s Grocery Store” — preserved in the Menches family archives.
In 1885, Frank and Charles Menches of Canton, Ohio, were food concessionaires at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York. According to the Menches family account, when the brothers ran out of pork sausage for their sandwiches, they substituted ground beef, seasoned it with coffee, brown sugar and spices, and served it with onions and ketchup. The new sandwich took its name from the place where the story began—Hamburg, New York.
Hamburg, New York celebrates its connection to the Menches hamburger story a century after the 1885 Erie County Fair.
Hamburg, New York — The Menches hamburger story has been documented and debated for generations. This newspaper account tells the story of Frank and Charles Menches and their connection to the 1885 Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York.
HISTORIC NEWSPAPER PRESERVED BY THE MENCHES FAMILY
In 1893 Frank and Charles Menches took their entrepreneurial spirit to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The brothers brought their caramel coated popcorn and peanuts known as Gee Whiz, a treat they were already selling in Canton, Ohio. It became another chapter in the Menches brothers' legacy of creating and introducing memorable foods at America's great fairs and expositions
The Menches family story extends beyond the hamburger. Frank and Charles Menches sold their caramel-coated popcorn and peanut confection known as Gee Whiz. This newspaper article, published during Cracker Jack’s 100th anniversary, recounts the competing histories surrounding these early caramel-corn-and-peanut confections and specifically preserves the Menches Brothers’ place in the story.
Historic newspaper article preserved by the Menches family
The Menches Brothers Come to Akron
By the early 1900s, Frank and Charles Menches had brought their food and entertainment ventures to Akron. At Summit Beach Park, the brothers operated the beer gardens, continuing the entrepreneurial tradition that had taken them to fairs and gatherings across the country.
This family photograph, believed to date to about 1902, captures the Menches operation at Summit Beach Park — with Charles Menches identified in the original family notation.
In 1904, Frank and Charles Menches traveled to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition — the St. Louis World’s Fair — where another Menches food story was born. According to Menches family history, the brothers created a crisp, edible cone to hold ice cream, helping introduce fairgoers to what would become one of America’s favorite treats. The brothers broght their confection back to their candy factory in Akron, Ohio. Renamed Premium Cone and Candy. By 1906 they were shipping 60,000 cones a day nationwide.
The Menches ice cream cone story lives on today. An original Menches cone-making iron survives as a remarkable piece of the family’s history and a tangible connection to the 1904 World’s Fair.
An original Menches cone-making iron still survives today, providing a tangible connection to the family’s early ice cream cone business.
In 1909, Charles E. Menches was granted a patent for a baking iron for ice cream cones. The original patent drawing shows the distinctive design—including the PREMIUM name impressed into the iron.
Remarkably, one of the surviving Menches irons bears that same design. Together, the patent and the artifact provide a striking connection between the historical record and the equipment itself.
PATENTED JUNE 8, 1909 | CHARLES E. MENCHES, INVENTOR
One of only two known Menches cone-making irons survives in our collection, with the other preserved at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.
From the 1904 World’s Fair to today—the history is still here.
In 1952, the Summit County Historical Society acknowledged receiving historical materials from Frank A. Menches, including an “Original Mould for making Ice Cream Cones,” a letter explaining the mold, Premium Cones letterhead and historic photographs.
This surviving document provides an important archival record connecting the Menches family to early ice cream cone production and the equipment preserved from that history.
SUMMIT COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY — JANUARY 12, 1952
In 1917, the Menches family entered the theatre business with the Liberty Theatre in Akron, Ohio. This theatre was one of the fist movie houses in the county. Adding another chapter to a family story already rooted in food, entertainment and entrepreneurship.
The Liberty became part of Akron’s neighborhood life during a remarkable period of growth for the city. For the Menches family, it represented the same entrepreneurial spirit that had taken Frank and Charles to fairs and expositions across the country.
From hamburgers and ice cream cones to a neighborhood theatre, the Menches name was becoming part of Akron history.
In 1917, Frank and Charles Menches added another chapter to their remarkable story when they built Akron's Liberty Theatre at West Market and Valley streets. Opened during World War I, the neighborhood movie house became a West Hill landmark and part of Akron's entertainment history.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | THE END OF AN ERA
The Liberty Theatre remained a West Hill landmark for decades. After closing in the early 1950s, the building was eventually demolished, bringing an end to another chapter of Frank and Charles Menches’ remarkable story in Akron.
Charles E. Menches died in 1931 at the age of 72. Newspapers remembered the Akron businessman, theatre owner and concessionaire for a remarkable career that stretched from amusement parks and fairs to the Liberty Theatre — and for his role in the creation of the ice cream cone.
His death ended the decades-long partnership of Frank and Charles Menches, but Frank continued the family's concession business and carried their story forward.
“Hamburger inventor dies”
Frank A. Menches died in Akron on October 5, 1951, at the age of 86. His obituary reached newspapers far beyond Ohio, including the Los Angeles Daily News, which remembered him with the headline “Hamburger inventor dies.”
With Frank's death, the remarkable era of the Menches brothers came to a close. Their story, however, remained preserved in family photographs, newspaper clippings, recipes and artifacts — pieces of history that a later generation would rediscover.
For decades, the Menches hamburger story had largely faded from public view. Then a remarkable piece of family history resurfaced—the original Menches hamburger recipe, discovered by the family’s next generation.
In 1991, the family brought the Menches hamburger back to its roots: the fairgrounds. More than a century after Frank and Charles Menches first served their hamburger at the Erie County Fair in 1885, their descendants began serving it again at the Stark County Fair.
The response helped launch a new chapter in the Menches story — and ultimately the return of the Menches Brothers restaurant name.
More than a century after Frank and Charles Menches first served their hamburger at the 1885 fair in Hamburg, New York, the Menches family returned to the community where the story began.
During Burgerfest, the family was recognized for its connection to the invention of the hamburger and received a proclamation from the State of New York. The recognition brought the Menches story full circle — from a fairground food stand in 1885 to descendants returning generations later to celebrate the family's place in hamburger history.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | CONGRESSIONAL RECOGNITION
In 1993, White Castle recognized Frank and Charles Menches among the early pioneers who helped make the hamburger an American icon.
As part of National Hamburger Month, White Castle highlighted competing hamburger-origin stories from around the country — including the Menches Brothers' account from 1885. Their feature recounted how Frank and Charles ran out of sausage at a fair, substituted ground beef and served their new creation with onions and ketchup.
More than a century after that day, the Menches Brothers were still being recognized as part of the story of America's hamburger.
White Castle “Hamburger Heroes,” 1993
On March 7, 1994, the Menches Brothers name entered a new chapter with the opening of Menches Bros. Restaurant.
After years of researching and reviving the family's hamburger history at fairs, the next generation brought the Menches name back as a restaurant — built around the story that began with Frank and Charles Menches more than a century earlier.
The restaurant gave the family a permanent place to serve the Menches hamburger and share a history that had nearly been forgotten.
What began at the fairgrounds in 1885 now had a home of its own.
The Menches family story has also been preserved in Hamburger Dreams, documenting the history of Frank and Charles Menches and the family's claim to the invention of the hamburger.
Through family records, photographs and historical research, the book helps preserve a story that began in 1885 for future generations.
More than 140 years after Frank and Charles Menches began serving crowds at fairs and expositions, their story continues through the generations that followed.
Today, three family-operated restaurants carry on the Menches tradition across Northeast Ohio — serving the food, preserving the history and continuing a remarkable family legacy.
Through generations and countless changes, one thing has remained constant: a commitment to good food, hard work and the Menches name.
What began with two brothers in 1885 became a family legacy more than 140 years in the making.
And the story is still being written.