Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

You're right, it's not so much about the beef, it's about the total sandwich experience, which is what an American hamburger used to be--a culinary creation that featured beef, but gave equal time to the "fixins," which is what people used to call the unique regional condiments, lettuces, onions, and other adornments for the burger.

As in: "Give me a burger with all the fixins."

Bob's fixins were unique and memorable, but we have grown past them. Like the Romans in the waning days of their empire, we have become a barbarous and menacing, but aimless, people who no longer have the patience or imagination to appreciate anything more complex than bread and meat, barely cooked.

And so ends the noble dream that was America.