What Pushes My Buttons

Farewell to a friend

Over the weekend we all lost a friend true and dear to our hearts: the Topps brand of hamburger meat.

Some felt the pain more than others, including the 87 or so personnel that were directly part of the Topps family.


Farewell my friend, you'll be sorely missed

The Topps brand was dear to me personally.

It was always there for me in a pinch and able to stand up through tons of pressure. It's amazing consistency came through time and time again. Whenever I needed to cook for 20 or 2,000, Topps was their to save the day. It's true, we fed the entire Marist campus for a Booster Club event by making over 2,000 Topps hamburgers of which I personally cooked up 1,000 or so.

Each burger charred nicely, stayed succulent and meaty. Even though my eyes were singed with smoke and I could barely see, I could trust my friend to produce fantastic results time and time again.


To many, this meaty morsel of goodness was the "Tops"

And while it would never be mistaken for an upscale burger or one of those artisan burgers you can buy at the Ruby Tuesday's and other chains of the world, Topps was a burger for the everyman. The one who could feed their family quickly. The one who relied on it's prepackaged burgers to cook up a quick feast for company both large and small.




What you saw with Topps is what you got. Meat shaped into patty form. Simple. Bun sized. Tasty. Compatable with lots of ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onions and all the fixins. Who else could give you consistency, burger after burger, even in boxes of 30 or 100?

For those naysayers or non fans you can feel free to hate. But just admire it's legacy: decades of producing quality burgers for barbeque lovers around the nation. Nothing fancy. Not expensive. Just good ole USA beef at it's finest.

So goodbye my friend. You'll be truly missed.