cheeburger

Cheeseburger. (File photo)

(bn)

You can get a cheeseburger at dive-bars. At fine-dining restaurants. Meat-and-threes. Bowling alleys. Food-trucks. Strip clubs. And, of course, a gazillion fast-food drive-thru windows.

Now, AL.com is searching for Alabama's Best Cheeseburger.

Here's how we'll choose Alabama's Best:

First, we'll take your nominations here for what you think the best cheeseburger is in Madison, Limestone, Lauderdale, Marshall, Jackson, Morgan, Colbert, Lawrence, DeKalb, Franklin and Marion counties.

Post your nominations for Alabama's Best Cheeseburger below in the comments section, including the restaurant/food venture's name and municipality in which it's located.

Just one simple rule: No chains, unless that chain is based in Alabama.

On Wednesday, May 28, using your nominations, we'll post a poll of the top cheeseburgers. There will be five polls for different areas of the state.

Beginning June 9, David Holloway, an AL.com food writer based in Mobile, will visit our 15 finalists, made up of the top two vote-getters in each area's poll, plus one Wild Card from each of those areas.

On June 18, David will name his choice for Alabama's Best Cheeseburger.

According to cheeseburger legend, 16-year-old cook Lionel Sternberger "invented" this now quintessential American sandwich in the mid-1920s, after some other dude suggested adding cheese to the hamburger he'd ordered at a Pasadena, Calif., restaurant called The Rite Spot. (There are other origin stories emanating from Louisville, Ky., and Denver.)

And, well, you know where things went from there.