Union County’s best burger and fries still require two stops

Two stops, one countywide brag

Union County has a simple food problem, and it is the kind locals do not mind having: the county’s best burger and best fries do not come from the same kitchen. In the 2026 Go! Readers’ Choice Awards, Nell’s-N-Out in La Grande repeated as Best Burger for the second year in a row, while Mom’Ma Bear’s Burgers in Island City repeated as Best Fries. If you want the full champion meal, you still have to make two stops.

That split says a lot about how food identity works in a county where La Grande, the county seat, had an estimated population of 13,026 in 2020. In places this size, independent restaurants do more than feed people. They become landmarks, shorthand for hometown taste, and proof that a small market can still support long-running local businesses with devoted followings. The awards, driven by thousands of reader nominations and votes across Eastern Oregon, reflect that kind of loyalty rather than a critic’s verdict.

Start in La Grande for the burger

If you are looking for the burger side of the story, the first stop is still Nell’s-N-Out at 1704 Adams Ave. in La Grande. The restaurant has served burgers there since 1955, when Dean and Anna Larison brought the original trailer to town and started selling made-to-order burgers. Seventy years later, the business is still family-run, now in the hands of the third generation through Bob and Sandy Larison.

The continuity matters. Traci Hoadley has managed Nell’s since 2008, and Audra Konopacky and Tani Hoadley help keep the operation moving day to day. That mix of family ownership, long management tenure and familiar counter service is part of why the restaurant still reads as a classic La Grande institution rather than just another burger stop. The steak burger is the only item left from the 1955 menu, which makes every order a direct link to the restaurant’s earliest days.

Konopacky said the restaurant’s support from the community “means everything,” and that feeling is easy to understand in a city where a single local institution can become part of the civic fabric. Nell’s does not just win because it is old. It wins because generations of customers have decided the burger still tastes like La Grande should.

Head to Island City for fries with a following

The fries title belongs in Island City, where Mom’Ma Bear’s Burgers has turned a newer business into one of the county’s most recognizable food names. Brandy Berg opened the operation with her husband, Daniel, on May 21, 2022, after a pandemic-era pivot that pushed them toward a format built around flexibility, local sourcing and strong signature items. Brandy also has a direct connection to the other side of the county’s burger history: she worked at Nell’s-N-Out from 1997 to 2002.

That background helps explain why Mom’Ma Bear’s feels both new and rooted. Its fries are made from Yukon Gold potatoes fried in coconut oil, a detail that gives the business a distinct identity in a county where residents clearly notice the difference between a side dish that is merely filling and one that becomes a destination item. Winning Best Fries in 2025 and again in 2026 shows that the formula has staying power.

The Bergs also turned their trailer into a broader local success story. In the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards, Mom’Ma Bear’s won Best Fries, Best Food Truck and Brandy Berg won Best Chef. The 2026 repeat was not a surprise so much as a confirmation that the business has already settled into the county’s shortlist of places people go out of their way to support.

Why the awards matter in a small county

These results matter because they are built on reader participation, not outside judging. Go! Eastern Oregon’s Readers’ Choice Awards are determined by thousands of nominations and votes from readers across the region, with a 2025 cycle that opened nominations through Feb. 4, began voting Feb. 5, allowed weekly voting through Feb. 28 and announced winners in March. That structure gives the awards more weight than a casual popularity poll. It turns local food preferences into a public measure of identity.

For Union County, the two winners represent two different kinds of local pride. Nell’s-N-Out stands for continuity, family ownership and a storefront that has anchored Adams Avenue since the Truman era. Mom’Ma Bear’s stands for newer energy, a food-truck model, and a menu built around ingredients that feel intentional rather than generic. One business proves a legacy can survive for decades. The other shows a newer operator can still earn trust fast if the product is distinct and the execution is consistent.

That is why the “best burger and fries” story is really a guide to where the county’s loyalties live. It is not only about who won a ribbon. It is about which storefronts residents are willing to defend in public, which recipes become part of the shared vocabulary and which family names still carry weight on both sides of the counter.

What to order and what each stop won

At Nell’s-N-Out, the obvious move is the steak burger, the last surviving item from the original 1955 menu. It is the clearest way to understand why the restaurant still commands such loyalty in La Grande. At Mom’Ma Bear’s, the fries are the item that tells the story, especially if you want to see why the business has become synonymous with the side dish category in Island City.

• Nell’s-N-Out, 1704 Adams Ave., La Grande: Best Burger in 2026, second straight year.
• Mom’Ma Bear’s Burgers, Island City: Best Fries in 2026, second straight year.
• Together, the two businesses show that Union County’s strongest food traditions are still being carried by independent, family-rooted operators.

The bigger takeaway is not hard to miss. In a county where the best burger and the best fries require separate addresses, the local food scene is not diluted. It is concentrated, personal and still very much in the hands of people whose names the county knows.