Ollie's Trolley

978 S 3rd St
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 583-5214

www. ollieburgers.com

Rumor has it that the trolley seen in the picture to the left has an interesting story on how it ended up on the corner of 3rd and Kentucky. It all started with the great power outage of 1979. Downtown Louisville went dark for four whole days after a ice storm moved through the Ohio Valley. Power was out, the city's trolley system was at a stand still and that included everyone's favorite traveling food car, Ollie's Trolley. Before I go on with the story and tell you why the trolley still resides there today, you must know a little background of who Ollie was. Ollie (last name unknown) self started this food chain in the early 70's from the ground up. He was a retired Trolley operator for the city, so naturally he came up with the idea to have a burger joint on wheels or rails to be more specific. As time went on the company expanded to surrounding cities, but Ollie's business wasn't the only thing growing. Ollie himself had grown to over 600 lbs. with his diet consisting solely of Ollie burgers and signature fries. You see, he spent all day and night grilling burgers on this trolley that eventually he became too large to ever fit through the trolley's doors. So that's where Ollie lived, right there on the food car. Doing the two things he loved most...eating and trolley operating.

Back to the story - So there Ollie was out of power, out of food, and freezing. He was able to keep warm by the hot friers for a day and half before they went cold, but by that third day Ollie was forced to bust out of there. With the doors to small to fit through, he came up with the idea to jump up and down on the wooden emergency hatch until he broke through. He busted through with ease but not without getting stuck. So now there he was, lodged in the floor of his own trolley car. Can't go up, can't go down, just stuck. After about an hour of planning he rocked that trolley side to side trying to dislodge it from the rails thinking he could walk it down the street like Fred Flintsone. Can you believe that this 600+ pound-man got enough momentum he succeeded and rocked that trolley loose. However he only made it about 40 yards before he died from heart failure. He was eventually removed from his resting place but the trolley remained. Of course none of that story is true or makes much sense for that matter, but it's better than the real reason for its odd location whatever that may be.

Now on to the food. Not much to say really. The picture below speaks for itself. Nothing but meat, grease and Ollie's special sauce. I felt 600 lbs. myself after eating that.