Visit the Retro-Feeling Kewpee Hamburgers in Lima

When Scott Shutt was little, he’d go to work with his dad and watch him patty the meat and pull pies from the oven at Kewpee Hamburgers in downtown Lima. Eventually, his father, Harrison “Harry” Shutt and his wife, Myrna, bought Kewpee in 1980 from the estate of original owners Stub and June Wilson, who opened the restaurant in 1928. Today, Scott Shutt is vice president of the company, and Myrna is still involved.

Over the years, not much has changed at Kewpee, and that’s a good thing. From the art deco building to its fresh-made burgers, fries and frosted malts. 

“It’s something that, when people come home to visit family in Lima, they stop at the Kewpee before they get to mom and dad’s,” Shutt says. 

The downtown structure, built in 1939 on the original Lima Kewpee restaurant site, has white porcelain panels, booths and a lunch counter. The restaurant is named for Kewpie dolls, which were a pop-culture phenomenon around the time Kewpee was founded. (The name is a play on “cupid.”) The restaurant’s signature is its square hamburgers, which are made using locally sourced beef from Keystone Meats in Lima that is delivered each morning. The meat is ground and pattied in house, and its shape is a function of the machine that workers use to make the patties. 

The frosted malts (a creamy take on a milkshake) and a range of fresh-baked pies are also customer favorites. Although Kewpee was founded in Flint, Michigan, it has been associated with Lima for generations. Kewpee added additional Lima locations in 1972 and 1981. 

“We enjoy what we do and we appreciate our community, and hopefully we can continue this for a very long time,” Shutt says. “Lima and Kewpee are kind of connected at the hip. You think of Lima, you think of Kewpee.” 111 N. Elizabeth St., Lima 45801, 419/228-1778, kewpeehamburgers.com

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