The Cheesy Western, a longtime Roanoke food icon, guest stars on a Manhattan menu. (Chile is extra.)

The alarm rang at 3 a.m. in a room at the Hotel Roanoke, rousing hamburger impresario George Motz. He walked over the railroad tracks and on to Church Avenue for a Texas Tavern appointment with a triple Cheesy Western, chile added.

“I couldn’t believe that there was no one on the street, but the place was packed,” Motz said in a Tuesday phone call. “Every stool was taken. I had to wait for a stool at 3 o’clock in the morning, and it was real. It actually was high-functioning.”

That stress test a few years ago was part of a two-decade relationship that the author, filmmaker and restaurateur has had with Texas Tavern and its fourth-generation owner, Matt Bullington. On Thursday, customers at Motz’s Hamburger America restaurant, in New York City, can get the Roanoke eatery’s signature sandwich…

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