The hamburger may be more of a staple in the American diet than apple pie, according to New York entrepreneur Drew Cerza, so it�s only fitting the �famous icon of American cuisine� has its own festival.

Canal Park in Akron will be home to the first National Hamburger Festival on Aug. 12 and 13. Akron was selected to host the festival after David �Coondog� O�Karma, a nationally known competitive eater from Akron, convinced Mr. Cerza that his hometown deserved recognition for the summer barbecue staple.

Mr. Cerza, president and CEO of the RMI Promotion Group of New York, organizes the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, N.Y.

Mr. O�Karma is a regular participant in the wing-eating contest and was impressed by the festival. He charmed Mr. Cerza with tales of the Menches brothers of Akron, Frank and Charles, who traveled the circuit of fairs selling pork sausage sandwiches.

While at the Hamburg Fair in Erie County, New York, in 1885, they ran out of pork sausage, so a local butcher set them up with 10 pounds of beef. The brothers formed patties and fried them up � inventing the hamburger.

Of course, there is some dispute over the origin of the burger.

Seymour, Wis., claims �Hamburger� Charlie Nagreen served the world�s first hamburger � a flattened meatball between two slices of bread � at the 1885 Seymour Fair, five months before the Hamburg, N.Y., claim.

Athens, Texas, says Fletcher Davis, aka �Old Dave,� invented the hamburger at his lunch counter in the late 1880s.

New Haven, Conn., lays the final claim that Louis Lassen, who emigrated from Denmark in 1880, leased a lunch wagon in 1895. He first specialized in a steak sandwich with thin slices of meat, taking the trimmings home and grinding them up to serve as patties or meat loaf to his family.

The four cities will defend their claim to the hamburger at the �Hamburger Hearings,� a mock trial on Aug. 12.

The National Hamburger Festival takes place in Canal Park.

For information, go to HamburgerFestival.com or call 716-565-4141.