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Favorite Bygone Local Burger Joints

F

FreddyE1977

Guest
The thread on this board about Wendys/Arbys got me thinking about local burger chains
which have gone by the wayside, forced out by stiff competition from Wendys, Burger King
and MickeyD's.

A longtime favorite in Pittsburgh was Winkys. They were all over the area, and their restaurants
typically had a unique, identifiable A-frame design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW5dE7t7IIw

They actually had a store for a time in the Chamber of Commerce Building downtown,
in the very same space that used to house the KQV window studio at the corner of Walk
and Don't Walk. The chain went belly-up around 1980.

Any other favorite local burger chains from the past out there?
 
Wetson's on Long Island :)
 
flashback said:
burger chef.
Click to expand...

We never had a Burger Chef in the Miami area, but I sure enjoyed passing them on trips when I was a kid.

Also, not exactly "bygone," but Dairy Queen Brazier (also not in Miami) had a great burger patty.....apparently they decided to alter the recipe a bit, because the current "Grill & Chill"s just don't match the former taste.

All this makes me wanna go to Burger King now.

cd
 
There was a Burger Chef in Jackson, TN that I remember in Jackson, TN when I was a kid. It was eventually taken over by Hardee's. I've noticed that some Hardee's locations will still carry a burger called the Super Chef at times, which I've heard is to be able to hold on the the rights to the name. For that matter Hardee's locations are getting harder to find in West TN, although they aren't totally gone.

Dairy Queen is still around here, but the one I liked the most was in Dyersburg, TN, and has been closed since a flood last Spring. They were a 60+ year old franchise and didn't have to follow all the rules of the newer locations. They had the best burgers of any DQ in this area, and they used crinkle cut fries vs. the thin cut fries the others used. They say they're reopening, but there's no sign of progress yet. I won't be surprised to find out that the national DQ company will want them to update to the Grill & Chill format, and possibly move out of the flood prone area they're in, which may be holding things up.

There was also a chain called Burger Queen that was in Jackson and Dyersburg. When they went out of business the one in Jackson became a Burger King. Could this be the first case of a restaurant going through a gender change??? :D
 
back in the 60s and early 70s there was a local chain called Lesterburger they had 6 locations in the fresno/clovis area, another local Burger place was "Mars" which was a Drive in type with car hops and with a 50s theme playing 50s music, this place closed in the late 70s.
 
flashback said:
burger chef.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know if it's the same burger chef, but keep an eye open for special events that have special food courts.

The food building at the C.N.E. in Toronto Canada (Canadian National Exhibition) has many "once a year" food choices. There's a Burger Chef booth there.
 
Depending on where you are in North America, you may want to add Dairy Queen to this list.
It seems many Dairy Queens have chosen to simply stick with being an ice cream place.
 
There's no Dairy Queen's in the LA area! :(

I believe the nearest ones are in Orange County and Barstow, which is a rest-stop before Vegas... :-\

Back on topic, has anyone tried "Bob's Big Boy"? Not sure if this one can be counted as it's still opened today, but it's pretty good. It's been featured on the Travel Channel I believe.
 
musicman3355 said:
There's no Dairy Queen's in the LA area! :(

I believe the nearest ones are in Orange County and Barstow, which is a rest-stop before Vegas... :-\

Back on topic, has anyone tried "Bob's Big Boy"? Not sure if this one can be counted as it's still opened today, but it's pretty good. It's been featured on the Travel Channel I believe.
Click to expand...


In Fresno, will lost our last Bob's Big Boy in 2001, we had 5 locations and as far as Dairy Queen, we have one location in the Manchester Mall, and we only had one previous location off of Highway 99, "In N Out' took that spot and In N out has 4 locations now.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
There was also a chain called Burger Queen that was in Jackson and Dyersburg.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing one of those traveling through the South as a kid. How about Tastee-Freez? Any of those exist anymore?
Click to expand...

Likely, only in reruns of "Let's Make a Deal" (Monty Hall) & the song "Jack & Diane." :)

cd
 
cd637299 said:
Corky Marlowe said:
There was also a chain called Burger Queen that was in Jackson and Dyersburg.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing one of those traveling through the South as a kid. How about Tastee-Freez? Any of those exist anymore?
Click to expand...
Actually Tastee-Freez does still exist as part of Wienerschnitzel in California, only the ice cream products are part of it.

We still do have a few "Foster Freeze" locations in Fresno as well.
Click to expand...
 
While not strictly a burger place, I miss the "Big Jumbo" burger at Howard Johnson's. It tasted especially good around two ayem.
 
I remember Burger Chef had a store in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning on the
Pitt campus. It closed in 1983 and was replaced by a Roy Rogers, another chain which
looks to have disappeared. The last time I was in there the space had been filled by a
cafeteria catering to healthier tastes.
 
anotherguy said:
There was also a chain called Burger Queen that was in Jackson and Dyersburg. When they went out of business the one in Jackson became a Burger King. Could this be the first case of a restaurant going through a gender change??? :D
Click to expand...
Did the Burger Queen in Dyersburg have a mascot named "Queenie Bee" or something like that? The one in Union City did. That Burger Queen was there for three years in the late '70s, then closed, and later became a "Druther's" restaurant, in 1980. Remember that one? And their slogan, "I'd ruther go to Druther's restaurant"? Apparently not, as most folks in U.C. had had their "Druther's" and it closed in 1981. Since then, it has been a New Orleans Famous Fried Chicken place, and most recently, a Chinese restaurant.

As recently as about 1990, there was still a Druther's in Fulton, KY, but that one soon became a Wendy's.
 
firepoint525 said:
anotherguy said:
There was also a chain called Burger Queen that was in Jackson and Dyersburg. When they went out of business the one in Jackson became a Burger King. Could this be the first case of a restaurant going through a gender change???   :D
Click to expand...
Did the Burger Queen in Dyersburg have a mascot named "Queenie Bee" or something like that?  The one in Union City did.  That Burger Queen was there for three years in the late '70s, then closed, and later became a "Druther's" restaurant, in 1980.  Remember that one?  And their slogan, "I'd ruther go to Druther's restaurant"?  Apparently not, as most folks in U.C. had had their "Druther's" and it closed in 1981.  Since then, it has been a New Orleans Famous Fried Chicken place, and most recently, a Chinese restaurant.

As recently as about 1990, there was still a Druther's in Fulton, KY, but that one soon became a Wendy's.
Click to expand...

Yep that's the one. I remember it being in the late 70's. Now that you mentioned Druther's, the BQ in Jackson may have been that for a while before it became a BK. Believe it or not the old BQ in Dyersburg became a bank for a while, and then it was torn down and replaced with a new KFC.

I've never seen a "former McDonald's" building anywhere I've been in West TN, Memphis or Nashville. Usually the only ones that closed were when a replacement location opened nearby and the old building was torn down. There have been some McDonald's in Wal Marts to close and possibly be replaced with Subways in the area.
 
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