A former Burger Chef that's back in business serving . . . burgers!

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joeekaitis

joeekaitis

Well-known member
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Joined
Dec 22, 2001
Messages
1,688
Location
Rialto, California, USA
My hometown Rialto, California was once the home of one of the original Burger Chef restaurants. After the decline and fall of the Burger Chef empire it became Jim's Burgers for several years before going out of business.

When the producers of the AMC TV show "Mad Men" wanted an authentic Burger Chef setting for an episode, they dolled up the place to its original splendor and after the shoot it reopened as Chris's Burgers, still wearing the Burger Chef makeover. It's probably only a matter of time until it becomes one of those architectural Meccas that history buffs flock to.


joeekaitis-2014103115260004720_1.jpg
 
That's definitely a walk down memory lane from many many moon ago. It didn't click until I saw the building all lit up in the pic. There use to be one of those in the area I grew up in here in NE B-more.
 
Wow!

I never made the connection when I saw the "Mad Men" episode. Burger Chef was popular in NJ for as long as it lasted. The places usually became pizza joints afterward. We also had chains "Gino's" and "Wetson's", both pretty good in their day. We still have "White Castle", but not so many these days.
 
BurgerChef....holy cow, talk about flash back to childhood, I used to live for a burger and milkshake from there, one happy kid....way before MickeyD's came along..........

Gino's here crossed into Kentucky Fried Chicken.......it used to be located right next door to where I live now.....forgot all about them......
 
I remember Howdy's! They had a burger called the Big B and it was tasty...think Big Mac but better. My other half loved Burger Chef. There was one in Peabody MA that he went to. I showed him the pic and said to me..are they reopening in Peabody?! He reminisced about the cheese burger that he loved from them. I had never been to one. But my gawd I miss Howdy's! and before I forget Howdy Doody was its mascot/spokesperson....
 
Interesting

Our "Booger Chef" did not look like that. It was the first drive in of its style in our area and it had no indoor dining area. You walked up to the windows, ordered, paid and got the stuff to either take away or eat in the car. At first it was a real treat, but the quality declined and, after eating dozens of them, I guess they stopped being a treat. It was a very long time before we had other brands of burger joints close by our house. The Krystal was our next burger joint. One brand we used to see when traveling with daddy during the summer, but not in the Atlanta area were A&W Root Beer stands. I was no fan of the root beer, but they had good burgers and fries.
 
Yes, Mike. Howdy's was within a bike ride from our house when I was a kid. My mother would give me 2 bucks and I would get a DOZEN donuts from Dunkin Donuts next door and get 3 hamburgers, a fry and a soda and still have 30 cents in MY pocket. Those were the days. I filled up for 2.98 today and thought I was going backwards.
 
It is memory lane!

I remember Burger Chef had the first fix your burger bar! Like a small salad but only condiments for burgers,it was so neat! They have been gone 30 years or close to it! I guess here in Hampton we had 3or4 of them! They werent bad.
 
I don't think this guy gets it... From his review, which did not mention Burger Chef:

"They just re opened and I will say they did a great job remodeling. Very nice modern interior."

Lol
 
We had nothing like that in 1960 at BC

Here in the DC region, Roy Rogers had a great fixin's bar. I would get a burger, then open up the foil wrapper at the fixin's bar and pile lettuce, tomato slices and pickles on the side. All it needed was salt, pepper and a bit of mayo for a side salad.
 
In Baltimore....

we did have a few Burger Chefs, but "Gino's was The Place to GO"... I'd kill for a Gino Giant right now, SO much better than a Big Mac! There was some online discussion of someone trying to re-create that awesome Gino Giant sauce, but everything that I've tried misses the mark! I remmeber that the regular Burgers were 15 cents and Fries were 12 cents at Gino's on York Rd near Joppa in Towson, when the family went in our '59 Ford Country Squire!
 
Burger Chef..

I remember them, but dont know of any left,what we had that was without equal was Rays Kingburger out of Mt Airy NC, the Kingburger was to me the best sandwich ever, their were many of these in NC and VA, but they went under in the 80s..
 
The commercials definitely brought back memories--of ones I've seen that were and were NOT on there, as well as eating at the Burger Chef we used to have near us, before it evolved into Hardees, then into some Jamaican/Carribean place (after briefly being some sort of a short-lived Deli)...

 

Don't know why the food started off OK, but eventually before the chain got the axe we'd found the quality of it too greasy and inedible...

 

(And "Category #4", in a series of stories in a magazine I'd read in a waiting room at a doctors office, was about a Burger Chef w/ a messy, constantly over-flowing grease dumpster, creating a muck in an alley, some office employees often walked through (sometimes even frequenting the restaurant) on their lunch breaks, messing up their shoes, and the legs of their pants...  The magazine in a succeeding story even reminded the reader "wondering about Category 4" that they didn't want to "embarrass Burger Chef, any more than necessary...)...

 

Along w/ the pleasure of watching the commercials in the video, unfortunately, was the news-line about the four employees working at one of the Burger Chef restaurants, in Speedway, Indiana, kidnapped and murdered, while closing on a late-night shift, there...

 

 

-- Dave
 

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