"Other" burgers

[H165]

For those familiar with In-N-Out on the west coast, what’s the cheapest you remember for a double double?

60c for a Double Double, introduced my freshman year of High School - 1963.

In 1948, it was 25c for an In-N-Out hamburger.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by dirkronk

The thread on New York (expensive) burgers made me start remembering other...and much, MUCH cheaper...burgers from my past...

Not all NYC burgers were expensive - some from my past:

• White Castle (previously mentioned)
• White Tower* (similar architecture/menu, better burgers, slightly more expensive than WC but worth it)
• Wetson's* (15¢ for a McD's-size burger, at a time when White Castle had already gone to 12¢)
• Big Daddy's* (better-known for their hot dogs, but pretty good budget burgers as well)
• Nathan's (ditto, but IME the branch operations did burgers better than the original Coney Island location - nobody beats the Coney dogs, though)
• King George* (Burger King taken to the next level, with counter-sitdown service and char-broiled burgers at very reasonable - if not quite "cheap" - prices, this short-lived mini-chain was gone by the late-1960's)
• Any Brooklyn neighborhood luncheonette through the early-1970's, before they either succumbed to the big chains, changing demographics/tastes, or they were bought out and became part of the ubiquitous network of Greek diners in the five boroughs

* - defunct

Similarly, whether you love 'em or hate 'em I'll grab a Wendy's triple and a large chocolate Frosty if I've been on the road and haven't eaten all day...

[DanR]

When I first went to McDonalds in the late '60's, a burger was $0.15, a Big Mac was $0.55 and a filet of fish sandwich was $0.40. My local family joint sold burgers for $0.20 or 6 for a dollar. Those were the days.

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Not all NYC burgers were expensive - some from my past:

• White Castle (previously mentioned)
• White Tower* (similar architecture/menu, better burgers, slightly more expensive than WC but worth it)
• Wetson's* (15¢ for a McD's-size burger, at a time when White Castle had already gone to 12¢)
• Big Daddy's* (better-known for their hot dogs, but pretty good budget burgers as well)
• Nathan's (ditto, but IME the branch operations did burgers better than the original Coney Island location - nobody beats the Coney dogs, though)
• King George* (Burger King taken to the next level, with counter-sitdown service and char-broiled burgers at very reasonable - if not quite "cheap" - prices, this short-lived mini-chain was gone by the late-1960's)
• Any Brooklyn neighborhood luncheonette through the early-1970's, before they either succumbed to the big chains, changing demographics/tastes, or they were bought out and became part of the ubiquitous network of Greek diners in the five boroughs

* - defunct

Similarly, whether you love 'em or hate 'em I'll grab a Wendy's triple and a large chocolate Frosty if I've been on the road and haven't eaten all day...

You are shaking the dust off my memory Steve.
Wetson’s on Linden Blvd(or was it Empire Blvd?) was where all the street racers would stop to eat on Friday nights after drag racing on Fountain Avenue, that uninterrupted one mile of perfect blacktop along all the junk yards and the city dump, where they ultimately built Starett City.

And was BigDaddy’s just before the airport(Kennedy)?

fd

[Jobe]

Well, I just want a good burger with ketchup like what I remember from my childhood. It's hard to find nowadays. Everyone is doing these fancy burgers with all kinds of funny fixings. The key to my childhood burger was a very hot flat grill that chars the outside a bit and then flip it and char the other side. The thickness matters. A little over a 1/4 inch but not more. Timing is everything and it will happen fast. It will be cooked through without being overdone. Just right and tasty! My Dad opened a Drive-in before I was born and it was a simple menu but the important thing was to get the food out quick as folks were waiting at the windows. The drive-in had this huge chimney right in the middle of the building to accommodate the hot grill and fryers. It may have been smokin' but the food came out hot and quick and good! I want a simple burger like I remember.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by Jobe

I want a simple burger like I remember.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 63, and the food I remember growing up with back in England in the 60s and 70s was mostly grass-fed and/or organic. If we want stuff like we remember, we're probably going to have to eat at some specialized outlet and pay premium prices for it

[TBman]

Our favorite burger place, The Fireplace in Paramus NJ, went out of business during 2020. Broke our hearts and a lot of other people's too. The building is still there two years later which has us wondering who/what's paying for the real estate taxes.........

We had a backup though, Hiram's in Fort Lee. It's a cash only, blue collar sort of place that sells Christmas trees in the picnic area this time of year which makes going there now a sort of Hallmark kind of experience for us. Good burgers, hot dogs, fries and beer too. It's a small place with a small dining area so many (like us) eat in their cars ala McDonald's

[marty bradbury]

Peanut butter bacon burgers at the "Slip" in Kirkland. Yum! I love burgers to say the least

[Tahitijack]

When I was a kid there were just a handful of Carl's Jr hamburger shops in SoCal. They had the best burgers but were a bit more than the chains. Over time they grew and acquired Hardys and somewhere along the way they lost that original hamburger.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Chickee

You are shaking the dust off my memory Steve.
Wetson’s on Linden Blvd. (or was it Empire Blvd?) was where all the street racers would stop to eat on Friday nights after drag racing on Fountain Avenue, that uninterrupted one mile of perfect blacktop along all the junk yards and the city dump, where they ultimately built Starrett City.

And was Big Daddy’s just before the airport (Kennedy)?...

Putting the pieces together:

• Wetson's had branches on both Linden and Empire Boulevards, the latter of which replaced the old trolley operators' lunch counter/news stand/hangout from the Dodger days, directly across from the Flatbush & Empire entrance to Prospect Park. While Linden attracted the Fountain Avenue street racers, the branch on 86th Street & 7th Avenue (formerly the site of Mitchell's Drive-In, one of those '50s roller-skate car-hop places) pulled the First (later Third) Avenue guys, and a few particularly heated grudges would in fact be settled right there on 7th Avenue: a couple guys would block off 92nd Street by Victory Memorial Hospital (there was no traffic light then), the run would take place between Wetson's parking lot entrance and the 7th Avenue entrance to Poly Prep, and if the near 1/4-mile between there and the Fort Hamilton gate wasn't quite enough to bring things to a full stop you could always take the turn at 40-45 MPH and rein it in just past the Vets' Hospital. Didn't take place too often TMK - mostly a desperation measure to quell potential aggravated assault/homicide the way I heard it, and I never actually saw one of those runs (although I did see the tire tracks on 7th Avenue several times)...
• Don't know about the Big Daddy's by JFK, but the one I'm (very) familiar with - the one that drew the car guys from Sheepshead Bay, Brighton and Manhattan Beach, Coney Island, Gravesend, and South/West Flatbush (business would be settled on Oriental Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, until guys started getting killed - probably from blowing sand creating loss of traction) - was on Coney Island Avenue one block south of Avenue X. If you're familiar with the legit (NHRA/AHRA) drag-racing scene of the 1960's Brooklyn was a hotbed of activity to rival many of the legendary California towns, with a number of nationally-renowned cars hailing from the area: Russo & Santo ('41 Willys C/G national record holder), Lynch Boys AA/FD, Bandel Bros. AA/FD (ex-Mike Sorokin "Surfers" car), Buick Dealers' Group '67 Skylark S/XS funny car (Buick-powered BTW), Jerry Caminito (who sustained an active Funny Car career from 1965 through the mid-90's out of his own pocket, with his "Holeshot" and "Blue Thunder" AA/FC's being some of the last indepndent contenders on the National Event circuit), Vitar Engineering (the East Coast's answer to B&M's racing transmissions, with a C/GS Willys of their own), just to name a few; the draw here though was Eastern Automotive, directly across the street from Big Daddy's, home of Bobby Lombardi's NHRA record holding BB/G '40 Willys and venue for all things automotive in the mid/late '60s - I cut school a few times on the Monday after a big event at NY National to go grab a dog and fries at Big Daddy's, and BS with Bobby and Al (his mechanic) about the previous day's events. Here's a pic of the car from late '69 (photo doesn't do it justice - in person it was a stunning candy yellow over gold basecoat); unfortunately some guy not too far from me here in S.I. got hold of it and turned it into a show-queen street rod - shame, since that high-winding blown 327 Chevy was sheer music to this high-school kid's ears :

[Bob Womack]

Krystal burgers in the 1970s were the starving college kid's dream: I think each burger, which we would now call a slider, was something like twelve cents and arrived in a white cardboard carton. They fried the 2x2" patties in diced onions on the grill and served them on tiny buns with mustard and a pickle. It was an acquired taste but once you "got it" you loved 'em. High school football players would go in and demolish a pile of them.

This was in the period when Burger King was getting established with their Whopper for sixty-seven cents. I discovered that their single burgers were twenty cents so I could get two singles with a small bag of fries and drink for less than a dollar, including tax.

Bob

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by ewalling

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 63, and the food I remember growing up with back in England in the 60s and 70s was mostly grass-fed and/or organic. If we want stuff like we remember, we're probably going to have to eat at some specialized outlet and pay premium prices for it

!
Well I'm 55. I don't recall the grass fed, organic stuff.Burgers were of the Birdseye frozen variety. You must have been one of the posh kids.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Silurian

!
Well I'm 55. I don't recall the grass fed, organic stuff.Burgers were of the Birdseye frozen variety. You must have been one of the posh kids.

I’m 66, and I don’t remember the terms ‘grass-fed’ or ‘organic’ either - and I probably would have qualified as a ‘posh kid’.

As a result of working for Unilever in the late 70s/early 80s, though, I did get the opportunity to serve on several taste panels for Birds Eye burgers. Hope you liked them

[HeavyDuty]

I grew up in the far western suburbs of Chicago. In high school in the mid to late 70s I ate a *lot* of White Castle sliders, but when I wanted a good burger I went to one of the original Portillo’s locations. Dick’s burgers back then were great. I wonder how they are now - a location is coming to DFW, so I’ll have a chance to find out.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

I’m 66, and I don’t remember the terms ‘grass-fed’ or ‘organic’ either - and I probably would have qualified as a ‘posh kid’.

'Grass-fed' is a US term.

But I imagine you already knew that.