When I was a child my favorite fast food restaurant wasn't McDonald's or Burger King or even Kentucky Fried Chicken. My favorite place to eat was Burger Chef. At one time Burger Chef was the second largest hamburger chain in the United States. Unfortunately, their parent company fell on hard times and had to liquidate its most valuable assets, their restaurants. Most Burger Chefs closed in the '80s, with the very last one closing for good in 1996.
This picture, which I found on the internets, is of a sign for the very Burger Chef I used to frequent, located on Eastern Parkway in Louisville. The White Castle restaurant in the background is still open.
I loved Burger Chef. They had their Fun Meal years before McDonald's had the Happy Meal. Apparently the Fun Meal toys that promoted the first Star Wars movie are worth a small fortune.
This isn't a great post but this picture brought back a flood of pleasant memories. What are the places that remind you of your childhood? Come on, share with us...
Yes, that is an employee in a Snoopy outfit standing by the side of the road, waving at passing cars.
24 Comments:
I think you needed a happy memory afte rLouisville got raped by the BCS.
I think that Roy Rogers was the bombay! Not too many of them around anymore either.
Wimpy.
I completely remember Burger Chef!! When I was younger, I lived in Ohio and I distinctly remember getting Fun Meals. For so long, I thought I must've been crazy remembering something that didn't exist ... you've saved my sanity.
one time i ate mcdonalds as a kid and got really sick and threw it up all over my floor and bed and walls.
then the dog ate it.
also, the stains were on the walls till my parents sold the house.
I worked at a Burger Chef in Indianapolis -- my first job! I actually liked working there, and thought the quality of the food was slightly better than the usual fast-food grub.
Did you ever witness the Snoopy in the flesh??
My favorite haunt as a child was an indoor amusement park/birthday place called PennyWhistle Park. Clowns painted on the front of the building and everything. Now that I think back, it was fuckin' scary, but to my 6 year old self, it was a little slice of heaven.
For me it was the old A&W drive-ins with the girls on roller skates who gave you lap dances... I mean brought you frosted mugs of that out of this world rootbeer before it came in cans and sucked. Don't look. I'm not crying. Just have something in my eye.
NO!
My brother and I were just being teased yesterday by my hubby and my sister-in-law about how every time we visit our hometown and drive past the place where the Burger Chef used to be, my brother and I always point out, "That's where the Burger Chef used to be!" and then proceed to wax nostalgic about how Burger Chef was the fucking tits.
Holy crap, I loved Burger Chef. For me, it was always the hamburger Fun Meal with a strawberry shake. Mmmmmmmmm.
I think its safe to say that Burger Chef never made it to Southern California because I've never heard of it before. How sad. One more cool thing I'll never get to go to. :(
Burger Chef never made it here to Cheeseland, so I guess I'll remain a deprived child in that department. Our local Mc N Slob's used to have a "kids day" every month, and my aunt used to drag me to it because "it would be fun!" Even then, I hated crowds of people and clowns, so you can probably see where this is going. Let's just say, if Stewie Griffin had a female counterpart I'd have been it.
We had a Burger Chef where I grew up in Florida! Oh my. And we loved it so.
Every last single place I loved as a child is now GONE. Where I grew up has been paved over and covered with shopping malls and Comfort Inns. It pisses me off.
The Yum Yum donut shop on Clark and Addison in the shadow of Wrigley Field.
They had the greasiest nastiest mystery meat tacos but for some reason i loved those fuckers.
We had one of those too!
Best memory, Storybook Land! All the cool kids had their birthday parties under the giant birthday cake.
they dont; have Sonic here. i miss sonic. and there is no white castle either.
Never had one of those.
My favorite place as a kid was the arcade at Hills Dept Store. I remember spending a lot of time at Chicken Lickin' when I was a kid, but I couldn't tell you about the food.
I'm about to post some nostalgia of my own.
That SNoopy suit is priceless.
I loved being a kid.
The old A&Ws...not that new drive through with Long John silver's crap.
Big Boy's will take me back, and I don't even like them very much.
I remember being obsessed with Stuckey's when I was a kid... my sister and brother and I would start chanting its name when we would see the gabled roof appear in the horizon and my parents would always give in and pull over.
Ahhhhhh- good times, good times.
No one but Tracy would understand mine.
My grandma used to take me to State Street back when there were Woolworth's and wig shops and no one knew what a "theatre district" was.
Stop n Shop was there. And the Woolworth's lunch counters. And the restaurant in Carson Pirie Scott.
I remember when department stores all used to have candy counters and popcorn and stuff.
nick,
they got no vaseline.
flounder,
it reminded me of a horse. I couldn't eat there.
vast,
The Blue Boar was BRUTAL! Every item on the menu tasted of prunes.
udi,
Popeye.
cincy,
Remember Burger Chef and Jeff, those cartoon characters in the commercials? I think they were "longtime companions".
miss kendra,
that is a pleasant childhood memory. Thanks.
witless,
The very first Burger Chef was in Indianapolis, according to the Burger Chef memories website.
andi,
yeah, I lived pretty close to that place as a small child. I saw Snoopy a lot. And clowns just freak me out.
jj,
there's still an A&W like that in the boonies of Louisville. They no longer wear skates, but they just brought back car service after a long absence.
tits,
I always got the Big Shef, which was like a Big Mac only a million times better.
bur,
but you have In n Out. That makes up for it.
melissa,
I wish I could have seen that. Hilarious.
mike,
it was nice of you to buy the puke house.
monkey,
nothing is sacred.
tracy,
tacos at a donut shop? Hmmm.
brooke,
then where did you have your birthday?
bobby,
Sonic and White Castle are pretty close to where I live. They're both tasty, in completely different ways.
kat,
no one goes to Chicken Lickin' for the food. It's all about the ambience.
spinning girl,
I loved life until age thirteen. Then it all went terribly wrong.
shannon,
the Big Boy restaurants in Vegas have a different special sauce than the ones in Louisville. The ones here are better because of that.
cold hands,
Stuckey's was the greatest. My grandfather, however, would never stop. He also knew how to drive the back roads from Louisville to South Florida. Seriously, we never saw a highway.
ubie,
I kind of understand. There were Woolworth's in Louisville with counters (the one downtown was surrounded by wig shops, too).
mike,
that I don't remember.
OHMYGOD Ubermilf,
We most certainly must have sat next to each other at the Woolworths on State Street.
Did you ever see the obese homeless woman pee on State in broad daylight? She was an added bonus to any mother/daughter shopping day.
My hometown Woolworth's had a lunch counter and their grilled cheese with bacon was the bomb, yo. Extra greasy, plus the added bonus of getting to sit next to the crazy, chain-smoking Vietnam War vet who walked funny and used to hang out there all day drinking coffee. I used to get a sandwich, then shoplift some Wet & Wild eyeliner.
Oh, and lookie what I found, Todd!
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