by George Motz
Unique to Salt Lake City and its neighbors, the pastrami cheeseburger is a beloved Utah burger that, according to some locals, is best represented at the Greek-owned Crown Burger chain.
The Crown I visited was the second built (in 1979) in Salt Lake City. I was assured that the other six Crowns were similar, which is hard to believe given the almost indescribable décor of the interior of this restaurant. “Back in the ’70s my family was in the Greek nightclub business,” Mike, son of owner Manuel Katsanevas, tried to explain. Gargoyles, stuffed quail in flight, large chandeliers, Greek statuary, lush wallpaper, and a huge working fireplace round out the phantasmagorical setting. “We know we are fast food but we wanted to create an upscale dining experience,” Mike told me.
It’s true—don’t be put off by the large staff in uniform behind the counter working at warp speed, multiple registers, numbers being called over a loudspeaker, and a general feeling of ordering food at one of the superchains. As you wait for your number to be called you stand between an ancient nine-foot-tall ornately carved wooden hutch and a grandfather clock, both salvaged from a hotel in France. “People ask all the time if this stuff is for sale,” Mike said, pointing to the clock. “No, it is not.”
The genius behind Crown is their business plan, which could only be pulled off by an intensely proud Greek family (they are actually from Crete). Each restaurant in the chain is independently owned by a family member. They share recipes and suppliers to maintain sameness and quality.
The burgers come in fresh as quarter-pound patties “every morning,” Manuel explained. The menu is large and eclectic and includes hot dogs, tuna sandwiches, a fish burger, and, you guessed it, some of the best souvlaki and gyros in town.
The Crown Burger, char-broiled over an open flame, comes wrapped tightly in waxed paper and includes lettuce, tomato, chopped onion, American cheese, and of course, gobs of pastrami. My warning to you—do not remove the waxed paper prior to hoisting this beast to your lips. It will explode and the pastrami will end up in your lap.
The idea for pastrami on a cheeseburger was imported from Anaheim, California, by a relative of the Katsanevas family. “Uncle James had a restaurant called Minos Burgers and served a pastrami burger,” Mike explained. When he moved to Salt Lake, he brought the idea to his family.
The burger also includes a Utah curiosity called fry sauce. For those unfamiliar with the fast-food habits of Utahans, fry sauce is basically ketchup and mayo mixed together. Mike told me, “We make our own fry sauce in house, made of seven ingredients, most of them secret.” The sauce is mainly used as a dip for fries.
The Katsanevases have been approached more than once with offers to franchise but have resisted. Fear that the quality of their product would decline was not their only reason. “We make a comfortable living and we’re happy with the way things are,” Mike told me. “We have worked very hard for everything we have. Besides, this couldn’t be a franchise; everything is made to order!”
38
VERMONT
DOT’S RESTAURANT
3 EAST MAIN ST | WILMINGTON, VT 05363
802-464-7284 | WWW.DOTSOFVERMONT.COM
SUN–THU 5:30 AM–8 PM | FRI–SAT 5:30 AM–9 PM
CLOSED MONDAY
Dot’s is hard to miss as you roll into the picturesque downstate Vermont town of Wilmington. Just look for the only neon sign in town, thanks to a local ordinance that has banned neon signage on businesses. Fortunately, the neon sign over the door at Dot’s has been grandfathered in.
Dot’s is not a burger joint. It’s a classic New England diner that serves comfort food favorites like pancakes, chili, and sandwiches but also happens to serve one of the best burgers in Vermont. Locals and tourists alike frequent Dot’s, which sees healthy crowds year round. Nearby Mt. Snow attracts thousands of skiers and snowboarders on winter weekends, many of them looking for burgers.
The name of the restaurant goes back half a century but the actual building dates to 1832, making it the oldest structure in town. For its first 70 years, the building was a post office and in 1900, became a general store. In 1930, the store became a restaurant and had many names over the next few decades. In 1952, a man named Dude Sparrow bought the restaurant for his wife, Dot. When the Sparrows sold the diner to John Reagan in 1980 the name stayed.
The burger at Dot’s starts as a hand-formed patty of fresh ground 80/20 Angus chuck. A mayo lid is used for portioning and the 5-ounce patty is cooked to temperature over a flame grill with lava rocks. It’s served on a toasted, seeded white bun and nothing else but potato chips and a dill pickle spear. “They come plain,” Mitch explained, “but we do not shy away from special requests.” Cheese selection is American, Swiss, pepper jack, and Vermont cheddar and the usual condiments are available, including lettuce, tomato, and sliced red onion.
The burger at Dot’s is best chased by a chocolate malt. Make sure to try the tasty fries, hand-cut daily. I asked waitress of 30 years Shirlee what drink would go best with this juicy burger. She responded with a straight face, “A beer.” She’s right, and Dot’s does have a selection of beer and wine, but I was there at 10:30am and had just finished my coffee.
The restaurant has been updated recently and the clean décor has a sort of cozy country feel with wood tables and chairs, pale blue floor tiles, and fireplace that no longer functions. Dot’s is not large and the counter can only seat nine at swivel stools. There are tables with room for about forty people but try to snag the single booth at the front, in a nook out of the way.
Even though John and Patty Reagan have owned and run Dot’s for over 30 years people still walk in and ask, “Where is Dot?” The friendly staff gets a kick out of the question and reply by jokingly pointing to longtime manager Mitch Soskin saying, “There’s Dot!” “We get asked that at least three times a day,” counterperson Cindy told me. Cindy is one of the most upbeat waitresses I’ve ever met and for good reason. Years ago she escaped corporate America and an executive job in Hartford, Connecticut to serve coffee to regulars at Dot’s. “And I’m happier than ever! This is it!” she shouted down the counter.
WHITE COTTAGE
462 WOODSTOCK RD | WOODSTOCK, VT 05091
802-457-3455 | SEASONAL (MAY TO OCTOBER)
SUN–THU 11 AM–9 PM | FRI & SAT 11 AM–10 PM
CLOSED MONDAYS
“A lot of people come here thinking it’s that great rock-and-roll town in New York,” manager Norm Corbin told me, and added with his New England accent and a smile, “Well, it’s nawt.” This Woodstock is deep in the mountains of Vermont complete with covered bridges and gentle streams. Downtown is a destination with tour buses dumping happy shoppers onto the quaint main drag all summer long and well into foliage season. White Cottage is not here, though. Head a mile west out of town and you’ll find a 54-year-old snack bar that has not changed much since its opening day in 1957. “Look at this picture, that says it all,” Norm pointed out. Sure enough, a large, faded black-and-white photo taken in the early 1960s hangs in the counter window. With the exception of the period cars in the photo the White Cottage looks virtually unchanged a half century later. “We’ve put up a few layers of paint, that’s it,” Norm says.
“Everything is made in house, the sauces, the coleslaw, everything,” the second half of the managerial team, Scott Noble, told me. All of the dairy used at White Cottage is from local farms and the beef for the burgers comes from Vermont cows. A local meatpacker in Burlington supplies the snack bar with fresh 6-ounce Angus chuck patties. The burgers are cooked on a flame grill and served on toasted, classic, white squishy buns. The bacon cheeseburger is the favorite at White Cottage and the standard call is to order one with “the works”: lettuce, tomato, diced onion, pickle, mayo, mustard, and ketchup. This is an amazingly juicy burger so don’t let it sit around. Within minutes the juices will disintegrate the bun. I asked for one medium and it was cooked to temperature perfectly.
To order at White Cottage, step up to one of the windows. Pic
k up your burgers when your name is called over the loudspeaker. There’s a tendency to go back to the window where you paid, but the pickup window is actually around the corner to the right. There’s plenty of seating on the porch and out by the river that runs behind White Cottage.
Burgers aren’t the only thing on the menu and you’d be a fool to walk away from White Cottage without a side of deep-fried clam bellies. In fact, even though the onion rings are amazing, order a side of these clams with your burger. Norm and Scott get the clams from Ipswich, Massachusetts and have a legion of fans. “Some people come from Ipswich to have the Ipswich clams here,” Norm told me. Ipswich is two-and-a-half hours away. They’re that good.
White Cottage is a seasonal snack bar and locals look forward to the opening every year. “Come spring, they are so excited to see us open,” Norm told me and says that he’s constantly harangued about opening day, which is usually the Friday before Memorial Day. “People are jonesing for clams and burgers.” The busiest time of the year, though, is around Fourth of July when the tourists show up in force. The locals know better and avoid the snack bar when it gets crazy. “They stay away on weekends. They’re smart,” Norm explained.
Ice cream is king at White Cottage and in the peak of the summer the place is overrun by families looking for one of the snack bar’s thirty-three flavors and soft serve. Ice cream is scooped behind a large picture window and kids can watch the action by climbing a two-step platform. Scott explained, “Parents were always lifting the kids up to watch us scoop so I made the steps from some scrap wood.” How thoughtful is that?
White Cottage closes for the season the Monday of Columbus Day during the first week of October. Peak foliage has happened at that point and I imagine it starts to get pretty quiet in that part of Vermont. “It’s also not winterized—there’s no heat here,” Scott explained. But the nice thing about a seasonal place like White Cottage is that you can’t always have it. You’ll have to wait, and what could be better than the expectation of good things to come?
39
VIRGINIA
TEXAS TAVERN
114 W. CHURCH AVE| ROANOKE, VA 24011
540-342-4825 | WWW.TEXASTAVERN-INC.COM
OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY,
7 DAYS A WEEK (EXCEPT CHRISTMAS)
“I hope you plan on having a Cheesy Western” were the first words out of Matt Bullington’s mouth after I had introduced myself. I was thrown, because I thought I had come to the Texas Tavern for a straightforward hamburger, possibly a thin patty on a white bun. What Matt was selling me was actually the most popular burger at his over-75-year-old hamburger stand.
The “Cheesy Western” is a glorious combination of fried egg, thin hamburger patty, cheese, pickle, onion, and relish on a soft white bun. “We sell hundreds of Cheesys a day, especially to the late-night crowd,” Matt told me. How late? “We’re open all night.” In fact, the only time the Texas Tavern closes is for part of Christmas Eve and day.
Matt is the great-grandson of Nick Bullington, the man who opened the tiny hamburger stand in 1930. “My great-grandfather saw Roanoke as a boomtown and decided to build his restaurant here.” In the 1920s Roanoke had a vibrant locomotive construction industry. Nick, an advance man for the Ringling Brothers Circus, had collected recipes from his extensive travels around the United States. He had observed the best ways to make hamburgers (no doubt gleaning what he could from the success of White Castle at the time), had adopted a mustard-based relish from a circus recipe, and most importantly had borrowed a chili recipe from a hotel in Texas.
Curiously, the chili and burgers are sold separately as they have been for over seven decades. A chili burger is absent from the menu, though Matt said “A few people order them, but not many.” The chili is so popular at the restaurant that it can be taken away by the gallon if necessary. That may be because the chili is more soup than condiment.
The grill area is just inside the front window, which was typical of burger joints of the era. The cook’s station is a testament to efficient food prep. A hot dog steam box sits in front of a deep canister of chili. Next to that is the impossibly small 12-by-18-inch griddle. To the right of the griddle are two small burners for frying eggs and a box containing burger buns, relish, pickles, and onions. The entire complement of ingredients and cooking apparatus to prepare everything on the menu occupies a mere six square feet—absolutely amazing.
The Texas Tavern is a rare specimen of a bygone era because nothing has changed since it opened. “Everything is original,” Matt told me. The dented countertop, worn footrest, and ten lumpy red leather stools all feel so real. Some repairs to the griddle in 1975 are the extent of any “renovations,” outside of the frequent paint jobs that keep the place looking as fresh and inviting as it may have in 1930.
A quote posted in the restaurant calls the tiny burger counter “Roanoke’s Millionaire’s Club.” Matt explained, “We get all types in here. Whether you are the governor or a hobo, you’ll be treated like a millionaire at the Texas Tavern.”
40
WASHINGTON
DICK’S DRIVE-IN
111 N.E. 45TH ST | SEATTLE, WA 98105
206-632-5125 | (MULTIPLE LOCATIONS AROUND SEATTLE)
WWW.DDIR.COM | OPEN DAILY 10:30 AM–2 AM
At first glance Dick’s looks like it might be a tired old drive-in serving frozen hockey pucks for burgers. But Dick’s is anything but tired, and as the locals know, it’s as vibrant as ever, serving excellent fresh-beef burgers, addictive fries, and hand-dipped milkshakes. The ’50s have come and gone, but Dick’s remains over five decades later, proving that simplicity and good food are the keys to longevity.
Dick’s is a drive-in. There are five locations around town and only one has indoor seating. It’s the sort of drive-in where you park your car and walk up to the window to order and pay. General manager Ken Frazier told me, “Dick’s has always been a walk-up. Originally there were three separate lines, one for shakes and ice cream, one for burgers and soft drinks, and one for fries.” In the’60s Dick’s streamlined the system selling, all products at all windows. At the 45th Street location there’s no seating anywhere and Maria, the longtime manager, told me, “In the summertime people bring picnic tables and chairs and set up in the parking lot. It’s really cute.”
The first Dick’s was built in 1954 in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle just west of the University of Washington. On my first visit to the popular burger stand I arrived 15 minutes before opening to find workers inside scurrying to ready the griddle and cook the fries. There was no one in the parking lot. But within five minutes a hungry mob had gathered. When the first window called, “May I take your order?” I counted 45 people waiting to get their “Dick’s Fix,” a phrase a regular left me with.
The efficiency of Dick’s is mind-boggling. Twenty-four employees, all wearing crisp paper caps and clean aprons, are set to repetitive tasks, such as weighing the fresh ice cream that goes into the shakes or prepping the buns with their secret sauce.
The menu is simple—hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes, and soda. The thin patties of fresh beef are delivered to all locations in the chain every morning. The burgers, cooked on a flattop griddle, can be ordered plain or as the preferred Dick’s Deluxe. The Deluxe comes with two quarter-pound patties, cheese, lettuce, mayo, and their special chopped pickle and mustard sauce. The sauce, a tangy, sweet, and creamy proprietary blend, should not be missed. All burgers are served on the perfect, white squishy bun wrapped in waxed paper.
If you love fries, you’ll be in French fry heaven at Dick’s. The fries are lightly greasy, thin, and fresh, not frozen. The shakes, also incredible, only come in the three classic flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
If you ask for extra sauce for your burger or ketchup for the fries you’ll get a little serving in a small condiment cup, but expect to pay. Ketchup and other condiments are five cents extra and the reason is mostly environmental, not financial. “We feel that the cup i
s much nicer to use for dipping than some foil pouch,” Ken explained, “and by charging a nominal amount we feel we are minimizing waste.” Gotta love a burger joint with a conscience.
The people of Seattle love Dick’s. I was hard-pressed to find a carnivore that didn’t frequent the place. Bill Gates visits frequently. “Last week he had a Deluxe, fries, and a shake,” Maria told me. Even Sir Mix-A-Lot, Grammy Award winner and Seattle native, immortalized the Broadway location in his first hit song. In the lyrics, his posse skips Taco Bell for Dick’s. The truth is, if there were more places like Dick’s, serving wholesome, fast food, we’d all be skipping Taco Bell.
EASTSIDE BIG TOM
2023 EAST 4TH AVE | OLYMPIA, WA 98506
360-357-4852 | WWW.EASTSIDEBIGTOM.COM
MON–SAT 10:30 AM–8 PM | SUN 11 AM–6:30 PM
Big Tom could easily be the most nondescript burger stand in America. If it were not for the large menu on the street side of the building, you’d think you had arrived at a construction trailer that had been haphazardly dumped in a parking lot. But the long lines of cars on each side of the structure are a hint that something good is happening inside. Indeed there is. Big Tom daily sells over 500 fresh thin-patty wonders to loyal drive-up customers. But that’s not all. Big Tom’s trademarked “Goop” is dispensed here, a salad-type dressing that, in varying forms, is a Pacific Northwest mainstay for burgers.
“Goop is essentially mayo, mustard, and pickle relish with a secret salad dressing mixed in,” longtime owner Chuck Fritsch told me. “What’s the saying? ‘If I told you I’d have to kill you’?” he said with a laugh. “It’s really not a big secret,” he admitted, “But if you are not making it in huge batches it doesn’t taste the same.” I can see why someone might want to copy the recipe—the taste is addictive. Besides adorning the Big Tom special double-double, Goop is also offered as a dip for the tater tots and fries. What could be more appealing or more American than “Tots ’n Goop”?