Blimpy Burger
by JS
You have to love any place with a system. Blimpy Burger on S. Division at Packard has a system. Fried items first, then grilled, then fixin’s. You order from the cook, who makes your burger to order right in front of you, on a grill that’s three feet away and only separated from drooling customers by a low and narrow counter. When I was there, the customer-cook banter included the story of a baby who, if the story is to be believed, was Blimpy Burger addicted pre-nataly, and now cries hysterically should the family comes within some extra-sensory perceptual distance of Blimpy without going in for a bite.
The key burger innovation here is the use of very small patties pressed extremely thin against the griddle, served in quantities of two or more per bun. I found this puzzling at first, wouldn’t it overcook the (daily ground) chuck? On biting into my burger I quickly discovered the reason. The burger was moist with a meatloaf flavor that would ordinarily indicate the presence of fillers (seems unlikely considering how close I was to raw patties) but in this case is more likely the contribution of the griddle itself, which probably hasn’t been cleaned since 1953 and has acquired the patina of place that only long running joints can claim. I mean, this griddle was cured.
One final note: The cash register was stocked with 2 dollar bills.
