Chuck 'n' Freds. This was a dive run by two fishing buddies. It served breakfast and lunch and the afternoon and evening was for fishing. They had a bulletin board with the day's fishing report, one of the most accurate in town. Decor ran to baseball hat's on the wall from various people and firms that frequented the place. Lots of fishing gear and trophies on the wall too. Every booth had a stack of 3x5 photos of people fishing--most often Chuck 'n' Fred--and what they were catching.
It's the burger joint in a generic B movie called Truth or Consequences New Mexico. (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120383/ ) They retired completely a number of years ago now so I might miss some details.
The burgers were amazing. A robust bun, griddle fried meat with a combo of seasonings I haven't figured out exactly. Probably some worcestershire, but not lots, and a hint of garlic, salt and pepper is as close as I've come.
The pinnacle of the burgers there was the bacon mushroom cheese burger.
Two 1/4 # burgers, two slices of cheese. (Might only have been one, but this was a huge burger)
Meaty bacon, thickly cut and enough to really be present in the burger.
The mushrooms were a medium small dice of button mushroom. They were a bit overcooked, but that worked well in the burger. They were dark, very dark heading into blackness. With a tang in the mouth I haven't placed exactly to a flavor or technique. I assume these were done ahead on the griddle, and held to order, mabye splashed with soy, or more worcestershire, or lemon, maybe red wine vinegar?, probably some garlic too.
Lettuce and onions in a mixed shred. Kind of an odd way to do it but it worked and was well balanced.
Real cheddar cheese. Not processed. It was probably bought pre sliced as it was always uniform, but it was the real thing.
Fry sauce in the burger, more on the side for the fries and for adding to the burger. Fry Sauce is a peculiarly Utah thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry_sauce
It's basis is a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup--probable the brainchild of a returned missionary who enjoyed mayo on the fries in some European country and tried both simultaneously back home in Utah. It's often doctored with other flavorful tasty things, lemon juice, onion, garlic, buttermilk and even smokey barbecue sauce at another burger joint--The Training Table.
Now comes the trick. For most people, once you pick up the burger you're committed. You can't put it back down and hope to pick it up again in one piece. Unless you have extra large hands to re-encompass the whole pile it becomes when set down. The whole burger was probably 5-6 inches tall when served.
Good fries too.
They did a mean breakfast as well. When the no smoking in restaurants law was passed, there was an exception for "private clubs"--normally places that focus on alcohol. Chuck 'n' Fred's and a few other joints created a group private club membership called Smoker's Anonymous. These were restaurants that catered to a blue-collar smoking crowd and needed to maintain a smoking atmosphere to stay profitable. The law hurt Chuck 'n' Fred's and there were a couple of law suits against Smoker's Anonymous, but as I recall, SA won out for a while. I don't think there are any SA restaurants still open. most of the SA joints served good tasting food, but weren't upscale at all. Another SA place, Jo-Jo's Too had monster sandwiches with good quality fixings. It was Jo-Jo's Too as there was a first establishment in a truck stop in another part of town, but same management.
