Lost Restaurants of Sacramento & Their Recipes by Maryellen Burns

Author:Maryellen Burns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Jim Van Nort, of Jim-Denny’s, was the burger man in Sacramento. People used to line up for Jim’s signature burgers. Author’s collection.

Jim-Denny’s was another one of the undersized places that served burgers, dogs and typical diner chow. The small, white rounded stucco joint with about a dozen rounded stools is still there on Twelfth Street, north of J, and serves the same (but different tasting) food that it always served. But Harvey’s Hamburgers was the place I miss the most—especially the original location on Broadway, at Riverside, right across from Edmonds Field, the home of the Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons. That wondrous stadium, replaced by a GEMCO discount department store and now the home of Target, was the place we could sneak into, through a hole in the back fence, and watch a great game of baseball and bring our burgers and fries, from Harvey’s, of course. Burgers were only nineteen cents, matched by freshly cut French-fried potatoes. There was another reason Harvey’s was a special place to eat—if you got a red star on your receipt, you could redeem it for a free meal. One of the waitresses would “palm” a receipt when a red star popped up on the cash register tape and slip it to Mom next time we came in, which was often!

The newest entrée into the burger wars was McDonald’s, which first brought its golden arches to Sacramento near the corners of Fruitridge and Stockton Boulevards. In the mid-fifties, the “Golden Arches” could boast selling “more than twenty million burgers!” Priced even below Harvey’s at only fifteen cents a sandwich, McDonald’s quick service, fresh food and handmade fries soon became a regular stop for the burger-buying public. Alas, while McDonald’s is now everywhere, the grilled burgers and freshly cut fries that helped it win the era’s burger wars are long gone.

I spend a lot of time searching for new places with those old tastes. Once in a while I find one, and that’s the time to celebrate. The Squeeze Inn at 5301 Power Inn Road dishes up a great and giant burger, served in those icons of the past: red plastic baskets. If you like cheese on your hamburger, then the Squeeze Inn is your place to go. They are magnificent structures, with the cheese oozing out of the bun and into the grill. Watching first-timers gaze at the marvel in front of them is a hoot. The Stagecoach Restaurant, at 4365 Florin Road, in South Sacramento, is still filled with the tastes of my youth. Its hamburger is still hand-formed!

If you want the look and tastes of the past, then why not play a little pool too? In the paragon of pool halls, the Jointed Cue at 2375 Fruitridge Boulevard, you will find a grease-covered grill and a counter with about ten stools. I don’t know the physics, but somehow it has captured the old-fashioned tastes of a simple burger and fries. And it still uses red plastic baskets too!

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