Two Big Shefs, One Funmeal, and some Americana

May 20, 2016 8:17 AM

Burger Chef was a US fast food chain, created in the 1950's, that once rivaled McDonald's. In the early 1970's it had over 1000 locations nationwide. In the 1980's General Foods Corporation gradually divested itself of the chain by selling locations to Hardee's. Some people remember Burger Chef quite fondly.

Kyle's Burger Chef Memories (warning: Burger Chef commercial jingles play when you open the homepage and some of the sections). 1. Home 2. Cookville, Tn 3. Advertising Pics 4. Louisville, Ky Pics & History 4b. More Lou. Ky Pics 5. Early Pictures 6. More Pictures 7. Burger Chef and Jeff 8. Memorabilia Pics 9. Bedford, In Pics 10. Commercial Stills 11. Hardee's 12. Convention Pics 1975 13. Family Circus Promotion 14. 1000th store Tampa 1969 14b. Tampa area 15. Greenbriar Grand Opening 16. Remodeling 1970's 17. Building Blue Prints 18. The Chef Cleveland, TN 19. Georgia Burger Chef 20. 1960's Burger Chef 21. 1970's Burger Chef 22. 1980's Burger Chef 23. Schroeder's tribute 24. Madison, IN 1957 25. Jackson MI Mr. Art Dolan 26. Photos Training Slides New section: Shared Pictures

JSF's Burger Chef Tribute. History of Burger Chef Systems, Inc. Burger Chef Building Design. Photo 1. Photo 2. Photo 3. Photo 4. Burger Chef Menu Items. The Burger Chef Franchise Story. Burger Chef In Southern New Jersey. Building Plans. Operations 1960's.

The Burger Chef Reliquary. This site has over 25 categories. Some examples: The Monster Fun Record series are stories featuring Burger Chef, Jeff and a host of creepy creatures. "Space Shuttle" Funmeals. 1979 NFL Collector Series ( I have a couple of these. I couldn't remember where I had got them. Now I know.)

Some Burger Chef TV commercials. We always treat you right. Meet our family. Burger Chef Star Wars Posters. More Burger Chef and Star Wars. Commercial with Eve Plumb (Jan Brady of the Brady Bunch). Burger Chef and Jeff 1974. A 1982 commercial. There are many, many more available. So here is Burger Chef Commercials Complete Collection (purportedly).

Burger Chef appeared in season 7 of Mad Men. Peggy, Pete, and Don at the end of S7 episode 6 "The Strategy (no sound)." Peggy's Burger Chef Pitch in S7 episode 7 "Waterloo.": Vimeo. YT. Articles: Mad Men's Beautiful Burger Chef Was Recreated Along Route 66. L.A. CAMEO: Here's Where "Mad Men" Shot Those Burger Chef Scenes. Mad Men: A Brief History of the Real-World Burger Chef.

Odds and ends: Burger Chef radio commercial circa 1960. This fellow says he knows the real reason for Burger Chef's demise. Burger Chef on Roadside Architecture.

Previously.

posted by cwest (36 comments total)

Wow, thank you for this. I honestly thought "Burger Chef" was a fake fast-food restaurant name that turned up in books or movies like a 555 prefix.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:20 AM on May 20, 2016 [11 favorites]

I remember these. Always wondered why they vanished.
posted by praemunire at 8:38 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

My mom used to take me to the Burger Chef in Northeast Philadelphia located right across the street from Northeast High School. I remember riding by that location after it closed and while they rebuilt it as a Burger King, I think in 1979 or 80.
posted by Rob Rockets at 8:40 AM on May 20, 2016

I can dimly remember Burger Chef from my early childhood in the late '70s/early '80s, but only as a last-ditch alternative to either Mickey D's or Wendy's.

Hardee's apparently brought back part of the Burger Chef menu for a brief time about 10 years ago, but since there aren't any Hardee's near me anymore I have no idea if that's still the case.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:44 AM on May 20, 2016

Burger Chef was huge when I was a kid in Indianapolis in the 60's. Much, much better than McDonalds.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:47 AM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is the Burger Chef of my memories, in Waycross, Georgia. It was our family's main choice, and I just remember really liking their kid's meal toys. It later was replaced by a local burger chain, Jerry J's, who still have a building on that site today.
posted by bizzyb at 8:47 AM on May 20, 2016

We went to Burger Chef over McDonalds and Burger King (our 3 fast food options) until it changed to a Hardee's sometime in the 80s. I really liked Burger Chef and I still have some parts of that Space Shuttle Funmeal papercraft around somewhere in a box of childhood. They also once served the funmeal in a plastic tray that turned into a boat you could float around in the pool or bathtub. There were similar ones that were the shape of cars that came with a sheet f stickers you could put on to make different styles. Those were pretty cool even though they were just single color vacuum formed thin plastic that kinda looked like a thing.

In our town Burger Chef had a quality and cleanliness to it that the other chains didn't have. We were sad to see it become a Hardee's. Though there was nothing really wrong with Hardee's, it just wasn't the same thing - it was another McDonalds down the street.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 8:56 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

This reminded me of a midwest restaurant chain called Happy Chef. The one we went to most often when I was a kid was in Mankato, MN and it was the original. Each restaurant had a big statue of the eponymous guy in front and at its base was a button that you could push to hear the Happy Chef talk to you. I have no recollection of what it would say, but I do remember it was bland and not very interesting. Sadly, there is only the one in Mankato left standing. The other Happy Chefs have been redirected to other jobs, including an umpire and a chimney sweep.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:09 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

I grew up in Cookeville, TN, home of the very last Burger Chef. I ate there probably once every week or two while I was in junior high, and then it was gone.

I'd have to dig through emails to find out why but somehow the guy that runs the site and I ended up talking and so I have a photo credit on the Cookeville page for submitting a photograph of the building once it had turned into India Palace.

I can't say as though I particularly miss Burger Chef, though it is the first place I learned to add bacon to a cheeseburger. Perhaps that was out of necessity.

(man, of all the reasons to find my name tangentially attached to a FPP ... of course it would be Burger Chef)
posted by komara at 9:21 AM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Burger Chef and Jeff used to be my favorite fast food joint, not just because my name was Jeff, but because their Funmeals were truly epic, far outshining Happy Meals. Our local BC&J was eventually replaced by a Roy Rogers.
posted by scamper at 9:22 AM on May 20, 2016

When I was a kid, Burger Chef was the restaurant of choice for my family. They were the first place we ate, to have an all you can eat salad bar. You could pile items from the salad bar on your burgers. Or buy the salad bowl and go back many times. And on Tuesday they had all you can eat fish for 99 cents. Deep fried square fish. My parents loved that but they could never persuade me to order it - yuck! Almost every Tuesday, the whole family would pile in the car and drive the ten miles to the bigger town and Burger Chef.

McDonalds Happy Meals were out of the question because they cost a few cents more than getting all those food items separately. But we were always allowed to get the Burger Chef Fun Meals since they didn't make you pay extra for the fancy box and toy.
posted by elizilla at 9:29 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

In 1978 Burger Chef released a set of promotional "Endangered Species" drinking glasses, with donations made to the WWF for every purchase. Seems pretty ho-hum today, but back then it was notable.

The depiction of the "orang-utan" (technically the Bornean orangutan i.e. Pongo Pygmaeus) has been my mental model of that great ape ever since.

38 years later and still endangered. :(
posted by jeremias at 9:37 AM on May 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

I have vague childhood memories of Burger Chef and honestly don't care much. But this is an exemplary MetaFilter post. I salute you, cwest.
posted by cobra libre at 9:37 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

This was the one we had in our small hometown until Hardee's bought it. "Nowhere else but Burger Chef!" Is my personal Tripledent Gum jingle.
posted by stevis23 at 9:40 AM on May 20, 2016

This reminded me of a midwest restaurant chain called Happy Chef.

Happy Chef! I went to Happy Chef in college on occasion, whenever someone had access to a car.

My family only very occasionally ate fast food when I was little, and never anything where you actually went into the restaurant and the staff brought you french fries. So going to Happy Chef basically blew my mind. I had never had a cheese fry before.

I would say that Happy Chef was one of the things that prompted me to stay in Minnesota after college. Now, like so many of those things, it has been replaced by shitty, boring, generic stuff. Not that there's not great things about Minnesota, but things are definitely blander and more corporate than they were twenty years ago.
posted by Frowner at 9:42 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I ate at that one on Dixie Hwy. in Louisville all the time when I was a kid. Good times.
posted by valkane at 9:42 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

What if there was a place
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:57 AM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

We had a Burger Chef in my hometown when I was growing up. Back during the first wave of environmental panic that happened in the early 70s, I got a poster that was on the back of my bedroom door for years and years, showing a river flowing top to bottom down the poster, and split left/right showing a polluted river on one half and a clean river on the other half, with the Burger Chef and Jeff at the bottom saying things about needing to protect the environment and clean up our planet. I can't find an image of this anywhere online, but it is burned into my memory. (Along with Woodsy Owl and a lot of other stuff from the 70s that raised the alarm.)

To this very day, I still wonder why the full onslaught of environmentalism education / propaganda that took place in the 70s didn't fully take hold in our culture until basically 40 years later.

The building that housed the Burger Chef still stands in Las Cruces, and is still in use. It has been many things over the decades, but the one that seems to have stuck is a bagel shop. It's been a bagel shop, under several different owners and incarnations, for probably 30 years now. Back before bagels became a "thing", they were a thing in Las Cruces thanks to that building.
posted by hippybear at 10:07 AM on May 20, 2016

Proof that the old Burger Chef is now a bagel shop
posted by hippybear at 10:24 AM on May 20, 2016

Loved the Burger Chef til the day it closed in my town. The burgers came in little plastic bags and were super steamy and moist. Delicious.
posted by Roger Dodger at 10:44 AM on May 20, 2016

Not only did we have Burger Chef in Indianapolis when I was growing up (I loooooved Burger Chef,) we also have a string of unsolved homicides attached to them-- named, unsurprisingly, The Burger Chef Murders.

Police think they started out as overnight inside robberies that went wrong-- they even think they know who did the murders. But due to lack of evidence, no one has ever been charged. The 40 year anniversary of the murders is coming up soon; it will be all over the news again.

In Indy, Burger Chef lives on in infamy.
posted by headspace at 10:47 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

My dad owned and bankrupted two Burgerchefs's.
posted by josher71 at 11:16 AM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]

I remember Burger Chef from the 70s here in Michigan. I recall it as being on the "greasy spoon" side of the fast food chains.
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:35 AM on May 20, 2016

In the early 70's our local Burger Chef (St. Catharines, Ontario) gave away hockey posters. Dave Keon was tacked up on our garage wall forever.
posted by davebush at 12:18 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

My mom occasionally talks about Burger Chef.

"Not like Burger Chef," Burger Chef being apparently the gold standard of fast food.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:34 PM on May 20, 2016

For us it was always McDonalds or Burger Chef, and Burger King only if there were no other options. But I don't know if I trust my childhood tastes. I thought Arby's was better than all of them, but the last time I went to Arby's I thought the food was close to inedible.

So as much as I miss Burger Chef, I am fully aware that it might not be as good as I remember it.
posted by kanewai at 1:34 PM on May 20, 2016

But I don't know if I trust my childhood tastes. I thought Arby's was better than all of them, but the last time I went to Arby's I thought the food was close to inedible.

It might not be you that changed. (Or, at least, not just you.)
posted by Shmuel510 at 1:41 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hardee's flame-broiled menu was a nice alternative. And then they bought Burger Chef and adopted their menu. Facepalm
posted by pmurray63 at 2:09 PM on May 20, 2016

I loved going to the Burger Chef in Cranston, RI when I was little. You could really pile the pickles on your burger! I am still all about the pickles.
posted by Biblio at 2:32 PM on May 20, 2016

Here is the Burger Chef of my youth.

Great post!
posted by clavdivs at 3:32 PM on May 20, 2016

Ah, the legendary Burger Chef. My town had one on its main drag and I have, like so many others here, vague memories of eating there. I seem to recall the burgers were big and fucking good. Of course, McDonald's back then tasted better, too I think.
posted by zardoz at 12:45 AM on May 21, 2016

I'm really enjoying everyone's Burger Chef recollections and stories. Thanks for commenting. And thanks in particular to those who have been so complimentary of the post. Much appreciated.
posted by cwest at 2:56 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I remember eating at the Burger Chef in Richmond Va quite a bit when I was growing up. My dad would take us there on Friday nights when mom didn't feel like cooking--or even eating. And her food was terrible, so while Burger Chef food was entirely forgettable, I loved going there with my dad. I'm sitting here giggling to my husband that someone's taken the time to create such a robust FPP on, of all things, Burger Chef. Thanks!
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:05 AM on May 21, 2016

I grew up in Houston and had family in Kansas City so we used to drive between the two regularly. We always stopped in Oklahoma City at a Burger Chef for lunch. Memories, eh?
posted by damnitkage at 6:53 AM on May 21, 2016

I loved their Ham&Cheese sandwich they introduced in the late 60s.
posted by Rash at 10:37 AM on May 21, 2016

My dad owned and bankrupted two Burgerchefs's.

From this link about Nashville area Burgerchefs I asked my dad about the ones he was involved with.

"Opened the one on Harding Rd. That was where Bib the cataleptic was. And Sean, who Drew (my brother) was named after managed Nolensville Rd for Bob Bigger that had 10 kids."

There you have it.
posted by josher71 at 8:21 AM on May 22, 2016