{"id":3350,"date":"2010-06-10T20:43:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-11T03:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=3350"},"modified":"2010-06-10T20:43:48","modified_gmt":"2010-06-11T03:43:48","slug":"north-hollywood-ca-jacks-classic-hamburgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=3350","title":{"rendered":"North Hollywood, CA – Jack’s Classic Hamburgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Underneath “Hamburgers” the sign says “Old Fashioned”. So I am not sure if it is Jack’s Classic Old Fashioned Hamburgers? Or? And I wasn’t able to ascertain what was old fashioned about the burgers, and didn’t get a chance to ask Jack, even tho he stopped by to see how well his burger slave was getting along that day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Business must be good, Jack was driving a fancy new SUV.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This North Hollywood sidewalk stand, at the corner of Riverside and Moorpark, has been around since before beef was invented. Yes, back then, they had Jack’s Original Stick Burgers. I swear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But there were no sticks at Jack’s today. My ex-wife won’t remember it, but we had a “significant” night here a few decades ago. I didn’t go looking for it today, just bumped into it. I was really looking for some place that might serve an abalone burger, and might have the word “Ranch” in the name, and might be near the Burbank Equestrian Center. But I didn’t, so I don’t know if it did, and it wasn’t.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ambling up to the window at Jack’s, looked at the menu, boldly proclaimed my decision and ordered a cheeseburger, chili fries, and a bottle of water. Burger cooker said “want everything on that?” And I answered “yes”, without a moment’s hesitation, having no idea what “everything” would encompass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burger cooker gave me my water (wow, it had Jack’s OWN label on it! Cool. I want my own bottled water!) Burger cooker said “it will be out in a minute.” I glanced over the counter and saw the MOC (method of cooking) was a griddle. The patties were frozen, and huge, but shrunk down to about half the diameter after cooking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I sat down at an outside table and wrote a couple of postcards (a quirk of mine), while waiting for the burger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was ready damned quick, and out it came, in two baskets, the burger, and the fries. With a twist, in that, I had said “cheeseburger and chili fries” and what came out was a chili burger and fries. No matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Everything on it” was the usual stuff, lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion, pickle, but hard to find under all that chili. I dutifully forked the chili over to the fries. That accomplished, I bit into the burger, and it was pretty good. The chili was a step up from usual institutional chili, the fries were shoestring and undercooked. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But the sun was shining, and as Randy Newman would say “It’s just another perfect day…..I love L.A.!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sidewalk sign said “free refills”, but I found out this doesn’t apply to slipping a new patty between your empty bun.\u00a0 Darn.<\/strong><\/p>\n