Thursday, November 11, 2010
Lost Memphis Burger Chef in 1968
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 3:18 PM
The food at these places was pretty good, I recall, but what was more memorable was the bizarre architecture, with that weird segmented arch erected over most, if not all, the Burger Chefs in town.
The address shown in the ad is wrong, since that would place it across the street from the Children's Museum. According to old city directories, in the late 1960s, the Burger Chefs in Memphis were located at:
3562 Walker (since demolished)
4382 Highway 51 South (building still standing and used as another restaurant)
682 N. Mendenhall (demolished)
3701 Lamar (demolished)
2450 Central (demolished; a Dollar General stands on the site)
153 North Cleveland (the building is still standing, but vacant).
Burger Chef was founded in Indianapolis in 1954 and the chain spread quickly throughout the country. It eventually became purchased by Hardee's, I believe, and the last Burger Chef closed in 1996.
Does anybody remember the girls (or the Burger Chef employee) shown in this ad?
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
I know if it was ME wearing that Burger Chef hat I certainly wouldn't 'fess up to it now. So since this was for "G-Day" lunch (does that make this the "G-Spot" for IC girls?) does that mean grads didn't always rent a limo to throw up in???
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Vance, I think that Central Ave. location was actually where Dollar General is now. It was a Burger Chef, then something else before becoming John Wills in the '80s.
Google shows 2562 Central (the address shown in the ad) at the northwest corner of Central and Hollywood. As far as I know (which admittedly isn't very far these days), no fast-food establishment ever stood on that corner.
I graduated from IC and still have the oh-so-sassy saddle Oxfords like these girls. G-day was every 7th school day (the first 6 were designated A-F) where regular classes were replaced by fun electives (I took Oriental cooking and it rocked -- we made won-tons and always ate something fabulous). Thanks for a fun look back for us "IC chicks"! :)
"G-Day" was every seventh day? Good grief, how did you keep track of it? Wouldn't it have been easier just to do this every Friday, for example? I wonder if they still do this. And if they do, I hope every student has a fine "Ask Vance" wall calendar to help them keep track of all the A and D and F and G days.
Ohhhh ... so nothing to do with "Graduation Day." I thought it was a bit of a low-key way to celebrate but then again it was back in the day when kids expected less. And Vance you can award yourself a free calendar for "most shameless plug."
What other kind of plug is there?
And just for the record, I don't make a dime off those calendars. I do it out of the goodness of my great big heart. Oh yeah, and also because the only way to get one is to buy a subscription to our magazine (for you or for somebody you love). But no subscriptions = no magazines. And no magazine = no mo' Vance.
The photo may be from 1968, but these three women are from the graduating class of 1969 -- I was in the same class and I remember them all. The schedule was not hard to remember. G day was set aside for special activities. Regular classes were held on A-F days. Some classes were held every A-F day. Other longer classes such as science labs were held either A-C-E days or B-D-F days -- sort of like a college schedule.
I remember an ad on tv in the early 70's with Burger Chef and his sidekick "Jeff"
Just now got around to hitting the streets of Google Earth and the 153 N. Cleveland one is now the "Vietnamese Bistro", that was "Brenda's Soul Food", that was the Thai "Red (or maybe Golden) Dragon", which before that was ... well, you get the idea. Maybe you could take this picture in for a free lunch?
I thought Burger Chef was located in the building on Cooper that is now Easy Way, and the one on Cleveland or Watkins that is now a former Easy Way. So what burger places were there?
As an IC alumna I can tell you G days had alternate classes and they only did them every 7th school day, so that's why they didn't do them on the same day every week. That and maybe Sister Gabriella hoped we would invest in a Vance calendar someday since our ability to keep a normal schedule was destroyed for life.
Katfish, the address of the Easy Way on Cleveland is 337 North Cleveland, and unfortunately there's no listing for that location in the old city directories from the late 1960s or early 1970s. The building clearly looks old, so why was not listed in the phone books? That's a mystery, I guess, for another time.
But the Easy Way on Cooper is located at 596 South Cooper, and in the late 1960s that building housed a joint called Dixie Burger. Was this the establishment you remember?
I went to I.C. in 1981 and I can tell you we had no such fun day. Sister Gabriella made sure fun was avoided at ALL costs. The ruler ruled. She measured our skirt length (not more than 3 inches above the knee) and the distance between boys and girls at dances (at least a rulers length). We were not even allowed to leave campus because there was an Elvis movie being made at the time and the evil movie people were trying to get an I.C. uniform or a shot of I.C. girls for the movie and we were instructed not to so much as look in the direction of anyone that might be affiliated with movies...Sister Gabriella did not approve of Priscilla's proximity to Elvis-I can only assume she must have measured it.
Fyi the location that WAS vietnamese bistro is now a badly charred shell... All I can find is there was a fire earlier this month- but nothing in the flyer or the other rag... God forbid there should be any news not related to the schools!
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