Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Hamburger Choo Choo

I tell people a story about my childhood and nobody believes me -- but it's true.  In fact, I just discovered that if you search the above words on Facebook, you'll find a tribute page with newspaper clippings proving its existence.

When I was little (the 1960's), there was a restaurant in our town called "Hamburger Choo Choo."  It served hamburgers, milkshakes and luncheonette food. 

What made the place special -- and I'm not making this up! -- is that your food was delivered to you on a toy train.  You sat at a long counter and your food-plate was placed on a toy train that came out of the kitchen and ran down the counter.  To a kid, that was the height of whimsy!

Sadly, the place burned down and was never re-built.  A picture of it is shown below.

What was your favorite place growing up?


14 comments:

  1. Aww. So sad. But at least you have good memories. One of my favorite places to eat growing up was/is this cute little diner type of place that specializes in ice cream. I went there all the time with my grandparents during the summers. It's still a great place to eat, but not the same as it was!

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  2. Too bad the place burned down, but such great memories. We used to go to a place called Brown's Dairy. They had some of the best ice cream and sauerkraut balls. We even took Kayla when she was growing up. Now someone else bought it and it's just not the same.

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  3. How cute! But sad they never rebuilt.

    My brother was over yesterday and we were JUST talking about this little "50s" style diner that served burgers and hotdogs and glass bottle cokes. It was downtown in the little town we lived in. It's called Charlie Joseph's and apparently it's still open! I haven't been back since I was a little kid, but we always went after visiting the comic book store.

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  4. Hi!! should be a nice place to eat. even more for children, are beautiful memories..
    kisses rose jp

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  5. Oh my goodness! How adorable! Mine was any place that served a good Shirley Temple - and a cafeteria style steak house called "The Ponderosa"!

    Happy New Year Shybiker!

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  6. ah, so sad.. why they never rebuilt the restaurant? i imagine hamburger choo choo is a cute place, even though i never knew that place before :) my favorite place when i was kid is every junk food restaurant that my parents bring me! i know it's not healthy for my body, but i love coke, tomato sauce and the toys from happy meals :D have a great holiday :))

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  7. To be honest, I didn't have one. We didn't go out to eat much. Does the local McDonalds count?

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  8. My nephew loves trains, he would have loved that place. My favorite place growing up was my father's backyard. He lived with my Grandparents. My Grandfather had built a train that ran through our backyard and through the grape orchard. This was a train like on Silver Spoon's we could sit and ride on it. My Grandfather was always the captain and we would ride through the grape orchard always making a stop to have a grape or two, or three. It is one of my only memories of my Grandfather. The train is now in a museum, my father believes in NH. I am trying to find out because I really want to go and see it.

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  9. Quirky places like that are part of why I am so interested in the past. They just don't make things like anymore. I always loved Dairy Queen ... ha!

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  10. There is a place like this in Des Plaines, IL as well, it's called "The Choo-Choo". http://www.thechoochoo.com/

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  11. That sounds like such a fun restaurant! Too bad they didn't rebuild. My favorite place as a child was the Kiddie Land amusement park in Elmwood Park, IL. Unfortunately, the owners fell on hard times and it closed. :(

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  12. strickland's pharmacy, waycross, GA. there was a diner run by diane, a korean immigrant, and a pharmacy, run by her husband, john, who brought her back from the war. she wanted to be as american as possible, and felt cooking hamburgers was the way to go! And it was right next door to my grandmother's salon! those were the best burgers i've ever had, and the first ones i ever had. i sat at the bar, legs swinging, and waited for the burger to be wrapped in wax paper. heaven.
    sadly, john developed Alzheimers about 10 years ago, and they closed the place. it's now a storage unit. they sold the name and there's a new strickland's (in the MALL! horror.). it's the same in name only.

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  13. I love thisssssssssssssssssssssssss
    I revisit in my head so MANY places that are long gone in my city.
    Sigh... I am not a fan of change-

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  14. There is a pizza place near me that sends you your drinks on a little train like that :) The pizzas do not fit on the track.

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