Fans enjoyed their final breakfasts and burgers at the Burgermaster flagship near University Village on Sunday, Feb. 23. The beloved restaurant was turning off its griddles and fryers for the last time after 73 years.
Throughout its final week, the only dine-in operation in the six-outlet Burgermaster chain was packed. Hundreds of Seattleites showed up for a final dose of nostalgia: scrambled eggs and hashbrowns or tasty burgers and fries. Many fans were wearing Husky colors as they lined up to place their orders, snaking around the coffee island.
They chatted among themselves as they waited, united in fondness for the place with its non-glamour, its longhorn steer logo and sign on the door: “Shirts and shoes please.”
One gray-headed couple who entered the restaurant just ahead of me Friday graciously offered to hold me a place in line. But I was headed for the oar room, a small alcove off the cash register with a Husky oar mounted on the wall.
That’s where historian Feliks Banel was preparing to interview fans on SPACE 101.1 FM. He asked where the regulars plan to meet when the nicknamed “Burg” closes down. One group of older guys who’ve gathered there regularly told Banel they’ll go to the Blue Star Cafe in Wallingford. Other choices, mentioned to me as I walked around, were Bryant Corner Café in Ravenna and the Breakfast Club in Lake City.
Alex Jensen opened the Burgermaster in 1952 as a drive-in, predating the University Village shopping center. The enterprise is older than Dick’s, Lowell’s, and Watson’s Oyster Bar, and is nearly as old as Canlis restaurant, which debuted in 1950. With the U District place closed, the chain will have only one Seattle location, on Aurora Avenue North. Burgermaster is still managed by the Jensen family; grandson Phil Jensen is now in charge. The five remaining locations are drive-ins, but a new brick-and-mortar restaurant will open in Issaquah, likely sometime later this year.
Closure of “the Burg,” which converted to dine-in back in 1973, was dictated by the sale of the land, owned by Albertsons, to Quarterra, a real estate firm. Quarterra has plans to develop a 796-unit apartment complex on the four-acre land parcel that includes a now-shuttered Safeway store.
The 73-year-old “Burg” is legendary. In the 1970s, Bill Gates often came in with his dad, attorney William Gates. In the 1980s, the younger Gates was working on the Eastside but kept the Bellevue location on speed dial. Over the years, a group of retirees from nearby Laurelhurst would gather at a favorite table, their visits so frequent that the waitstaff could punch in their orders as they entered. One table was a known favorite of Roy McCready, father of Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready. That led staff to install a sign that read, “reserved for Roy.”
The final days of the Burgermaster flagship were bittersweet: part celebration of an era, part sadness for the loss of a community icon. When a piece of old Seattle passes into history, we know we’ve lost something irreplaceable.
Living just three blocks north of the Burgermaster on 29th Ave. N.E., I was excited with my buddies to be there the day the Burgermaster opened. We were too young to drive in our cars, that would come later. But on our bikes we could get a milkshakes–chocolates were the best. It seemed we could be part of the older kids who came in their cars. So cool.
Trains still ran on the nearby tracks that much later gave way to the Burke Gilman Trail. And when we could drive, few Friday or Saturday nights did we not stop at the Burg, often with our dates, for late meals and gosiping. We could eat in our cars and be served by waitresses. Later men would also deliver orders.
Of course, as drivers we also hung out at Dick’s on 45th. There was more room there for hot rods, and cars that had been customized. But somehow a stop at Burgermaster was a bit more upscale, like shopping at Fredericks over the Bon Marche.
I don’t rememberer ever seen a fight at the Burg. There were occasional scuffles at Dick’s. But neither hangout attracted troublemakers.
As Jean Godden points out, we old folks who had fun as teens, then as parents and eventually as grandparents, attending the Burg for good–if fattening–food, a part of us is now gone. It sure was fun.
This was the headline,option.
Land sold out from under beloved Seattle restaurant for
796-unit apartment complex