Place: Fuddrucker's
Lunch: 1/3 lb bacon cheddar burger, fries (drowned in cheese sauce and mayo), Coke
Back in my Grand Forks days, there was a local restaurant owner who specialized in taking over buildings he could get on the cheap that had repeated failed restaurants over the years and put in an original idea of his that would become a local favorite. One such place was Topper's, a retro diner-styled burger joint in a fast food format where you topped your burgers yourself at the topping bar. His advertising smartly pointed out that his prices were comparable to McDonald's for a better product. This was true...the prices were, and the product was. Plus they had homemade ice cream made on site. It was SUCH a great place. When trying to explain the place to out-of-towners, they woudl often ask "So it's like Fuddrucker's?" And the answer was always something along the line of "Not really. For one thing, the food is actually good."
I got to reminiscing about Topper's when I recently overheard three guys conversing about the new B-Bop's going up in our uppity upscale shopping area. "Are they crazy? Red Robin is right across the street, and Five Guys and Fuddrucker's are a stone's throw away."
It's a dumb argument because B-Bops targets a whole different market than those three (and I would argue makes a far better burger for far cheaper). But their conversation turned to comparing the three future competitors, and the one thing they universally agreed on was that Fuddrucker's is the worst of them, and they don't understand how the place stays in business.
But you know what? I can make an argument FOR Fuddrucker's.
I don't like Five Guys. At all. I don't get the appeal people have for the place. People think they make a great homemade burger. I'll agree about the "homemade" part...as in I could make this at home. There's nothing special about it. People love their fries. I HATE their fries. I don't understand how anyone could like them.
In theory, I should love Red Robin. It's a Pacific Northwest-born chain that was a part of my teen years. It was the first place I discovered the miracle that is strawberry lemonade. And I've never met a menu item I didn't like. So what's the problem? There's nothing on the menu I really love, and it's an overpriced sit-down concept. I'm also increasingly leery of restaurants where I have to depend on servers. If your sit-down restaurant doesn't carry the fondness I have for Steak n Shake, Frisch's, or the Peppermill, I'm probably avoiding you anymore. And with Steak n Shake, I just go through the drive-thru most of the time anyway.
Then there's Fuddrucker's. I can walk up to the counter without the insane lines you see at Five Guys, order my food, and pay with Apple Pay. For $11.85 including tax, I get a freshly cooked 1/3 lb burger with real bacon and cheddar on it that I can top myself to the point of ridiculous, fries, and a soda. Plus I can make Euro-fries with as much cheese sauce and mayo as I want.
It's still not nearly as good as Topper's was...the topping bar isn't nearly as extensive...but it still works. And I would argue that the food quality has gotten much better than it used to be.
It wasn't always this simple. When Fuddrucker's opened here, there were servers refilling your drinks and expecting tips. That worked so poorly that they ended up putting in self-serve drink machines and reformatting to more of a fast casual setup. Which seems to work much better.
So I guess I've grown more fond of Fuddrucker's over the years. People who weren't happy with them when they first opened should give them another try.
So there.
