That happened with a place down in Destin, Florida. There was a little beachside burger hut called Fudpuckers (as opposed to Fuddruckers) – “you ain’t been pucked 'till ya been Fudpucked.” IIRC the special sauce was “orgasm sauce.” They opened a bigger location in Ft. Walton Beach but the original place was still going. A few years later, the original location had evidently been set afire and they built a new, huge place away from the beach, on the highway bypass. Big and successful but the food wasn’t the same. I guess they had to kill it to save it. Brings to mind what the late Mr. Berra said, “nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
I love to dis my hometown, Arlington TX*, but I have to say upon reflection that I don’t think I ever ate a better burger than I did when I lived in Arlington. The very best burgers were from gas stations – there was a chain called Jackson’s, and another store called Quickway, that had kitchens and a few seats inside the convenience store. To this day I prefer a griddled burger to a grilled one – i.e. cooked on a greasy flat surface, rather than over an open flame. But this was back in the late '80s, and I haven’t visited Arlington in at least 11 years.
