Gunner wrote:

> The Original Owl Cafe just outside Socorro heading to the Northern gate to
> White Sands MR, was the best Green Chile Cheese Burgers in the world, bar
> none. I would go down to WSMR from ABQ 1-2 time a week just to stop and eat
> lunch there. I understand it was bought out and moved to ABQ and it is now
> Corporate Commissary food on the order of Applebe's, Chili's, Red Robin,
> Olive Garden, etc. Better than any of the WhataBurgers which were prety damn
> good. Dude , ours W-A-Bs in West Texas served Cherry Peppers instead of
> the Jalapenos.
>
> MDs was the home of the 12- 15 cents, LBLB food, little beef on a little
> bun. Gut fill was all that was.
>
> I guess it is too hard for a real Mom and Pop eatery to compete with
> Marketing dollars, the profit margin in foods leaves little room for error.
> Proves it is not Taste but Preception we tend to buy. Marketing Rules!!
>
>

My only WAB experience was in El Paso. I think they may have even had
serranos laying out... All I remember was that they were fresh and
hotter than hell.

I'm a big fan of local joints. Orange County and LA are a who's who of
local grease traps that serve more food than humanly possible to consume
at one sitting. Phoenix had some great local joints but never caught on
to the gigantic portions that SoCal serves up. Tucson has some too but I
haven't made a dent in them yet. I'll keep you posted.

Phoenix has a chain called Pete's Fish and Chips. Pete's claim to fame
was cheap baskets of fish, shrimp, clams and oysters served with a fish
cocktail sauce of 2 parts ketchup and 1 part El Pato Tomato sauce. It
was brilliant.
I love the line in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High comparing the
secret sauces of competing fast food joints. It was something like, "Our
secret sauce is 1,000 Island and ketchup the other was ketchup and
mayonaise." Everyone thought that they had the perfect secret sauce by
mixing two bottles of condiments together. I'm a big Whataburger fan
because of the use of good old American Yellow Mustard and super fresh
ingredients letting the burger be the star.