Review and photos by Ted Broussard
“Lost in the Fifties”
There’s something fun about 50’s nostalgia for those of us of a certain age . It’s amazing how black and white check wallpaper, cushy red vinyl booths, pictures of Elvis, Marilyn or James Dean and a jukebox can take you back in a second. Downtown Tacoma now has its own homage to the 50’s in Patty’s Burgers & Milkshakes, a second location for the South Tacoma Way original. With a huge menu of breakfast, burgers, hot dogs and other options, not to mention a full variety of milkshakes, Patty’s takes you back to a time when life was simpler and food was too.
There must be something about this space that attracts burger joints. Prior to Patty’s opening this past April, previous owners included Chalk Talk Bistro and Mary’s Burger Bistro. I had checked out Chalk Talk once before and wasn’t impressed enough to make a second visit. The space is now updated, if you will, with a retro vibe and requisite 1950’s icons and accessories. It wasn’t quite as shiny and sparkly as many 50’s style diners I’ve seen but they made a decent effort to create a familiar environment. Servers wear bright red shirts with the phrase “Lost in the Fifties” embroidered on the back. Our particular server was friendly but either still new or not very well trained.
Should you ever find yourself hungry enough to eat a horse, the menu offers several valid options:
- Patty’s Monster Omelet made with 8 eggs, $15.99
- James Dean Hot Dog measuring two feet long, $18.50
- The Cake Burger served with 7 meat patties, $39.99
But if you’re trying to cut back, you can still order “Patty’s Special Burger” with 4 meat patties, all the usual fixings and bacon, Swiss and pineapple just because they can. For us mere mortals, the rest of the menu is more of the typical American large food portion variety.
The theme word for food we tried on this visit is MESSY. In my book, messy is not a bad thing but be forewarned that there will be spills. I’d avoid wearing white that day if I were you. We tried the Blue Cheese Burger, the Tuna Melt and a Nutella Milkshake on this visit. All were pretty tasty and pretty messy. I ordered the burger medium well and it came out as expected. The bun was loaded with “Patty’s Special Sauce,” iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions and pretty much fell apart half way through from all the moist goodness. The blue cheese crumbles were pretty crumbly and didn’t give as much impact as I had hoped. The order came with fries, which were a bit thicker than I enjoy as a personal preference, but cooked golden brown and moist inside. I thought sure that I would be using all the napkins in the dispenser for the burger, but my mountain of used ones got even larger when I sampled the Tuna Melt. Big scoops of crunchy tuna salad with loads of celery and mayonnaise on thick slices of bread dripped on all sides, and that’s before I bit into it. It was very good and my Mount Rainier facsimile proved it. I was a little put off by the partially melted yellow slices of American cheese but I cut them some slack for living up to an authentic 50’s theme. Not a lot of artisanal cheeses back then as I recall.
The big flavor winner of the meal was the Nutella Milkshake. Imagine if you will a shake so thick, so rich and so delicious that your straw is worthless. We’re talking spoon territory here at least for the first half or so. The last third in the large glass was almost life threatening with the overly sweet syrups. It was like sticking a straw in a squeeze bottle of Hershey’s Chocolate syrup except it had Nutella in it. Very delicious but very rich.
Patty’s Burgers & Milkshakes is lost in the fifties but in a good way. The food is tasty but not exceptional. It’s not healthy and it’s certainly not fancy. It harkens back to the way you might remember burgers and fries then, and for a moment, it’s a great memory. It’s only later when your energy is zapped and your stomach’s paying for it that you realize that maybe it’s a good thing that time marches on.
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