Even The David Douglas BurgerVille's Sign is Gone Now

3697After a couple of weeks of going, going the BurgerVille organization makes it going, gone.

The familiar sign on the corner of SE 122nd and Stark is, also, no more.

The Very Last Day Of A Very Good Burgerville

3684Over my days off, we got the word. We were at the drivethrough, getting our favorites, and the kid in the window hands us out these three coupons for one free cheeseburger each, and encourages us to patronize another location, because this one will be closing permanently.

Either tomorrow or the next day.

Farewell, David Douglas Burgerville, like it says on the sign.

Forty-six years. Forty-six years?!?! Yes. Since 1974. As I understand it, when it was built, the drive-through window was on the wrong side which, I imagine, meant that you were handing food and cash across the passenger's lap.

This was before our tenure in David-Douglas-landia, which began nearly 20 years ago now. This has been our trusty neighborhood burger dive for all that time (when you live less than five minutes away, you don't not patronize your Burgerville ... you wanna be that way about it, go live in Boise, pal). Uncounted hamburger meals looking out the window at that strange office building on the west side of the property and wondering what goes on there, watching (and taking pictures of) sunsets, enjoying the traffic coming and going through 122nd and Stark.

We're gonna miss this place.

Know what I'm thinking of right now? There's this fortyish-fiftyish guy, goes everywhere with a heavy backpack and a small armful of personal electronics, might be houseless, it's hard to tell, but during our Library Days he'd have his electronics out on a table in the library and then on those days we'd repair to the Burgerville for our repast he'd already be there, using the free WiFi and inhabiting a booth toward the south end of the building.

I wonder where he's going to get his late afternoon-early evening WiFi fix now?

It was a lovely place, and we got Burgerville options nearby, nearest is 92nd and Powell, and there's a couple of DQ's in the area. But we've always been fond of this place, and we wish it wasn't going away.

And ... so that goes.

[liff in Cascadia] BV-Radio.com: Cascadia's Favorite Music

3518.

There is a website devoted to Pacific Northwest local music; powered by Burgerville, it's called BV-Radio.com.

Right now it's devoted solely to playing music by Pacfic Northwestern artists. It has just two things to do, which is refreshingly simple; click the play button to start the stream, and a form to send feedback. There's also a bit of verbiage:

Welcome to BV-Radio.com, a new conversation about what makes this region-the beautiful, dynamic, Pacific Northwest-the unique place it is.
We have a goal to connect the people of the Northwest with each other and explore what makes this community so resilient, what restores us, what grounds us in our home. We are starting through music, and expanding from there…art, agriculture, food, architecture, design…wherever you and the story leads us.
We’ve created a platform for some of the region’s recording artists. Listen along. You’ll hear songs you recognize and songs you don’t. You’ll hear new music and classics from way back. But everything you hear has a connection to this region and the people who live here.
This is your home. It should sound like it. Join the conversation and we’ll make sure your voice-and your music-gets heard.

I've included the entire text because it provides a picture of an interesting ambition. Burgerville is the quintessential Northwest burger place, and no other place that I've experienced so far has managed to translate the PNW 'foodie' tropes of local sourcing, terrior, and seasonal availability so effectively to the crowd who isn't going to go out to the fashionable places. Lunching BV regularly is a relatively cheap way to sophisticate the palate.

As such, BV has developed a certain essential local POV as a now-indelible part of its brand. You can get burgers and fries that will sastisfy, and those you will like, in other chains, but none as PNW as the stuff at Burgerville.

BV-Radio, one can infer from the text of the site, is helping BV establish a bridgehead in more than just Northwest fast-food culture, but other intellectual sectors of the local spirit, offering itself up as the first brick in a bridge that could connect those Northwest things ... art, architecture, design ... that intangibly establish that you are here feeling that you can't get anywhere east of Rockies or south of the Adams-Onis treaty line. Listening to it is easy on the ear; the feeling is that of listening to KINK-FM, back in the day.

To bring this prolix meandering to a point, though, it was the logo that really intrigued. The big, classic radio mike, its capsule encased in the big steel cage, is a given. But the background really made me think twice.

To those of us in the region who think about the past, present and future, that design is no mystery. To those who don't look at a map so much, it may confuse. And the shape of it is very specific, and very very local.

The region I live in has acquired a sense of place and has called that Cascadia. The geographic design is a conception of what Cascadia could be defined as; the sum of the basins of the Columbia River, the Salish Sea, and everything along the coast east of the Cascades and the Canadian Rockies that drain to the sea. Commerically, BV is limited to NW Oregon and Western Washington; founded in Vancouver, WA, it's been a part of NW culture since its founding, around 1962. Through the arts and culture initiative that BV-Radio seems to represent, it sees itself as an available platform for more than just Oregon and Washington, and more than just music.

It's an interesting ambition for a chain of burger joints, but then again, Burgerville has grown into a rather unique chain of burger joints, with a vision that goes a little farther than just selling burgers and fries. BV's always been a little bit 'out there', and if its self-given remit seems a bit grand, it's never been insincere.

The music's free to stream (such a deal), and a link to buy the music is provided as the song is playing. And it's a good listen.

[pdx_liff] Burgerville Existentialism

3440.

The reader board at the David Douglas Burgerville, which surveys the corner of SE 122nd and Stark, asks an eternal question:

I have obtained BV waffle fries, but do I actually get them? Do I understand everything a tasty Yukon Gold BV waffle fry implies? The subtexts? The meanings.

I can only philosophize for a limited time. I can only get waffle fries while they last.

Which pretty much sums up existentialism for me at this point.

I totally understand Walla Walla sweet onion rings, though. I must go on the record there.

[Out122ndWay] The Sun Breaks Through Over The Burgerville

3383.

Isn't it brilliant when the sun breaks through the clouds and sends shafts of light out? This happened yesterday in the air over the Burgerville at SE 122nd and Stark, out here in Outer East Portlandia:

The weather reports said rain. The weather reports didn't lie.

[pdx] Burgerville Souvenir Pencils

3188.

In doing a bit of micro-tidying I came upon this, which we still have.

Burgerville USA's 50th anniversary was two-three years back. At the time much swag was to be had. We grabbed a handful of these:

There are still fourteen of them. With all the pencils and pens that have collected here as Chez Klein, there's no need to use them just now. Though I will, eventually. But that day's a while off, I wot.

[liff] In Which I Post About Food, Becuase Homemade Layered Gelatin Parfait

3068.

There seems to be a requirement in intarweb culture to post food pictures. I have kept up my end in the cat picture category, well, at least as far as I'm going to, and in case my intarweb card is in danger of getting revoked, I do have food pictures. Just two. Not going crazy here or anything like that.

Additionally, this is the inauguration of a new 8-gig SD card for the camera, so there's that (happy thing).

This is a layered gelatin parfait. Anyone ever hear of Jell-O* 1-2-3? This was a splendid product which you prepared like regular Jell-O, except that when you chilled it, in the fridge it auto-separated into a gelatin layer, a whipped layer, and a very light mousse. 1, 2, 3. If, of course, was freaking delicious, and it was so pretty when it came out of the fridge that you just wanted to look at it a while.

It was a perfect dessert, therefore, it is no longer being made. There are DIY recipes however (go for it, Portland, you DIYtopia you!).

A couple of nights ago, whilst on the job, The Wife™ called to exult upon an achievement. She had said, she said, that she had made Jell-O 1-2-3. Well, not exactly. But she had figured out how to layer a fairly pretty gelatin parfait. And she told me about the process. My mate does a lot of food experimentation, and she's pretty good; even the failures are good eatin'. But she was in the zone when she was describing how this was done, promised a treat for the eyes when I got home.

My eyes were not disappointed.

I have just finished this confection, and I can swear that it tastes as good as it looks. Dessert for breakfast, because I can, dammit.

And here, to round out your ZehnKatzen food experience, is a photo of our beloved 122nd and Stark Burgerville:

I didn't pict our food because, c'mon, I'm letting plenty hang out as it is. It's Burgerville. We had burgers and fries. And they were excellent. I let you know too much more and all of a sudden I'm all up in your bathroom, usin' your toothbrush. I want to remain friends. 

[PDX_liff] LOLBurgerville At SE 11th And Hawthorne

2807Burgerville USA, the only burger joint worth visiting, indeed, the only burger joint anywhere, has good news for this particular kitteh:

Yes, you can haz that cheezburger. Might I suggest the Tillamook Cheeseburger?

Of course, the injunction is delivered with a smile. Because that's how Burgerville USA rolls, yo.