There was a great burger place on Lucas drive near our home

There was a great burger place on Lucas drive near our home on Idylwood and it was often the takeout source for our Friday suppers. The burgers were the best in town and I have a hard time finding a burger that good today. The Brookins family (Lynnette’s family) drove all the way to North End to get burgers at this shop.

I had my first medium New York Strip at J&J sometime in the early 60’s and my whole opinion of steak was transformed. Let me segue just a bit into the early 60s. The setup for this tale is that my mom was a world class pie chef. She made great ones and I looked forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas so I could have multiple slices of each. So, my friend Jan Mickle invited me to join her and some friends from Beaumont High for a pizza pie at a new restaurant on the 11th street circle, Vic and Als. With my taste buds primed for icebox lemon pie, I had a slice of Italian pizza pie. What a let down!!! I am ok with pizza to this day, but it falls way short of my mom’s pies.