#9: Nubbin’s Drive-In

I have been looking forward to eating here for YEARS.  Seriously.  I drive by it all the time but they are usually closed (I believe they close at 5 on weekdays and are not open at all on the weekend).  This place, along with Sam’s Classic Burgers on Riverside, was actually one of the bigger influences in me deciding I was going to do this blog.  I think Nubbin’s is probably fairly well known though I doubt if I anyone I know would be familiar with Sam’s, but I digress.  Noon came around quicker than I was expecting today at work, and I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to hit up Nubbin’s on the way home for an early dinner before they closed.  The weather being gorgeous certainly helped.  As I drove closer and closer to Nubbin’s I started to worry that I had built it up over the years and might be disappointed.

I was greeted through the window when I walked up as the only customer at about 4pm.  Checking out the menu I saw it was you’re typical drive-in selection, burgers, corn dogs, shakes etc.  My stomach was not putting up with any delays so I quickly settled on a double bacon cheeseburger basket (fries included) and a Dr Pepper (one thing I’ve always loved about this place is the Dr Pepper logo on their sign)

I grabbed a seat at one of their covered outdoor tables, prepped my camera and enjoyed the weather.  A few minutes later I heard my name being called out from the pickup window.  My meal awaited me.

Don’t let the wide angle here fool you, this is a good sized basket, lots of fries and the burger was not as small as it seems.  The fries were crazy hot, clearly just out of the fryer.  With just a bit of salt on them (as they came, I didn’t add any) they were really good!  I had asked for some ketchup packets but didn’t even end up using any.  That’s the sign of a good fry, in my opinion.

The burger itself was great!  I opted out on the pickles but left everything else on (onions, tomatoes and sauce – a kind of thousand island sauce is my guess).  The comparison I immediately thought of when I started eating was a McDonald’s Big Mac.  It has a similar taste, but I’d pick the Nubbin’s burger over the Big Mac.  It was fresh (in the sense that it was cooked to order, not like In’n’Out’s never-frozen kind of fresh).  The cheese had a good presence and the bacon was thin but good.  The Dr Pepper was decent in strength and had that crushed ice that I love.

By the time I was finishing up more cars were pulling in and they looked to be at the start of a last rush for the day.  Despite my concerns of overly high expectations for a simple drive-in burger joint, I left pleased and full.  I’ll be sure to visit Nubbin’s again whenever the timing works out.

 

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