Posts
Hunt's Dairy Bar - Farmington - September 09
After teasing us with closing this Parkland institution last fall, lucky for us, another Hunt family member stepped up and reopened Hunts Dairy Bar in Farmington this spring. Life was a little empty for me those few months, realizing the possibility that I might never have a western cheeseburger again. Sure, there was the Flat River location still open, but I never felt comfortable there. There has always been something special about the long waits at the drive-in in Farmington. The anticipation of a burger found no where else. The grease soaking through the paper bag even before the car hop makes it to my window. Horns honking to hurry, headlights flashing, people needing their fix.
I've know this scene my whole life. And I love it. Almost everything has changed during my life. Norm Stewart is no longer stormin the Missouri basketball sidelines. Jack Buck no longer describes the Cardinals games for us. You're silly to leave your doors unlocked in the Parkland these days. But, Hunts is still the same. They still make the best burgers available anywhere, unchanged. Their shakes still taste exactly as I remember them when I was four. Pardon me if I cling violently to the only thing that has stayed the same my whole almost forty years.
Actually, as you know, I'm kidding myself. There is one thing about Hunts that changed sometime in the last decade. I try to block this out while attempting to convince myself that there is one thing in my life that has remained pure and unchanged. Someone, some time ago, eliminated onion rings from the Hunt's menu. Oh, they do offer a replacement of sorts, onion petals. Onion petals are the kissing your sister excuse for onion rings. You know, it could be fun but really just makes you feel weird. I remember Hunt's onion rings fondly, onion rings that had no equal. Onion rings that I have never found an acceptable facsimile of. If I had three wishes, one of them would be for Hunt's onion rings to appear on the menu again.
If there is a moral in this story I think its that if you do one thing really good (western cheeseburger) people will go to great lengths to forget about the really bad thing you did (replace onion rings with onion petals)
Thank you Hunt's for being there for me.
