(Pat’s B.B.Q. in Salt Lake City)

Today we found ourselves needing to make an excursion to the the south side of Provo, and, desiring some food on our way there, we took the initiative and finally visited Sammy’s, just off Center Street on 100 West in downtown Provo. Before reaching Provo we were almost sucked into the Five Guys fever that is sweeping Orem and the rest of the Wasatch Front, but luckily for me Gin was strong in the cause of trying the place in Provo, and so we stuck through our hunger until we arrived at Sammy’s.

Walk in and the place feels immediately comfortable. The staff is super friendly. The customers seem to be regulars. Seating is at bar stools around a counter, behind which they ask you what toppings you want on your sandwich and finish putting it together right in front of you while you sit there.

An endearing Provo detail is the wall display for “Supernal Scripture Totes,” apparently handcrafted for $15 each. (I know my wife will roll her eyes that I call this a Provo detail, but where else but in our Mormon college town are you going to see something like this?)

Sammy’s has a great, simple menu. Everything is fresh and made from scratch. For entrees, they mainly feature hamburgers and chicken breast sandwiches, with pretty much anything that you could ever want on a hamburger available for toppings: grilled onions and mushrooms, homemade guacamole, pineapple and teriyaki sauce, bacon or pastrami (that ubiquitous Utah hamburger topping), several types of cheese, and of course the usual lettuce tomato ketchup mustard mayo type toppings. (I neglected to check whether beets were available as a condiment, but there’s always next time.) I tried Sammy’s Masterpiece, a burger with provolone cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, guacamole, bacon, barbecue sauce, lettuce and tomato. At $5.99 it was a little pricey when compared to many local burger joints, but it was absolutely delicious. The abundance of excellent toppings puts it over the edge. In addition to the burger, what really hit the spot were the sweet potato fries, which come with one of the best renditions of fry sauce I have ever tasted. The picture below depicts Gin’s burger, which didn’t have as many goopy toppings on it as mine (already half-eaten by that point). Those fries are incredible.

Perhaps best of all are their real homemade pie shakes. Yes, you read that right. They have a case full of various flavors of pies, and for $4.00 they cut off a slice and blend it with soft serve ice cream for one of the best shakes you will ever taste. I know this sounds kind of weird; I certainly had my doubts, but at the waitress’ recommendation of the banana cream, Gin and I shared a split coconut/banana cream pie shake, and it was far better than I imagined it even possibly could be. This was another item eaten too quickly for a photo; you can see what was left of ours in the picture above, behind the burger plate.

Sammy’s has been in business for almost a year, and it is an absolute prize of an establishment, a quality place oozing with local character. They have tried to make a hip burger joint and college hangout spot, and in my opinion they have totally succeeded. Only one complaint: there was no music playing?! Come on guys, at a place like this you’ve got to kick out the jams.

My mouth is red from having just stretched to consume that giant burger.

Sammy’s has a blogspot blog of some sort. I haven’t explored in too much detail, but here’s the linkage: http://www.sammyscafe.blogspot.com

Sammy’s
27 North 100 West
Provo, UT 84601
801-805-9208

Okay, as you might have noticed, the Froz-T-Freez isn’t an actual Drive-In. It’s only a blog. And this is how it got started.

Years and years ago, I had daydreams of opening a record store.

But that doesn’t really explain anything.

Concurrent and somewhat coincidental to my frequent record-store-owning-and-operating daydreams, I came to develop a love of what I would call “authentic” fast food establishments: hamburger/shake stands with car hops or walk up windows, taquerías, Hawaiian plate lunch Drive-Inns, roadside diners (still haven’t really found a good one of these yet), etc. The smaller the town, the better. The more local and idiosyncratic the menu and condiments, the better. Secret menus or code names for certain items or variations of preparation, known only to the initiated, have come to play a big part in the mythology.  Another key factor is what James Murphy refers to as borrowed nostalgia.

At some point in my daydreaming, the obsession with drive-ins began to converge with the record store thing. It went through many iterations, but the final business model was that of the record store soda fountain. It would simply be a new variation on the drug store soda fountain which permeated America in days of old. The sodas and shakes would be authentic, the jukebox would be free, the soda jerk would be friendly and accommodating yet have impeccable musical taste, and the hipness and diversity of the kids who hung out there would be almost utopian.  Strange that in my daydreams I wanted to own and operate a teenage hangout when in reality I usually can’t stand places that are teenage hangouts.

But anyway. It turns out that I don’t really want to open such a business badly enough to devote my heart and soul to it, so it remains a pleasant daydream. And instead of a record store soda fountain, I have this here Froz-T-Freez. I guess my ultimate goal is to be that friendly and accommodating soda jerk with impeccable taste. I’m not in it for the money, so I tend to stock the racks only with the things I love. If you’re browsing you may find things you already know and like, or you may find something new.  But we cook everything to order, so if something’s not here that you would like on the menu, just let me know.  We may actually have a secret name for it already.

Ever since I started the Froz-T-Freez, I’ve wanted to get a picture of some old derilect drive-in. Derilect primarily because I didn’t want to take a picture of a currently operating business and try to claim it as my own. At any rate, I finally found one on my most recent trip on the highways and byways of Utah. These sad remains were found on UT-28 in Elsinore. It goes at the top of the page now. Sometime later I might mess around with cropping it to make it fit better.

I took several different shots, but I kind of regret now that I didn’t go right up to the window for close-ups of the artifacts and instruments of ice-cream treatmaking entombed within. The soft-serve machine can clearly be seen in this shot, though, which is partially why I chose it.

So, I might start actually using this blog now. I know I’ve threatened that a lot of times, but you never know when I might start actually keeping my word.

ONE HUNDRED THINGS OF SOLITUDE ABOUT ME #1:

Lately, I am obsessed with the idea of the drug store soda fountain. I’ve never even been to such a place, only seen them in old movies. I’ve scoured the internet for recipes for a chocolate soda (since I’ve never seen it on a menu anywhere). I love thinking about all the myriad methods and flavors that could be used to make drinks/deserts that are alcohol-free and coffee-free. And I want to learn to make and try them all. Why should bartenders and baristas get all the fun and glory? I almost think I might want to open such a place, and bring back the soda jerk. If nothing else, I am going to buy myself a better blender, and start the experimentation.

Plus, it’s nearly impossible to find a real milkshake in this town, unless you make it yourself. The things they sell as milkshakes are basically giant glasses of flavored ice cream, which is fine, but…