PageS Daily Nebraskan
r
Thursday, March 5, 1987
fleaMt's Sta Matt?
rn
For Delivery Service
$5.00 Minimum Order
475-1246
1246 "Q" Street
New . . . Lunch Express 11-2 M-F U btr
p
$5.69 Special
Available Thursdays and
Sundays only.
Get a 12" one item pizza
for only $5.69. Please
mention coupon when
ordering. Not valid with
any other offers.
Add a Quart for 59 cents
with this offer.
"1 I""
I I
30 Minute
Guarantee
475-1243
Expires March 8, 1987
If your pizza does not
arrive within 40 minutes
of your call, we'll take
$2 off the price of your
next order.
Fast, Free Delivery!
I I NO COUPON 1r
473-1243
.J I
-i r
I I
-J L
$7.95 Special
Available Thursdays and
Sundays only. Get a 16"
one item pizza for only
$7.95. Mention coupon
when ordering. Not valid
with any other orders.
Add a Quart for 59 cents
with this offer.
475-1243
Expires March 8, 1S37
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Richard WrightDiversions
A Tastee is
a tiny thing . . .
By Kevin Cowan
... It would be dwarfed by the "Big
Classic." But size isn't the issue
here. No, the issue at hand is defi
nitely one of the palate as well as a
step back into the early innovations
of fast food.
Tastee Drive Inn and Out started
in 1946. With it came the proto
skeleton that would, in years to
come, be the concept adopted by
McDonald's, Burger King and the
like the drive-through window.
Further, not only one window, but
two. From 1940 to 47, the Tastee
Drive Inn had two drive-through
windows. But alas, fast-food effi
ciency had not yet evolved to the
point of the multi-drive-through
the second window had to be shut
down. For those interested in fast
food architecture, the abandoned
beast sill shows through on the
north side.
Well, that's a dandy trivial aspect.
But restaurant design alone will not
sustain a clientele. Ya gotta have
the food.
The order is sent through an old
vacuum tube interesting in its
own right. Soon, a brown tray with
several plain, white packages arrives
via a continuous conveyor belt.
(What's that? Three innovative,
efficiency-minded prototypes?) Any
way, here's your order.
If you ordered only one Tastee,
you may as well turn around and
order again; at 45 cents it's not a
bad deal. Besides, a Tastee consists
of three, maybe four, bites.
Popping the lid of a Tastee will
reveal to you its unique style. It's
not nearly greasy enough to be the
wretched forerunner of a "Manwich."
Yet it's obviously a distant ancestor
of a "Quarter-pounder." Ben Murphy,
the present owner, says a Tastee is
highly lean, stewed (not broiled or
fried) ground beef with who-knows-what
different seasonings.
Beside the tiny whatever it is is a
complimentary companion onion
chips. A seemingly simple idea,
breaded and fried onion hunks. The
Tastee, coupled with the chips and
their special dip, form a delightful
delicacy.
Though it hardly applies, it would
seem logical to toss out the cliche
"you get what you pay for." For $3.21
you can get two Tastees, two orders
of onion chips and (though it's not
very large) a "large" drink. Com
pared ta today's large of nearly a
quart, it is relatively small. Oh, well,
nothing's perfect.
So what if the Tastee doesn't, by
chance, appeal to the normal fast
food palate?
The Tastee Drive Inn also sports
more common cuisine, including
fish sandwiches, chili dogs (known
as Tastee pups) and French fries (a
sign above the drive-through win
dow bears the inscription "Through
this window passes the best French
fries in Lincoln." Whether this is
true lies in the mouth of the consu
mer.) Tastee is one of those restaurants
t hat continue to do business regard
less of the vogue, social change or
any other aspect that has killed res
taurants such as Burger Chef or the
Yellow Submarine. The drive-in has
stood fast through a virtual tidal
wave of fast-food frenzy. With all the
hoopla that coats the advertisements
on the TV and newspapers, I have
never seen an advertisement for
Tastee Drive Inn yet it survives,
because of efficiency and consis
tency, Murphy said.
"Since we need a very lean beef,
we have to be very careful of the
meat that is sent to us. They always
try and sneak heart or other less
lean types of meats. If they do that,
we let them go and find someone
else," Murphy said.
Also, the structure of the restau
rant, aside from the recent addi
tions of a public restroom and an
atrium, remains unchanged. Even
down to the authentic box speakers
used for the drive-through.
So there it is. The genuine phe
nomenon of restaurant inertia. Tas
tee will remain in that state of bliss
ful ignorance as long as it remains
in the vacuum that has become its
own world.
.... W.