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Restaurants

Remembering Biff Burger: The Best In Fast Food

The story of the Biff Burger chain is an interesting one, to say the least. Formed in the late 1950’s in Clearwater, Florida, the chain was acquired in 1962 by the Tampa-based Mary Carter Paint Company, which some people claimed was a CIA front! It certainly had been set up by a team of people that included Allen Dulles, and it didn’t stay involved in paint very long, acquiring vast holdings of land in the Bahamas, and ultimately morphing into a casino corporation known as Resorts International in 1978. There were once nearly a hundred Biff Burger outlets all over America, but the parent company’s switch in emphasis to casinos led to the demise of the fast food chain in the late 1970’s. Only two locations remain, this one in St. Petersburg, and one in Greensboro, North Carolina, whose owner changed the name of his location to Beef Burger, fearing some sort of franchise or copyright issue. The secret to Biff Burger’s charcoal-broiled goodness is their patented roto-broiler, which broils the burgers and toasts the buns all at once, allowing the beef drippings to fall onto the toasting buns! By the way, Biff stands for “Best In Fast Food.”

Remembering Mahalia Jackson’s Fried Chicken in Tallahassee

Also on Adams Street was this building that I immediately recognized as a former location of Mahalia Jackson’s Fried Chicken. Note the similarity to the former location in Orange Mound in Memphis, where the words “Orange Mound” have been spray-painted on the upward swing of the roof. Mahalia Jackson’s Chicken System Inc. was an African-American fast-food venture launched by a group of Memphis businessmen led by A. W. Willis and Ben Hooks. Mahalia Jackson contributed her name and at least a portion of the chicken recipe. Locations were opened in predominantly-Black neighborhoods across America, but unfortunately, the Memphis businessmen decided to partner with former Tennessee gubernatorial candidate John Jay Hooker, who was seeming to have great success with Minnie Pearl’s Fried Chicken. Hooker’s Performance Systems Inc. bought 50% of the Mahalia Jackson system, and found rough going when they ran out of regions of the country to sell franchises. Ultimately all of the Minnie Pearl’s and Mahalia Jackson’s locations closed except for the Nashville franchise. That store was eventually purchased by E. W. Mayo, and became more famous for fried pies than chicken. I have heard that it now has closed as well. But this Tallahassee location, which I didn’t know about, is remarkably well-preserved.

Artwork By Lamar Sorrento at Birmingham’s Baha Burgers

On the way to the Industry Insider Music Summit last Thursday, I stopped at Birmingham for lunch at a place called Baha Burgers. The burgers were basic but good, but what stood out was the extensive amount of artwork by Memphis artist and sometimes musician Lamar Sorrento (nee James Eddie Campbell). It’s worth a visit just to see it. 

Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro, St. Petersburg FL

The conference is over for this year, and I am enjoying my last night in St. Pete with a dinner at Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro. Tomorrow I’ll be driving back to Memphis after breakfast. Among the artists that stood out this year were Big Grip, Dub T and Fire Marshal.