Maybe I have lost my memory, but I seem to recall that there was a time when a hamburger and fries was a sort of "cheap lunch."
I'm not talking about your mass produced assembly line cardboard thing you get from McDonalds, I'm talking about an actual beef burger, best served at some local "greasy spoon" joint.
Around here, the entire idea of a "greasy spoon joint" seems to have been gentrified entirely out of the market.
But aside from that, there is no "cheap lunch" to be found when you order a burger, in 2026. At least not around these parts. Expect to spend $20-25 for your basic bacon cheeseburger.
Mrs. Denmarkguy and I have pretty much sworn off burgers; pretty much sworn off eating out, period. Aside from an infrequent Chinese takeout meal, we essentially cook all our own food, now.
Anyway, a friend pointed out that there's a food truck one village over that serves a really good hamburger, so we decided to check it out, as part of running some Saturday errands. I was certainly hopeful, given that food truck food is often better and fresher than actual restaurant food.
Since our middle son was also here, visiting from seattle, it gave us an excuse to try something new and to get out of the house. In case you haven't gathered from previous posts, we prefer to not leave the house at all and when we do it's typically somewhat under duress!
Anyway, we actually had one of those rare experiences where it turned out better than expected!
Even though hamburgers and the soft drink for three people turned out to be $66.00, they were definitely excellent homemade hamburgers, and better than anything we can get at any of our local swanky restaurants.
I guess we just have to get used to, and accept, that even a simple lunch eating out now costs $20+.
I continue to struggle with that idea, and it seems like me that our eating out is going to get to be a more and more uncommon affair. That's not necessarily a reflection of preference, but of economic reality.
Tomorrow is Mother's Day here in the USA, and we are going to have our celebration here at home rather than by going out to eat. We can get so much more for a buck by buying something nice at the store and preparing it at home.
Then again, I have always been rather particular about eating out from the perspective that I don't want to pay a ton of money to eat some food I could prepare better at home for half the cost.
Of course, I do recognize that the whole eating out experiences as often a matter of convenience and expediency for people more so than necessarily having really good food.
My reasons for eating out have always been that it should be better than I can make it at home, or something I don't know how to make, so that it is actually a treat.
Overpaying for crappy food is not a treat...
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Sunday!
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2026.05.10 01:13 PST
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