Burgerville in Pullman, Nells-N-Out in La Grande

Photos: Burgerville in Pullman on Jan. 8, 1958, from WSU Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections. Hutchison 16817. Vacant building, former home of Burgerville, June 2008.

Burgerville was located in what is now (June 2008 as this is written) a vacant building in the Pullman, Washington, city limits on Davis Way/the hill going into and out of Pullman onto/from Colfax. Update on June 22, 2009. See this story posted at Pullman :: Cup of Palouse.

This locally-owned Burgerville was NOT part of the Burgerville chain (Burgerville USA) which has its headquarters in Vancouver, Washington., USA.

According to the chain’s Website, that Burgerville started in 1961. Pullman’s Burgerville was in operation in at least 1958 if not many years before. See photo. It's a guess the Burgerville chain has "USA" in its name to, possibly/maybe, distinguish it from Pullman's Burgerville, and maybe also to assure its home base of Vancouver USA was not confused with Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Comments posted online concerning Pullman’s Burgerville include fact that well after Burgerville closed, the building served as a drop station for deliveries of the Spokane Spokesman-Review daily newspapers. Newspapers dropped off were later delivered to Pullman (and Albion?) homes via newspaper carriers. At some point after that, the location became a Daily Grind, part of the Pullman-based coffee house. Burgerville was a “hot spot for a lunch in ’59, it was owned by the parents” of a high school classmate, said one poster. Ten years later, said another, “My dad took us out there all the time for swirl cones on the way to the old drive in (movie theater).” A 1962-63 employee of Burgerville said, “What a fun place to work. Wish the young kids now could enjoy it like we did.”

While Pullman’s Burgerville is gone, Pullman has another locally-owned burger restaurant, Cougar Country, which opened in 1973. It’s a great place to eat. Be sure to have special sauce with your meal.

This brings us to a popular Burgerville story. Whether or not it’s true it not important. Two people were driving to Pullman, a city they'd never visited. They drove and drove and drove. Getting past the scablands and rolling Palouse wheat fields, the drove down a hill into a populated area.

A sign, next to a small building in the area, announced, "Welcome to Burgerville." But, they were looking for Pullman. They kept driving. When they got 8 miles from Pullman in Moscow ("Moss-coe") , Idaho, they stopped and asked for directions. "Where is Pullman? I drove through Burgerville, but I can't find Pullman."

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Photo: Nells-N-Out, La Grande, Ore., March 2008.

Traveling on Interstate 84, between Pendleton and Baker City in Oregon?

If so, visit Nell's-N-Out, a drive-through only restaurant in La Grande on Adams Avenue. In addition to steakburgers, Nell's features "mixed drinks," meaning soft drinks made with syrups. Examples include the Scottie, Polar Bear, Blue Angel, Raspberry Kiss, Green River and more.

Marcia Hanford Loney, a 1969 La Grande High School graduate, says her favorite Nells' drink was the Teddy Bear, "although I couldn't tell you what was in it - perhaps chocolate and Coke and something else."

The Polar Bear is the favorite of Sally Brownton Wiens, La Grande High Class of 1962. It's half and half (meaning half milk and half cream) and Coke. It's "the best" she says, "and I still splurge once in awhile and have one!"

See photo.

Postscript-- Photos below from Burgerville USA chain. Sign from Beaverton, Oregon, taken July 11, 2008, and restuarant from Newberg, Oregon, taken July 12, 2008.

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Speaking of Pullman restaurants, don’t forget Arctic Circle, where New Garden is now located, and A&W, now the location of Nuevo Vallarta.

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FOR THE LOVE OF A BURGER by Rebecca Phillips from Washington State Magazine Spring 2022

https://issuu.com/iswsu/docs/wsm-feb22-magcloud/s/14587699

“You might say the attraction began on May 15, 1948, when Chuck’s Drive-In Restaurant opened on the south end of Pullman, offering residents their first taste of car-hopped burgers, shakes, and fries. By 1954, two more were in business: Smoothies, a drive-in ice cream store, and the celebrated Burgerville, which sat in a tiny building off Davis Way just west of the city.

 “These early car-side eateries were part of a post-war obsession with drive-in fare that hit its height of popularity during the 1950s and ’60s. According to a Bunchgrass Historian essay by Robert E. King, at that time, a regular hamburger at Burgerville went for 35 cents. A generous helping of fries and a shake were another 30 cents each, bringing the meal to just under a dollar. Part of the charm was offering customers the area’s first drive-up window where they could order through a speaker."