One Huck Special To Go...
Mixed for the Super Sunday Mixing Show Ep 23, on DayTime Franks channel
FOTW is Berries, except Strawberry or Blueberry..


The waitresses were crusty and the food was greasy, but the Huck Diner was a student hangout from the very beginning. Whoever said the three most important things to consider when building a restaurant are location, location, location, was talking about this place. You could have served anything and the students would still have come in bunches over from the library (now the Museum of Natural History building), frat row, or for a bite between classes.
The Huck was located in the south part of the building that is now Big Al's, and next to the College Inn which was on the corner of University Ave. and South Street. There wasn't a lot of room for mingling as The Huck was a serious eater's hangout more than it was a social center. There was a counter with 10 stools facing the grill and another stand-up counter behind that. Only 20 or 30 people could fit comfortably, most people took their food to go.
The rest of the building to the north was a shoe repair shop operated by a deaf-mute shoemaker. It was a daily event for him and his wife to come in and order tea. She never spoke, they both quietly drank their tea, and left. One day, the shoemaker came in alone, drank his tea, looked-up, paused, and without a trace of emotion, passed a note across the counter that said, "I'm retiring . . . won't be back . . . goodbye." That was the last we saw of him.
I started working in the Huck Diner in the fall of 1955. It was the perfect way to work and go to college. I worked through two different owners, and each gave me the time I needed to study when classes got hectic. The Huck Diner was originally started by Dee Anderson (of Dee's Hamburger Drive-In fame), then it was bought by Paul and Barbara Newell in the early '50s. Paul did all the cooking and Barbara and I waited on the customers. We were open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days a week. I worked at least 50 hours per week, and opened every Saturday morning. In about 1958, Sherm Fisher took over the place. Oddly enough, nothing changed…
The menu was always simple: breakfast, lunch, supper. Hamburgers, eggs, and the best hashbrowns in Salt Lake City (I still have the secret recipe in my head), fresh pies and cakes lined up under glass in the dessert case. You could only get coke, root beer, 7-up, or coffee. Although, we always had a secret stash of teas for the shoemaker and for Dr. Stephen Durant, a biology professor who taught pre-med biology. "The Doctor" came in every morning to drink his tea, chat, and prepare for class. He tried for five years to get me to take his Zoology 5 class, but I never did. He always joked with Sherm that he was going to bring some mutton in one of these days for him to cook up. It would bring some class to the menu, he said, and at the very least it would make the damn place smell better.
The big rushes were breakfast and lunch. In the morning diners could get two eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and all the coffee you could drink for 75 cents. Lunch was a zoo, all the kids from Stewart School came over. Since all those kids ever wanted was the lunch special, two burgers and a drink for 50 cents,we'd fry up a bunch of hamburgers in advance, wrap them in wax paper, and just stand back. Sherm made the Stewart kids stay outside, one of the waitresses served them through the walk-up window. Inside, the college kids and other campus folk were served. However, as I said, it wasn't a place for mingling. The unspoken rules were: sit down, yell your order, eat fast or take it to go, and get out.
The supper crowd was more mellow. Patrons usually stayed a little longer, gossiping over their hamburger steak dinners (three hamburger patties, fried onions, hashbrowns, toast, and a cottage cheese salad), for which they paid 60 cents.
The late Utah basketball player Pearl Pollard and his wife Marlyn were well-known as regulars at The Huck, but also for holding the record for eating the most consecutive hamburger steak dinners in one sitting. They almost always ate two apiece, but one evening Pearl must have been especially hungry, as she ate three, followed by apple pie à la mode. It may be worth noting that he was 6'10" and she was 6'4".
The Huck was well known for its homemade pies, cheesecakes, shakes, and hand churned ice cream.
Another group of regulars in the place was the engineering students. At that time they attended classes right above Kingsbury Hall.
A running joke with the engineers-to-be was to razz the waitress, who was pretty ditzy anyway, about the pie. Every day the same bunch of students would come in, eat their lunch, and then call her over (we'll call her Doris to protect the "innocent"). "Hey, Doris!" one of them would shout, "What kinda pie ya got today?" Every day the same question, every day the same response, "Apple, cherry, huckleberry, banana cream, and coconut cream . . . what'll it be?" Well, those boys never ordered any pie, they just wanted to see how long Doris would keep telling them what kinds we had (we always had the same five).
One afternoon, it was business as usual, and the engineering students sidled up to the counter and ate their lunches. After going through the normal pie routine, and restraining their laughter as much as possible, one of the kids asked, "Hey, Doris . . . ya got any dingleberry pie back there?" Doris looked momentarily confused, then yelled very loudly, across the restaurant to the kitchen, "Hey, Sherm! We got any dingleberry pie today?," just as if she were asking for the most normal thing in the world. Sherm also looked confused for a second, then saw the engineering kids, and broke out laughing. Pretty soon the whole place was laughing. Sherm chased the boys out, and patted Doris on the shoulder. We wondered for a long time if she ever figured out what was going on.
The Huck Diner was a haven for Utah athletes, lots of food for little money. Notable regulars included Art Bunte and Morris Buckwalter from the basketball team and football players Charles "Tiny" Grant and the Dublinski brothers Tom and Jim.
One of the most memorable football players to hang out at the Huck was Frank Strocchia. Much to the nausea of the other customers, his habit was to stop in every morning for a raw hamburger patty, or what the Huck staff fondly referred to as Steak Tartare, "seasoned" with a little salt and pepper.
One Saturday morning, Dr. Durant was at the front counter having his tea, when Strocchia sauntered in. He must have had a rough Friday night because he was in worse shape than usual. He was unshaven, dressed in a ripped t-shirt, barefoot, and just generally unkempt. Instead of his usual, "Hey!," he grunted and asked for his breakfast. This he seasoned, picked up bare-handed and gulped down. Then, he left.
Dr. Durant, a dignified, button-down sort, stared after Strocchia, mouth agape. He turned to the cook and said, "Sherm, do you realize what we have just seen here?" Sherm, smirking and wielding a spatula, said, "No, what, have we just seen Doctor?" "Why, my God, Sherm I think that was the missing link!" After a small, grease-filled pause, the restaurant erupted in laughter.
Another well known regular at The Huck was Rocky Toony who would come in daily at 2pm like clockwork, after the rush, and always order the same thing, a coffee with a shot of milk and honey and a pint of huckleberry cheesecake ice cream.
And the rest, as they say, is history…