Joe Metheny Burger Stand Novels & Stories

DAPHNE I’m too nervous about leaving the gallery without express permission from my bosses to go to a sit down restaurant, so we decide on a gourmet burger joint nearby that Mak swears has “the best double cheeseburgers in the whole city.” “You’re fine,” he reassures me when I’m caught checking my phone for the hundredth time. He pops a steak fry into his mouth and flashes me a wicked grin. “You’ve got time.” “I just don’t want them to get back and find me gone and freak out and…” I sigh. “Fire me.”

“Why don’t you guys both come on in? I’ll whip up some burgers myself. All the works.” “Yes!” Joe said, pumping his fist in the air, and I wondered if he hadn’t timed his arrival specifically in the hope of that. Tristan’s diner did some of the best burgers in the world, as far as I was concerned, not that I had very much experience with other burgers. His favorite, and the one that Joe and I usually got had cream cheese, jalapenos, and fried onions on top of it. Food didn’t get much better than that. I glanced back toward the hardware store, wondering if I trusted leaving Chance in there alone. I doubted that there would be many people in there, and if there were any problems, they would pr

I always thought it was because tinker bell is practically a gangster in the movie, but I was made painfully aware of it being because of my size. "You know me so well. Can I have a turkey on rye bread and extra mayo?Hold the lettuce and add in some of the tomato that is in that vinegar sauce." Benny shakes his head with humor at my same order I place every single shift. What can I say? The man can make a mean turkey club. As the owner and chef for Burgen's, Benny Burgen is one of those typical burly men with a thick beard and dirty white apron on. He is actually pretty good looking when he cares enough to comb his hair or shave his beard. He opened the diner in honor of his late father whos

“You really have nothing else to say about a man in the hospital?” He shrugged, “He’ll probably be fine.” “Well, what names were you given to consider?” I asked. Joseph pointed at a pair of men standing underneath the central archway of the hall. I blinked, a bit startled since I hadn’t seen them come in. The taller man had a mole on his left cheek, and the shorter one had greasy hair that looked like limp spaghetti. “Those two, one of them owns…” he glanced down at the notepad in his hands, “Taste of the Party Catering, and the other owns Savories, which I think is a restaurant.”

As Uncle Mateo owned the burger joint, I could have just gone upstairs to our apartment; he wouldn’t have cared. I stood there waiting for the usual smirk of disgust to appear on Jackson’s face at the sight of me, but to my surprise, it wasn’t there today. “I’ll have my usual, the Smokehouse Burger. Make it double today, and add grilled onions, tomato, and double bacon. In the combo with the curly fries and my usual coffee, black, two sugars, thank you, Daisy.” Jackson said in a way quite different from how any of them ever spoke to me. “Sure, no problem eating in today with your brother and your unit?” I asked.

Once out the other side and around a few corners, we were on a street lined with restaurants and shops, and bustling with people in the afternoon sunlight. “Are hamburgers all right for lunch?” Wesley asked. “There’s a great little hamburger stand over there,” he said, gesturing down one end of the street, “and then I figured we could do fish and chips or clam chowder at my favorite restaurant on the pier for dinner?” “That sounds perfect,” I smiled, and he led the way towards the stand he had mentioned. We ordered and ate quickly, sitting on a bench and chatting and people watching as we finished our meal. Then we made our way into the closest shop to purchase what we needed for the rest of

"Five minutes to walk there. Twenty minutes to eat. Then straight to the room. If your father calls and you aren't at your desk, this never happens again. Understood?" "Understood," I said, trying to hide the excitement in my voice. The burger joint was small, loud, and smelled like heaven. It was a "hole-in-the-wall" place with hockey jerseys pinned to the ceiling and sawdust on the floor. It was the exact kind of place my father would hate. We sat at a high top table in the back. Mark sat with us this time. He didn't stand behind my chair. He sat at the head of the table, looking at the menu like it was a mission briefing.

"I just want a nice, quiet evening. Don't give me any trouble, and I won't cause any." Vince nods. "We have the best burgers in town. They come with fries or slaw. I'll give you a minute to look over the menu." He returns to the bar and stands beside Mercy, who stares at the widescreen, watching a soccer game but occasionally throwing a glance my way.

“I hate this place!” Even Six’s lips turned down in disgust as he hunted the motherfucker down. It was the worst of all of the motels. Old and dilapidated, outdated—sure, I could handle that. Disgusting, dirty, probably hadn’t been cleaned in months, and infested with bugs was too much. Why wasn’t the place shut down? “At least they shut down the restaurant. I can’t imagine how bad that place would be,” I said as I shivered in disgust. “Today’s special is our Joe’s Apartment burger, topped off with locally cultivated roaches. So local, they come from our own walls.”

There was no reason for him to know. Funnily enough, Tony had actually been to the Hard Rock Cafe a couple times. Once with Ethan and once with some guys from the shop. It was pretty awesome. They had this burger with a sunnyside up egg on it that made him start to salivate. Screw Wawa. Dillon had the right idea. He needed that burger and he needed it yesterday. "S'go! Yo, got a 'lil secret to tell ya. Breath a word of it to anyone, and yer toast, kid," he warned as he pulled out his wallet, flipped it open, and pulled out his fake ID. To know Ethan had a perk or two.