The real burger king

There are plenty of pretenders to the throne, but no one else in town puts out a hamburger like the ones served up by Frank Gonzales and his son John at Nationwide Meats, which moved to its present digs on the corner of 20th and H Sts. after 32 years on 24th St. behind Relles Florist. Although Nationwide also makes a fine steak sandwich, its true claim to fame is the Steak Frenchburger, a sublime creation that gets hamburger aficionados waxing rhapsodic. (Sorry, veggies.) Although John pretty much runs the show today, Frank still mans the counter from time to time.

How long have you been selling hamburgers?

A little better than 33 years.

And you started?

On 24th St., between J and K.

How did you go about selling sandwiches and hamburgers?

We used to sell meat; that’s how we started. We opened up as a butcher shop. And, little by little, people would come in; I had a skillet there, and somebody would buy a beef and they wanted to try the beef, see what it was like. And, little by little, I would cut a piece of steak, almost for each beef, and fry it. And they would try it. And somebody said, “You should start selling sandwiches.” So I said, yeah that probably would be a good idea, but I don’t have anything set up for it, you know? So I said, maybe I ought to try putting in a grill? I put a grill in, and we started selling [sandwiches], and we didn’t even advertise or anything else. I had somebody working there, because I was doing the meat business; I had somebody selling the hamburgers. And little by little, we’d sell maybe one or two burgers a day. And the gal would come over and she’d say, “Hey, Frank, y’know, we’re not selling very many of these.” But I thought, we would just stay there. Whoever comes in, that’s what we’ll sell. And, little by little, it increased to five, 10, 12, and pretty soon we were selling 50, 100. So it just went that way. That’s about how it started.

What about the meat?

Somebody told me about Harris Ranch meat—they didn’t have any pesticides, no chemicals, no hormones or nothing like that. A lot of the women, well, that’s what they were looking for: no pesticides or chemicals. And that’s why people started coming in more and more; they were looking for, more or less, I guess, organic meat.

When did you come up with the Steak Frenchburger?

About a year after we opened up as a butcher place, everything we used to sell, we’d sell on contract, ‘cause they were all big orders of beef. At that time, everybody usually would have to go through a loan company to purchase beef; it was running $200 to $300 for a half of beef—which, now would be low, real cheap. But it got hard for the [customers] to pass, when we’d run them through for [financing]. The [loan] companies started rejecting a lot of the people, even though they had good credit. They would reject them because the government wasn’t giving them enough money to do those loans. So that’s about the time I switched over to selling burgers. They kind of stopped my sales on beef that way. Then we started selling more burgers; we started paying more attention to the hamburgers. We did sell beef for quite a while, but not full blast like we were doing at first.

Where’d you come up with the idea for your wedge fries?

I was going up to the Lake once in a while, and I noticed they had the wedge fries that were a quarter of a potato. And I liked them, so I figured I’d start doing them that way. And everybody here always seems to like them, so I just kept going that way. That’s about the size of it. The meat was the main thing: Harris Ranch meat, all pure steak. We didn’t bother with the front quarters or anything like that. It’s all just USDA Choice hindquarters, Choice rounds, sirloins—really the main cuts. That’s what we still grind—nothing but Choice cuts.

And you think that makes for a much better hamburger?

Oh, yeah. We do mix them a little bit—the sirloin tips and the rounds—but they make a real good blend. And it’s all steak; it’s just a richer cut. You get a better taste out of the meat. It’s hard to find something that tastes that good, really. We really are happy with the flavor and everything. Then, with the Muzio bun—Muzio’s got a really good bun—they really complement each other: the meat and the bun. The whole deal makes for a really good meal that way. It’s not just like eating a hamburger anyplace. You’re really getting the top of the line. Really, a good, choice meal.

What else have you added to your menu since the hamburgers?

Well, you know, we also make that steak. That steak is really good. And it’s all USDA Choice from different cuts. We don’t have a particular cut where it comes from, but it comes from the hindquarter, and it’s all Choice. It’s always Choice.

Have you checked out any burgers from your competitors around town?

Ah, not lately. I haven’t myself, but the customers, they seem to do that. The ones that come in here, they just say that nobody can touch this.