The
Class of 2004 had walked across the stage this past
Friday night and McConnell had closed for the year.
It was a busy week for all of Student Life and the
SL4 crew all worked in excess of 60 hours that final
week of school. In fact Kevin, Henry and Gloria
were still working on Mother’s Day to get
the RAs and PAs out and to wrap up 9 months of TAMS
occupancy of McConnell Hall. Needless to say enthusiasm
was tapered a bit for this outing – Kevin
even had to call and remind me that we were getting
together and it was MY TURN to choose. I had not
done my usual scouting and actually looked in the
yellow pages only to be let down. As the SL4 bus
came to pick me up, I quickly confirmed with Gloria
that she indeed did not like fish (my first idea
being a catfish joint on the south side of Denton
– see future reviews), so I blurted out Denton
County Independent Hamburger Company. We then had
to choose which location – there are two in
Denton, and we decided on the one on the square.
Interestingly enough the DCIHC on the square is
only open from 11am – 3pm. The Denton Square
has a fun feel to it
and any time you can get near Beth Marie’s
Ice Cream Shop is a bonus.
We piled into the restaurant
before the lunch rush crowd and headed to the back
to make our selections. My impulse choice was forcing
Gloria to 
abandon
her claim of vegetarianism. Gloria gleefully began
to tell us how frequently she would eat at DCIHC
when lunch was on the house because her friend was
some relation to the owner. Gloria obviously knew
the ordering system and jumped in line
to order the first cheeseburger.
[She even stated later, “I had a great attitude
about eating red-meat the whole time, and Kevin
didn't make a single crack about me not liking my
food. I consider that an accomplishment. Cool cheese
on the cheeseburger--looks like little orange worms,
but tastes like yummy”.] Kevin followed with
his selection of the Hickory
Burger dinner (open)
while Henry and I followed with cheeseburger
dinner orders respectively. Luckily Henry got ahead
of me for when it came time for Kevin to pay, Kevin
sheepishly states he has no money and he is homeless
and lives in a van down by the river. The cashier
did not buy his story so Henry being next in line
had to pay for two lunches. The table we selected
was near the front large windows and once we de-trayed
our meals and rolled off our paper towels, we seemed
to settle in. There were several interesting old
style displays on the wall – my favorite being
the ad showing a woman showering her bosom.
Topics
for conversation were varied but lacked the enthusiasm
and intensity of past SL4 lunches. We discussed
close down antics, graduation
thank yous from families and students, how the staff
wants their jobs easier on weekends, weird “encounters”
from some students, power outages and the HD/employee
exodus from McConnell and how we can make McConnell
and TAMS more fun in the future. Henry did try to
brighten our day with an SL4 bring your spouses
day on the lake boating venture but Gloria reminded
us she might not be here on Saturday and she still
does not like fish.
We
all seemed to be cleaning our plates not out of
drive for the taste of the food but rather rote
mechanistic hand to mouth exercise. Kevin really
enjoyed his Hickory Burger
and stated, “hickory sauce does the trick,
gives it the twang it needs”. The burgers
were constructed well and with the dinners one can
get as many beans and greasy fries as they like.
All you can eat beans and
greasy fries = Kevin’s dream while an
explosive nightmare for the rest of us. Henry was
not at all impressed with neither the side dishes
nor the signage – “fries
were soggy, beans need more flavor and signs on
wall not funny enough”.
No
one complained about the burgers
– DCICH does construct
(photo shot of burger schematics here) a tasty burger
but for $3.50 it should be a tasty burger. There
are 3 or 4 different type burgers one can order
and DCIHC also features a chicken sandwich and a
chicken fried steak sandwich. I got a cheeseburger
dinner, which included a drink, cheeseburger and
the all you can consume explosive combo for $7.58.
My penny-pinching conscience would not allow me
to rank this experience any higher, at that price
there seems to be something lacking. If you want
a burger with bounce between the hours of 11am and
3pm– get the burger and water - then spend
the other $3 on two scoops of ice cream next door
at Beth Marie’s. Umm umm good! 
