Well I finally did it. After almost 2 decades in Reno Nevada I finally stopped in last week and tried the Famous Awful-Awful burger from The Nugget. I didn't even know about this joint until I saw Dave Attell visit The Nugget on the Comedy Central Insomniac Show.
I was working downtown today so I decided to take the short walk from the Cal Neva over to The Nugget. It's a small South Virginia Street Casino across from Harrahs Reno. I made my way to the back (about 35 steps) to where the kitchen was and pulled up to a seat at the lunch counter.
It wasn't crowded today so I was able to place my order right away. Awful Awful burger, basket of fries and a coke. I think it was $7 and change after tax. While I was waiting I talked with a few of the other people at the counter already eating. They were enjoying themselves and enjoying the food. We passed a few small talk comments about good food but I turned back to my phone to check messages and leave them to their food.
As I usually do I got bored while sitting there so I decided to check out the signage, awards and newspaper clippings they had hanging on the walls. Nothing noteworthy stood out to me but the signage had a 'Historic Reno' feel. Not like the 20's or anything like that; maybe early 80's stuff.
So then my lunch arrived and I took a moment to study it and take this picture with my phone. I had imagined it was much bigger. I had a burger at Gold Dust West once that I couldn't finish once that was the size of the plate. The awful awful is a legend though so I expected it to be bigger for some reason. It was very big, but not mammoth as I must have led myself to believe.
First thing I noticed after the burger was the extraordinary amount of fries they give you, epic Really. I tried a few of them first and they were fricken-delicious. Soft, not too greasy, with house mixed season salts; these fries are some of the best I think. French fries have all been flavor raped by so many health nut lawmakers. These are old school delicious soft-hot-greasy french fries. Not too greasy - just right.
Anyway, the burger (hold on - I was getting there) was delicious. Not to ruin anything but it reminded me of a Carls Jr Burger. You know, the ones where they advertised "if it doesn't get all over the place it doesn't belong in your face". It was juicy, thick, meaty and delicious. AS a matter of fact the fries reminded me of the original Carls Jr fries too. They were always my favorite. So overall this hit the spot very well for me and felt like a familiar delicious meal. I couldn't finish the fries and I saw most people left fries in the dish as they left too. Delicious, but over the top! Perfect.