Fat Boy, 2450 Plainfield NE ~ 11/12/09 & 2/26/15

The vintage sign can't help but catch your eye, and the name alone should make you want to stop at this restaurant. A small restaurant, decorated in authentic memorabilia from the 1950s-1980s, including concert posters and an antique jukebox for 45s, it is quaint and original.

The original owners commissioned the sign back in the late 1940s-early 1950s, and the neon landmark has hung here ever since. The place has changed hands several times and in 2009, the current owners remodeled, re-opened, and re-lit the sign. 

Newcomers are spotted when they sit down in a booth to wait for a server. Here the menu is on the wall and you need to order at the counter. The waitress brought our burgers shortly thereafter and they were amazingly good. No perfect-circle burgers here - just great flavor from the smashed cooking method. The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch.

If you are craving a burger, please skip McDonald's and head to Fat Boy (or Choo Choo Grill)!

2/26/15 Visit:
A few things have changed but not much. The burgers still have the same great taste and irregular shape, and the onion rings are well prepared and sized.

The menu is still on the wall, you still help yourself to coffee, and you order at the counter.

The interior looks pretty much the same with the addition of a ceiling fan, that inexplicably started turning and blowing the already cold air throughout the place.

The hours have expanded to stay open some weekday evenings and apparently they've had some trouble with customers bringing their own food/beverages into the restaurant. Come on, people.

And lastly, there must still be people who think it's okay to smoke inside a restaurant?

We were happy to get back here and would like to stop in for breakfast sometime. Fat Boy, around since 1952, still has the power to pull us in.