Requiem for a Burger Joint

For many years there was a greasy spoon burger joint on the square in Jackson, Wyoming - Billy's. No tables, only stools at a U-shaped counter, and the 'entertainment' was watching the burgers being fried and assembled.

Some years the young men (and a few women) working there would allow their creative side a bit of leeway and act like faux New Yorkers - being aggressive and smart-alecky. Other years, not so much.

Some years the staff would be native North Americans, other years immigrants - mostly temporary and legal. Regardless of who worked there, the burgers were great.

The other DrC and I ate Sunday supper there for at least ten years. We'd eat Billy's burgers four months a year and miss them the other eight. This year in late May we drove into Jackson and discovered Billy's, and the Cadillac Bar and Restaurant of which it was part, were closed.

I truly cannot tell you how sad we are. An important part of our Wyoming experience just died. This was the restaurant where we chatted up Dick Cheney's Secret Service detail, where we met Wall Street maven Mario Cabelli, where Bill Clinton ate before he got dietary 'religion.' All gone, alas .... restaurants are like that, ephemeral.