Dinner Break! Griff's Hamburgers - Denver, Colorado

I'm hungry... Let's get some burgers!


Griff's Hamburgers (or Griff's Burger Bar) is a regional chain of fast food burger joints. Founded in 1960 by Harold Griffin, they had nationwide locations at one point, but were mainly concentrated in the south. Known for cheap, greasy and tasty burgers, they had a small cult following here in Denver. My first introduction to Griff's came in the late 1990's. Griff's went well with late night partying back in college...


Due to it's central location, Griff's was close to everything, including my job. For a stretch of a couple years, the Griff's dinner run was a weekly Thursday night tradition. With anywhere from 2-7 people placing an order. When we asked at the window, they game us a printed out menu. Now we wouldn't have to spend way too long figuring out what burger dressings and side items they had, as we were getting our order together each week. As soon as they closed the place, I took the menu for the Archives!


The identifying feature of Griff's buildings was their A-Frame design. When the chain started, they all looked like that. Some were larger to accommodate indoor seating, but most early Griff's were walk-up and drive through only. Griff's had a very simple restaurant plan. Some patio seating, a drive through window, but no playgrounds or ball pits, nothing fancy... It looked plain and simple without any gimmicks. Their food was simple and without a gimmick. And that's what made it so good. It was what you expected fast food to be. It tasted real, and not fake like the big chain fast food restaurants of today.


Just Right Motors in Englewood, used to a be a Griff's back in the late 1960's...


Let's check out that drive through menu before heading inside... 


What!? Only six combo meals? 


You don't need more! It's burgers! 

Oh, and use extreme caution! Griff's drive through is a dangerous area! 

(Well, probably just the neighborhood...)


Here's the full menu, and a print out of their new hours.

If they closed that early (10:00pm) in 1998, I never would have tried this place...


The front counter inside. I accidentally had the flash on when I took this picture, and the camera cord got in the way. I should have taken another, but didn't... Either way, as you can see from the cashier station, this place couldn't get more basic... I took this picture on February 23, 2014, after finishing up taking pictures of the Gates Rubber demolition, two blocks south.

(Gates pictures coming eventually!)


Griff's had a nice patio for outdoor eating in front of the building. Though it was way too cold to eat outside on this February morning... Those hard plastic umbrellas are so tacky, yet cool! 

And the Giant Double Cheeseburger Combo was my go to order. Thanks for rubbing it in...


News broke in July, 2015 that Griff's was closing it's final two Colorado locations. I have nothing to add other than it sucks. Here was the owner's statement, taped to the front entrance.


A week after Griff's closed, I did my somber walk around the property to photograph the place. Here is a slight variation of the cashier station picture I took a year and a half earlier...


The final clean-up was now underway in the lobby...


Apologies for the blurry pictures. It was pretty dark inside, and the windows were hazy to shoot through.

Here is the front part of the dining room... You get the idea...


Looking across the dining room to the restrooms in back.


The back half of the dining room.


Through the drive-up window, looking at the cashier area. 


Inside the drive-up window.


One month after Griff's closed, a fence was put up around it the property. All Griff's markings were removed, except the "hamburgers" part of the sign. I'm glad they left it... The image of that word next to an abandoned building amuses me...

Speaking of the building, no one bothered to board it up? Man, the local taggers are gonna have a field day with this place. As sad as it is, it's going to be perversely fun watching this place get devoured by the neighborhood...


Two years after Griff's closed, everything is still here. That's the drive up menu board...


The back of the building... The interior kitchen was so small, the cooler was only accessed
by going outside. I am shocked at how intact and not destroyed the back of the building is...


The drive up window, two years after closing...


That cheerful patio is a lot sadder now....


The building has had several fresh coats of paint applied to it over the last two years. Given it's surroundings, it's a magnet for taggers to leave their mark. A few days before I took these pictures, the entire front wall and windows were covered in black and silver paint (matching what you see on the left side of the building). Some poor shlub had to scrape all the paint off the windows, knowing that it's going to need to be done again very soon.

I'm completely amazed the building is still standing. Not that I want to see it demolished by any means, but I'm sure you could fit maybe 13 or 14 luxury apartments here...

*****

Today the Griff's chain is down to just 12 stores... Eight in Texas, three in Louisiana and one in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The door sign suggested at a possible return to Denver some day, but I'm not optimistic...

I just miss their greasy delicious burgers...


Sure do wish this sack was full again...

*****

Griff's former location at 742 South Broadway in Denver, has sat locked behind a security fence for two years now. It makes me really sad that it will most likely meet the same fate as this Griff's in Irving, Texas...


Now that is just painful to watch...

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