Huckleberries Online

OTV Review: Hudson’s Hamburgers

Posted by DFO

March 15, 2009 12:25 a.m. • 37 comments

The Hudson’s experience is a bit like old-timey Blues or Country music, some really get into it and some just don’t appreciate its history and raw, essential simplicity. Obviously, the majority of local old timers (of all ages) fall into the former category, and some are viciously defensive and/or completely obsessive about the landmark burger stand that has attracted national attention in publications like Sunset and USA Today. There was even an official proclamation by the Idaho State House of Representatives two years ago recognizing the burger stand’s 100th birthday and honoring all five generations of the Hudson family who have kept our town well fed and happy, having survived “two World Wars, several international military combat situations, the Great Depression, economic recessions, and the arrival of the Golden Arches.” It opened as the “Missouri Kitchen” in a rickety shack built by Harley Hudson and has since been handed down to son Howard, grandson Roger, great-grandsons Steve and Todd, who currently run the show, and great-great grandson Alex who is poised to take the golden spatula some day in the future/OrangeTV, Get Out! North Idaho. More here.

Question: Can you guesstimate how many Hudson’s Hamburgers you eat a year?

37 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

JIMMYMAC on March 15 at 12:53 a.m.
I have always said that if we do see the Great Great Great depression and all the shops in downtown CDA collapse (even the Resort), you’ll still have to wait for a seat at Huddies if you have more than two people with you around noon that want to sit together.
Howard_Martinson on March 15 at 9:23 a.m.
Huddie’s is by far the best burger joint around. In their own league.

Barbara, Steve & Todd: we miss Roger and think of your family often.
Don_Sausser on March 15 at 10:18 a.m.
I do about 24 huddies a year, plus one more for my vegie friend, Mr. Stick!
Bent on March 15 at 11:08 a.m.
Now that I work in Spokane, I don’t get enough of them anymore…

When I was kid, my best freind and I would get up nearly every summer morning and go out mowing lawns until we earned enough money to get a huddy burger and rent a sailboat for the day … ten bucks usually covered it for the both of us back then…
Walkabout on March 15 at 11:40 a.m.
Yes, very easily, zero.
JeanC on March 15 at 1:28 p.m.
Zero. I really need to stop in next time we are in the area and give them a try. The hubby and I are always on the look out for good burgers.
Aliasjax on March 15 at 3:28 p.m.
I live here. I walk by that place dozens of times a week. I’ve never had one…don’t know why.
hmoffsuite on March 15 at 4:59 p.m.
I think a testament to Hudsons is that a McDonalds Express opened next door a few years ago and promptly closed its doors. There aren’t many occassions where the little guy beats the Big Mac. I think that is a wonderful story. Should have made national news, if it didn’t. Roger was a great person.
Stickman on March 15 at 6:28 p.m.
Don: I appreciate the love, but please not for me. I ask kids all the time, even my own, if you had to kill and slaughter your own meat on a daily basis, I doubt many would. Of course the hunters would all revel in the the blood and guts of the hunt. I gave it all up because of the abuse and inhumanity of it all. I am a small minority of course, but I sleep well and my digestion is perfect. Most kids haven’t a clue where their kid’s meal comes from, and if they did, probably wouldn’t eat as much. I grew up on meat and potatoes like the rest of you, but if I knew exactly where that meat came from and how it was prepared, I would have been a vegetarian long ago. In the future, believe me, we will all be vegetarians.
hmoffsuite on March 15 at 6:36 p.m.
“In the future, believe me, we will all be vegetarians”

Stick. Not in my lifetime. :~)
Stickman on March 15 at 6:39 p.m.
I know many of you can’t fathom the thought of not eating meat, just watch ‘Fast Food Nation’ sometime and then make your own decision. I am not here to change your mind about anything, as I have my hands full with my own children, but I am making small steps with them and maybe someday, they will feel as strongly as I do. The animals of this world deserve more than what we give them, a life of cruelty and abuse. Just so we can have Veal on a special occasion. If you have watched the movie Babe and enjoyed it, just know that the actor who was Babe’s owner, became a vegetarian after making the movie, and still is.
Stickman on March 15 at 6:44 p.m.
hmoffsuite: Not in your lifetime, but in the future, we will not eat the flesh of another being. It will abhor us.
Stickman on March 15 at 6:47 p.m.
As for the famous Hudson burgers, I would never even think of having one. Don please, have one for me, and then hopefully you start to feel bad.
EagleKeeper44 on March 15 at 7:05 p.m.
Big Stick… I have to agree with HMO on this one!

not in my lifetime… :)

I enjoy Mongolian Beef too much at the GOLDEN
Dragon in PF. Food for the gods and mortal man….
Stickman on March 15 at 7:16 p.m.
I understand of course Eagle Keeper, as I had lunch with my sons today and we ended up at Thai Bamboo in Spokane. They loved the stuff, though I gave them a hard time. It may take my whole life to convince them otherwise, but I will never win. But for me, the table has been set long ago. If I ate some of that stuff to this day, it would make me sick, so I must say something about the future of what you are eating. Please enjoy the meat of another being, though they might not enjoy it as much as you.
Stickman on March 15 at 7:25 p.m.
Eagle Keeper: Next time at the Golden Dragon, ask the young lady who waits on you who her dad is? Maybe a hint. Me. She is such a beautiful young lady, must take after her dad.
Stickman on March 15 at 7:37 p.m.
Sorry Eagle, it’s the Dragon House on Appleway, I get confused in my later years. She is there most nights, and you will like her immediately. One after my own heart.
Kage_Mann on March 16 at 8:02 a.m.
I only ate at Hudsons when I was a kid.One reason is:it’s too crowded and hot in there.If they had a drive-through I’d be back.
Stickman on March 16 at 11:22 a.m.
I mispoke, I meant read FAST FOOD NATION and watch SUPERSIZE ME.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.