(October 6, 2003)

Dirty Martin's Kum-bak, or just plain Dirty's as most Austin burger fans know it, has been an Austin landmark of sorts since 1926 when John Martin started it. Since the original building had a dirt floor, a bunch of GI's nicknamed the place "Dirty's". And the name stuck. Owned today by Mark Nemir, (whose granddad purchased the property in 1936) Dirty's is the antithesis of today's modern, sterile, prefabbed and one-dimensional burger places. Why its back dining room was actually once a gas station! How's that for cachet! Located just north of the UT campus on the "Drag", Dirty's is the kind of place the "let's keep Austin weird" types are very passionate about. And just to set the record straight, it is not, in the clinical sense, any longer the least bit dirty. Hell, they had a concrete floor put in back in 1951. Odd, old, quirky all might qualify, but dirty is purely now a symbolic choice of words.

A couple of words that might also qualify: damned good burgers and very reasonable prices. The only way a business lasts as long as Dirty's is to give customers what they want at prices that are attractive. You can still get a serious hamburger for $2.75. And a cheeseburger for $3.15. On top of that, you get employees like Nonie, a 20-year veteran who, to paraphrase the Don Henley song Sunset Grill, "knows all her customers by name." Or you might have run into Margie, who recently retired at age 80! And you can still find Wesley churning out burgers on weekdays. Wesley's been with the restaurant since 1957. Dirty's is worn by its regulars like a favorite old sweater.

Even the menu items have history. For example, the OT burger, which is a double meat and bacon cheeseburger with mayo, lettuce and tomatoes, was named after Wesley's (one of the cooks) brother, J.T. Now his friends and customers knew J.T. as "Old Timer," and hence, the name for the burger he created. And you know what, it's a great burger. It's my personal favorite. I also love the D.H. Special. Now hold on, all your literary fans, its not named for D.H. Lawrence; but I suspect that Lawrence, hard-living man that he was, would have liked it. It's got a hamburger patty with grilled onions, nestled in between two pieces of cheese, and served on toast with tomato and pickle. For $3.80, it's a deal.

The freshness of the food is another reason that Dirty's packs them in. All the products are delivered fresh every day. The French Fries and Onion Rings are made by hand. The limeades are hand squeezed and the shakes and malts follow the same, careful process they've used for years at Dirty's.

The bottom line is a devoted audience. And it's been pretty much the same for 77 years.

In the insanely intense world of Austin restaurants these days, restaurants come and go like the wind. Most don't last 7 years, let alone 77! Dirty's is a monument, of sorts, to the good old American work ethic. It's also a page out of any Business 101 textbook: super-serve your customers and they will continue to reward you in kind. I like to believe that Dirty's was what Lyle Lovett had in mind when he immortalized the phrase " Make that………..a cheeseburger!"

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