My Favorite Fast Food Burger Doesn't Come from a Drive-Thru

It's an epic creation you've got to see to believe.

Special moments in time are often defined by a specific food. When most of us look back on our pre-wedding meals, the memories can often be a tangle of high-protein, low-carb “fit into the dress” afterthoughts. But I’m a restaurant critic by trade, obsessed with flavor. While I ate my share of healthy soups and salads to prepare for my elopement two years ago, I spent just as much time thinking about a very particular hamburger. And while some fast food joints can cook up a decent burger, I wasn't interested in the offerings at more prominent chains.

There was one very specific burger on my culinary wishlist: Friendly's Cheese Skirt Burger.

In the spring of 2022, the Cheese Skirt Burger was among a dozen new, mostly over-the-top items that Friendly’s added to its menu. Since I live in a Friendly’s desert in Northern Virginia, I had to wait until my July wedding in Pennsylvania for a taste. The day I arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where my best friend’s judge father would perform my wedding ceremony the next day, my husband-to-be and I had twin primary goals: Get married and eat that burger.

We met up with my bestie at the Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Friendly’s and proceeded to each order a Cheese Skirt Burger. My paramour and I could easily have shared, but what’s the fun in that?

What Is a Cheese Skirt Burger?

I’ve been demolishing Friendly’s burgers since I had teeth (the chain debuted almost 50 years before that, in 1935, so next year is its 90th birthday), but this beef-and-bun experience was utterly novel. The juicy patty of a Cheese Skirt Burger resembles Saturn. It’s encircled by at least an inch (more like two when I’ve been lucky) of griddled cheddar and Monterey Jack. The bottom of that ring is crisp, almost a replacement for bacon, but the top remains stretchably gooey. The lightly sweet brioche bun, fresh vegetables, pickles, and Thousand Island dressing conspire to make the insane creation a memorable burger fix even without the skirt.

Digging into the Cheese Skirt Burger requires some strategy. Do you eat the perimeter first? Save it for last? I found myself folding the edges, sharp and origami-like, onto the patty and beneath the top bun. It’s a large mouthful, but worth every moment of effort.

How To Order a Cheese Skirt Burger

Two years later, disaster struck. On the way home to Virginia from an anniversary trip to Nova Scotia, my husband and I stopped at Friendly’s in Pennsylvania once again. Though there were plenty of appealing burgers on the menu, the Cheese Skirt was not among them. We resolved to order other things. Until a miracle happened.

I off-handedly mentioned to my server that we were sad to see the Cheese Skirt Burger go. “You can have one,” she said with a wink.

It turns out that Friendly’s offers a menu hack for just such occasions. According to a representative from the company, now owned by Dallas-based Brix Holdings, some Friendly’s locations can still enter a handful of discontinued menu items into their POS system, depending on whether the ingredients are on hand. This is important because the chain, with just over 100 locations mostly concentrated in the northeast, changes its main menu once a year, but adds limited-time offers three times in every 12-month cycle. If you have a favorite, it might not last forever.

The most popular burgers right now are the All-American Burger and the Smashed Classic Burger. And they’re about to upgrade them all. The representative says that Friendly’s will transition to serving all Angus beef beginning in October. That means that, provided I can convince my server to use the hack, I’ll be biting into an even better Cheese Skirt Burger soon. My heart leaps at the crispy, beefy possibilities. Thank you, Friendly’s for knowing that some fans simply have their hearts set on a nostalgic favorite. 

Read the original article on All Recipes.