By LISA BRITTON

Baker City Herald

Burger Bob can flavor your soda with vanilla or chocolate or dill pickle.

Seriously.

“I have one (customer) on occasion that gets a chocolate dill pickle Pepsi,” says Bob Brady, owner of Burger Bob’s.

That’s not, however, the bestseller at this drive-in at 2380 10th Street in Baker City.

That would be his double cheeseburger, with his secret white sauce that he’ll sell you by the jar but won’t share the recipe.

This Saturday, Burger Bob’s is celebrating its 50th anniversary with special deals all day.

Hamburgers will be 50 cents (75 cents with cheese), foot-long hot dogs and small milkshakes are both $1, ice cream cones are 50 cents and quart drinks are 50 cents.

In honor of 50 years, some customers may receive a gold dollar coin as change.

“It’s the golden anniversary,” he says.

He’ll also have a bucket set up to accept donations to the Relay for Life, and anyone who donates $1 will receive a free Burger Bob’s wristband which can be used for special discounts in the future. (The wristbands can also be purchased anytime for 85 cents.)

Brady’s father, Garn, moved his family to Baker City in 1960 to open an Arctic Circle – the first in Oregon.

Their first day of selling burgers was July 16, 1960. Bob was 3.

His dad worked two jobs – he farmed acreage in the valley as well as spent seven days a week at Arctic Circle.

Since both his parents ran the restaurant, Brady and his siblings grew up at the drive-in.

“I had to peel the potatoes for fries – 200 pounds a day,” he says. “And if I wasn’t here working in the summertime, I was moving sprinkler pipe or haying.”

He also made the fry sauce (please don’t call it pink sauce), which he still does today.

The fry sauce isn’t a secret – at least not the ingredients of ketchup and mayonnaise.

“But you gotta get them in the right proportions. And don’t use salad dressing,” he says.

Some weeks he mixes as much as 10 gallons of fry sauce.

“Burger sales come and go, but the fry sauce keeps going,” he says.

(You can buy an 8-ounce jar for $3.19 or $4.69 for 16 ounces. Prices vary for the hamburger sauce, hot dog relish and tartar sauce.)

This drive-in was an Arctic Circle for 21 years, until Garn Brady decided not to renew his contract with the chain. (By 1981, Interstate 84 had been built and traffic moved from 10th Street to the freeway.)

They went independent, renamed the drive-in as Happy Burger, and decided to be closed on Sundays.

“We weren’t open on Sundays, and still aren’t,” Brady says.

Garn retired in 1993 when Bob moved back to town and took over the business, which remained family-run.

“My kids, by the time they were out of high school, worked thousands of hours,” he says.

His first anniversary celebration was in 1994 and he sold 1,200 hamburgers at 34 cents each.

Ever since then he’s observed the anniversary on the third Saturday of July.

The drive-in became Burger Bob’s in 2003 – he’s had the nickname since high school, and is how he’s known by customers.

And that’s his favorite part – taking orders in person for those who pull into the drive-through (unless you’re first in line, then he’ll meet you at the window).

“That’s where I’m at home, waiting on my customers,” he says. “My customer is everything.”

He has quite a few regulars, and some, like Bill and Donna Barnes of Elgin, make a special trip to Baker City just to eat at Burger Bob’s.

“We always have a good meal,” she says.

“The best french fries anywhere,” he adds.

The couple, who stopped on their way to Jackson Hole, Wyo., Wednesday, have frequented this drive-in since 1966.

“We’ve driven over here just to get hamburgers,” Bill Barnes says.

In the Happy Burger days, those were known as “Tickle Burgers.” That’s not on the menu anymore, but Brady knows what you want if that’s what you order.

” ‘I want two Tickles with cheese’ – I get that all the time,” he says.

The menu has expanded over the years – recent additions include a jalapeandntilde;o cheddar burger and sweet potato fries.

“I used to have those just between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he says of the fries, “but people love them.”

One thing he rarely makes is a soda – the old-fashioned kind with flavoring, carbonated water and ice cream.

But he’s happy to mix one up.

“I don’t have them on my register, but I can make them – same price as the floats,” he says.

And, as always, he uses 100 percent beef. His supply is packed in Yakima, Wash., and raised near there.

“I want American grown – I was a farmer,” he says.