Burgers and fries, fine casual dining
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POLSON — It’s a sure sign of spring when two lines of vehicles are backed up so people can order at Richwine’s Burgerville. “Burgs,” as Polson resident Amy Knutson said everyone who grew up around here calls it, celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 2.
The drive-through restaurant has become a Polson landmark with its hand-painted menus, topped with a windmill and cows in police uniforms, a small garden in front, and in a sign that reads, “It’s fun to eat out.”
Lucille and Enoch Richwine got involved with the drive-in back in 1962. The couple had a premature baby that stayed in the hospital for a month, so Enoch, who worked nights, said, “Lucy, I think you need a job.”
That job turned out to be Richwine’s Burgerville.
The couple first leased the business in 1962, bought the building and equipment in 1963 and purchased the land in 1965. According to Lucille, the drive-in originally sat further back on the property. When they outgrew the original small building, the current block building was built during the winter of 1968-69. The little old building went to a cherry orchard, Lucille said.
Former local businessman Carl Seifert once bet Enoch $50 he wouldn’t put a windmill on the roof of Burgerville. Enoch did, and became $50 richer for it. The windmill remains part of Burgerville’s charm.
Lucille’s good friend Ada Herried, now Ada McKay, babysat the Richwine’s four children, Mason, Corey, Shane and Marcia. The children all grew up working at the restaurant.
At age 13, Marcia started working as a waitress and then began to cook when she was 14. She said she went to college two weeks after she graduated from high school so she wouldn’t have to cook hamburgers.
When Richwine’s Burgerville opened, hamburgers set you back 30 cents, a corndog cost a quarter and an ice cream cone was a nickel or a dime.
Back in 1980, Richard Growald, a writer for United Press International, picked ten restaurants across the United States and called them “cheaper gourmet good eats.” Richwine’s Burgerville made the list. Then in the same year, Dennis Jones, a writer for the Missoulian,” broke things loose for the drive-in with a story that brought in lots of people that summer.
“It just grew, grew, grew,” Lucille said.
The Richwines have kept Burgerville in the family. Lucille retired in 1989, and son Shane took over in 1990 until he passed away in June of 2009. The family pitched in and kept Burgerville going that summer. In 2010, Marcia decided to retire from her full time job of 26 years and run the family business.
“I’m having the time of my life,” she claims.
2012 will be Marcia’s third year running Richwine’s. She’s added three new items: bacon, huckleberry sundaes, and a new cod for the fish and chips.
Richwines’s bestseller is the Royal burger with its signature “do hinkey,” pieces of radish, carrot and celery speared with a toothpick and stuck atop the burger. As legend goes, Enoch said that was the creative way to get a toothpick to their customers.
To make all their famous Richwine burgers, Marcia estimates the restaurant will use two-and-a-half tons of bull meat from White’s Meats this year.
On Feb. 24, Corey, Marcia’s brother, was teaching a new group of workers to grind hamburger. At Burgerville, they grind their own burger, running it through the grinder three times. They hand-form the patties so they don’t stick to the patty paper and they fry-up to Richwine standards.
“It’s repeat customers who come in with smiles on their faces who make Burgerville a success,” Corey said.
“We wouldn’t have been here for 50 years if it weren’t for mom and dad and the valley,” Marcia explained, smiling.
And on opening day after the ribbon cutting, Mom Lucille was still helping. It looked like the clock had rewound 23 years, when Lucille first donned her apron to wash some lettuce because she felt one container just wasn’t enough for opening day.
