Shady Glen

If I'm going to write about food in Manchester, I have to start with Shady Glen. It's been here since the 40's and is diner fare like you used to be able to get, back in the day. It boasts milk shakes made like they're supposed to taste, fantastic secret-recipe cheeseburgers, and the best ice cream in town. Credit cards? Not here, pal. That's a product of a decade yet to happen. Be sure to bring cash or use the ATM, which is conveniently located in the corner of the building.

The restaurant is located at 840 East Middle Turnpike, right on the edge of the Bolton town line. There is another location in the Manchester Parkade, but it's not as as old and I remember as a kid considering it rather illegitimate. In order for the visit to 'count,' you had to go to the original. Good enough for James Cagney and Paul Newman, good enough for me.

Shady Glen is typically a 'seat yourself' type place, but it gets busy enough at certain times that you may find yourself waiting. To avoid the rush, my friend Natalie and I went a little after noon on a weekday. We both work in education and summers off are a beautiful thing.

Unlike many of the establishments I want to review for this blog, here I have an established routine. Things must be started with a milk shake.

At a guess, the milkshakes here are better than elsewhere because the ice cream is superior, but really I have no idea. It doesn't matter. Buy one. Drink one. You won't be disappointed.

Then, you order fried cheese. Which, yes, is a thing you can get in a lot of places, and none that look or taste like this. The milk shake and the fried cheese will keep you busy while you wait for cheeseburgers. There are hot dogs; you can order them and they're good. But don't. Get cheeseburgers.

This is the Bernice Original Cheeseburger, named after Bernice Rieg, one of the original owners. Nobody outside the restaurant knows quite how they do that folding the cheese bit, but its tasty as hell, and duplicated, as far as I know, nowhere else in the world. Typically, these things come with fries, and the fries, to be honest, are not much to write home about. They do give you more than enough ketchup to make this a nonissue, however.

When at Shady Glen, always, always finish your meal with ice cream. Natalie had a Sundae:

And I went with cookie dough:

One of the other nice things about Shady Glen is that their sizes make sense. When you order a small ice cream, you don't get some monolithic supersized portion of small. It's just the right size, and totally makes up for being watched by demonic, child-stealing elves in the corner.

Yeah, I don't know. Creepy. But the bottom line is that this place is totally worth the lack of credit cards and occasional theft of babies by the Unseelie Court. If you find yourself stuck in Manchester, and only have enough time to eat at one place, eat here.