Bearing trays ladened with burgers hot and sizzling from the grill, fresh potato fries and shakes creamy and smooth, a small army of employees bustled about the dining area of the Auburn Pick-Quick, doling out goodies to the ravenous horde.
Customers looked, grabbed, gulped, guzzled, slurped, liked what they got, said so.
“It’s a great hamburger,” said Debbie Christian, director of the Auburn Food Bank, “and I like the fact that they blanch their fries from scratch.”
“Superb,” added Nancy Wyatt, President and CEO of the Auburn-Area Chamber of Commerce. “I absolutely love the blueberry shakes.”
Taking in those first moments with a grin so wide that its corners threatened to join together at the back of his head was Joe Burgi, owner of the flagship Pick-Quick Drive In in Fife.
“It is unbelievable,” said Burgi, shouting to be heard above the din of a crowd that included Mayor Pete Lewis, members of the City Council, city officials and employees and dozens of members of the public who had come to the special pre-opening celebration Saturday afternoon.
The Auburn Pick-Quick at 1132 Auburn Way N., the first spin off from the popular flagship drive-in in Fife, officially opened Tuesday morning.
Pick-Quick, a Burgi family-owned business run by Joe Burgi, Burgi’s son, Greg Burgi, and his son-in-law, Dan Nelson, joined with Seattle-based Icon LLC, owned by the Centioli family, to bring the restaurant to Auburn.
Gerard Centioli, president and CEO of Pick-Quick Development Company, LLC, is responsible for the design.
“To see everything Gerard has put together, it’s everything we ever thought about,” Burgi said. “And just look at the equipment and type of people. There are 45 staff people in here right now, and we have 18 on our complete staff in Fife. He has more people right now than we probably we have in three weeks, as far as workers. And it’s a beautiful design. It will be very interesting to see what happens here.”
“We’re really bringing the Pick-Quick experience to Auburn,” said Centioli, “It’s the classic drive-in that’s been serving the people of Fife since 1949, and the same drive-in menu you would have found any place back in 1949. It’s very similar to what you see there, though it’s a little expanded in some respects.”
More room, seats
Tim Twietmeyer, principal of Everett-based Dykeman Architects, explained how Pick-Quick Drive In No. 2 differs from the roadside stand Jay Adolph and Henrietta Olsen opened in Fife 62 years ago. For one thing, at 2,450 square feet, it’s almost five times as large as the 485-square-foot flagship stand, mostly because it offers indoor seating, for about 42 customers. There is picnic table seating for another 44 customers outside, on the covered patio or under open skies.
Unlike the flagship stand, Twietmeyer noted, No. 2 also offers a drive-by window.
Twietmeyer said it was important to the partners that the Pick-Quick building be LEED certified (U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design). The interior of the restaurant features glass windows, allowing diners to view the production of every item served in the restaurant. The red chairs in the restaurant are each made from 111 recycled plastic Coca-Cola bottles.
The parking lot and walkways outside of the restaurant are made with pervious concrete, which allows for rain water to be collected in a rain garden and used to water the landscape. The water from the hand sinks is filtered, collected in the rain garden and also used to water the landscape.
Two spaces in the parking lot have been reserved exclusively for hybrid fuel-efficient cars.
“Gerard is a real visionary,” Twietmeyer said. “It’s the original look, but with modern technology.”
Good food
One thing that won’t change from the parent stand, Joe Burgi said, is the quality of the food.
“First of all, our product itself is all made from scratch, with tomatoes and onions. As far as tomatoes, we won’t change, it’ll be the same hand-picked tomatoes we have had all the time from Washington producers. The onions are white onions, and we will never change that. We use fresh fries and fresh everything else. The ice cream and shakes are just wonderful,” Burgi said.
Centioli said the building was “comfortably completed on schedule,” but the unusually wet winter provided many challenges, so site work on the rest of the Centioli Business Park remains to be finished.
Centioli explained why the partners chose Auburn.
“This a long-term decision, and while we certainly have a challenging economy, we’re looking at the long haul, not what it is today,” Centioli said. “We like Auburn’s proximity to Fife. It’s close enough that people know what it is, but not so close that it would complete with the original, because we want to make sure that the flagship is always healthy.”
Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
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For learn more, visit pick-quick.com.
