From the Culinary Vault Dept.: We’ve been very loyal to Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, the one-of-a-kind burger joint in Scotia, NY, which is open only in the summer. I wrote about the place for Metroland Magazine four times, with my first review running in 1987, my second in 1990. To bring you up to date, here are the third and fourth, starting with the latter, from 2012.
AMONG THE HORRIFYING IMAGES of Hurricane Irene’s devastation last summer was the sight of Jumpin’ Jack’s under water, many of its picnic tables rafting down the Mohawk, its ice cream building flooded so high that coolers floated up and cracked the ceiling.
It took place the last Thursday in March, with an appropriate amount of media hoopla. Although we tend to give a place three months to get itself up and running before visiting to review, we figure that the nature of Jumpin’ Jack’s would allow a week to suffice. Besides, we were hungry.
It’s not great food. Never has been. And that has never been the issue. I have other stops for gourmet burgers, smoked burgers, fast-food burgers, whatever manifestation of beef between buns proves desirable, if you know what I mean.
Jumpin’ Jack’s is an experience. To those who grew up with it, it’s summer. I learned of it soon after I moved to Schenectady in 1980, and it’s been a seasonal staple since. It was the third restaurant Metroland reviewed when this column began in 1986, and we’ve visited it a couple of times since, the last one in 1994.
Jumpin’ Jack’s is a celebration. It’s a place where you can linger on long summer evenings, a date-enhancing carnival atmosphere inspiring romance (marriages owe their origins to this restaurant) and a peaceful sense of “it’s always been like this.”
Jumpin’ Jack’s is history, dating back to 1952 when Jack Brennan opened an ice cream stand on the site. He added the burgers five years later, which was successful enough to warrant construction of the Charcoal Pit – the building from which you order burgers now – in 1964, which explains the architectural style. Brennan sold the business to then-general manager Lansing in 1976.
But my favorite piece of the place’s history occurred across the street (sort of), when a McDonald’s opened on Scotia’s Mohawk Ave. People fretted that it would spell the end of Jumpin’ Jack’s, that a seasonal place could hardly compete with a year-round monster – yet the McDonald’s closed in 2005 (and sat vacant until the county bribed the corporation recently to tear it down).
And Jumpin’ Jack’s endures.
If you’re a loyalist, you need hear no more from me than that the place is back and looks splendid after its refurbishment. The crew once again runs that grill like a well-oiled machine, the aroma of that sizzling meat pleasantly permeating everything.
If you’re new to the place, here’s how it works. Find a parking place – there’s plenty. Don’t be intimidated by the size of the line. It moves surprisingly quickly. Study the menu! Make up your mind: you’ll be many people back from the head of that line when one of the Jumpin’ Jack’s crew startles you by hollering a request for your order.
You’re ordering everything but drinks here. I like the Jackburger ($5), which has two burger patties and topping of slaw. More of the charcoal flavor comes through. A single burger is $2.50, cheese is an extra two bits, a double cheeseburger is $5.50. Fries are $2, onion rings (the real thing) and twister fries are $2.25. Want to make a meal of it with fries, rings, cole slaw, roll and butter? Dinners are $8.25 if they’re based on ground beef, fried clams, chicken tenders or a slab of fried fish, slightly more for grilled chicken breast ($8.50) or shrimp ($9.50).
Some of the alternatives might not spot right away include a veggie burger ($3.50), hot dog ($2), steak sandwich ($5.25), Italian sausage sandwich ($4), melted cheese sandwich ($2), fried dough ($3.25) and nacho cheese chips ($3).
Once you reach the head of the line, your order is ready to be assembled on its fiber tray and slid to the drinks station, which is also where you pay. I’m pleased to see that credit cards are accepted. I know the damn things exact a painful cost, but they sure help forgets-to-carry-money me.
The you settle in at one of the shiny picnic tables and dig in. It becomes a Proustian experience. The scent of the burger, the crunch of the rings, the reassuring lap of grease on the tongue bring you back to summer after long-gone summer, sitting right here, when your kids were young or your parents were younger.
And it’s just the right size of a meal to give a comfortable sense of fulness without destroying the never-ending need for ice cream.
Which is served in an adjacent building, the one that took the biggest hit. It’s a Phoenix, or whatever it might have been that rose from a flood. It looks great inside. I toured it to enjoy its fresh new look, but then I had to get a cone as well, a vanilla-orange combo, and I’m pleased to report that it’s the only twist you’ll find in this story – everything else is status quo ante. Subway!
Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, Collins Park, 393-6101, jumpinjacksdriveininc.com. Rebuilt after the flood, they’re back with the burgers and fish and fries and rings you grew up with and can’t start a summer without. Serving daily 11-9:30. AE, MC, V.
– Metroland Magazine, 5 April 2012
[NB: The following piece, from 1994, ran as a kind of double-feature, pairing Jumpin’ Jack’s with a similarly venerable eatery in Wynantskill, Jack’s Drive-In.]
CARS AND FOOD have an impressive affinity. Before the fast food joints added dining rooms, it was expected that you’d dine in or near your automobile. With parking spaces radiating like spokes from the hub of the eatery, you could be served by a car-hop bearing food on trays that affixed to the car window. The A&W chain (now only remembered by its hard-to-find root beer) installed a system of two-way communication at each parking space that prefigured the current drive-thru lane ordering system.
The staple menu items, of course, were the burger. The hot dog. Fries. Complemented by a soft drink or, better still, milkshake. Remnants of that era remain, untroubled by the encroachment of McBurger joints. My friend Pedro, a social anthropologist and Troy habitué, drove me (in both senses of the word) to one of them: Jack's Drive-In, in Wynantskill.
Dating from 1939, Jack’s Drive-In began life as a smaller building – a shack, in fact, that persisted through the ‘50s, when it was replaced by the brick structure that stands there now. Car-hop service lasted a little longer, finally disappearing 20 years ago. But what remains is still evocative, still offering a very desirable alternative to the assembly-line "extra value meal."
Jack’s Drive-In is now owned by the Deeb brothers – S.K., Joey and Fred – who also own Ted’s Fish Fry (which is to fish fries as Jack’s is to burgers). They’ve had the place for 14 years now, and they’re keeping things pretty much the same.
On the other side of the Capital Region is Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, a little younger--it’s been operating for only 40 years – but still the take-out center of Scotia, its business undimmed by the tasteless (in both senses of the word) McDonald’s across the street. The Jack of Jumpin’ Jack’s was Jack Brennan, who sold out a while back for a good piece of change; current owner Mark Lansing has kept the menu consistent for the many years I’ve been visiting, not even raising prices all that much from year to year if they get raised at all.
The secret to both places is knowing how to order. At Jack’s Drive-In, don’t expect to satisfy yourself on a burger and fries. It’s good meat, from Troy’s own Levonian Brothers, but the patties are small. Economical. You need to determine just how many of ‘em you’ll need to satisfy your appetite.
Pedro and I are opposites in physique – he’s rather small, that is – so I was surprised to hear him ask for two burgers and a dog and a large order of fries. I went more modestly for the trinity of burger-dog-rings, although I quickly supplemented that order when I realized how quickly those things disappear. And then Pedro topped me by finishing with a cup of (this is really vile) Hawaiian Punch.
The dining area, if you choose not to eat in your car, is a cluster of picnic tables placed in front and to one side of the building. Although we stopped in late one weekday, there was a slow stream of customers that included take-out orders going by in big bags.
You see Jumpin’ Jack’s from the bridge that takes Route 5 across the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Scotia, and you can get an idea even before you pull into the lot how busy it’s going to be. If there’s something going on in the adjacent park or on the river, forget about it. If you stop by a little past lunchtime, as Susan and I did last week, you won’t have to wait in line too long.
The head grillman takes your order and assigns tasks accordingly, throwing patties on the grill, hollering for an order of “Indians” if you ask for onion rings (there once was a fries-‘n-rings combo, see, so it was . . . I’m not going to explain it). Other fragments of the Jumpin’ Jack’s code survive, but I’ll leave it to you to discover it. Just remember to tip the cashier.
At any rate, Susan ordered a fish fry dinner, which got her a big hunk o’ fish on a roll, fries, rings and cole slaw. I ordered a Jackburger (double-decker with a hunk of cole slaw on top), a dog and rings. The onion rings at Jumpin’ Jack’s are the real thing, too: whole onions in a tasty breading. Keep that in mind next time you bite into one of Burger King’s processed onion flakes rings.
Meals like that demand ice cream, which is served from a building next to Jumpin’ Jack’s. In Wynantskill, you travel down the street to the Snowman, where they make their own hard ice cream. And then if you have any sense at all, you skip dinner.
Jack’s Drive-In, 24 Main Ave., Wynantskill, 283-5110. Serving Mon-Sun 11-9:45, Fri-Sat 11-10:45.
The Snowman, 531 5th Ave, Troy, NY 12182. Serving Mon-Fri 12:30-9, Sat-Sun 1-9. Credit cards accepted.
Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, Collins Park, Scotia, 393-6101. Serving daily 11-10:30. Credit cards accepted.
– Metroland Magazine, 21 July 1994
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