Say it ain't so. The Wheel Inn, home of the Guber Burger, may be forced to close after the Missouri Department of Transportation widens the intersection it sits at.
The street changes will close the main entrances to the Wheel Inn as well as place 300-foot-long medians in the road that will prevent left turns into the Wheel Inn's lot. A widened intersection will also make it more difficult for cars to navigate the lot.
"It looks to me like it's the end of the Wheel Inn," said Jack Hawkins, who co-owns the building with his wife, Ruth Ann.
The Wheel Inn is one of the eight burger joints profiled in George Motz's Hamburger America burger biopic, featured for its unusual use of hot peanut butter as a topping on its burgers. Is there anything that can be done to save the Wheel Inn? It would be a shame if this Missouri icon died a slow death at the hands of street strangulation. At what price progress?!?
I grew up with the Wheel Inn being a biannual stop. We visited our grandpartents every summer and Thanksgiving. We traveled along Hwy 50 from Kansas City to Jefferson City and always made the Wheel- inn our stopping spot. I have since grown up. Both of my parents are dead and gone, but the tradition has lived on through our family. I am heartsick.
Darn it! Here's one place I'll never get to visit since I won't be going thru Missouri this summer. Anyone informed George Motz, director of Hamburger America about this? I'd like to think there was at least a chance of saving this bit of Americana. What do you want to bet they cram a McDonald's into whatever space they have left over from the street widening?
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3 Comments:
Oh my god, I didn't know about this. The Wheel is an American icon. Nooooooo!
Hamburger Jared at 5:03PM on 01/03/07
I grew up with the Wheel Inn being a biannual stop. We visited our grandpartents every summer and Thanksgiving. We traveled along Hwy 50 from Kansas City to Jefferson City and always made the Wheel- inn our stopping spot. I have since grown up. Both of my parents are dead and gone, but the tradition has lived on through our family. I am heartsick.
Hamburger deb at 11:03PM on 04/24/07
Darn it! Here's one place I'll never get to visit since I won't be going thru Missouri this summer. Anyone informed George Motz, director of Hamburger America about this? I'd like to think there was at least a chance of saving this bit of Americana. What do you want to bet they cram a McDonald's into whatever space they have left over from the street widening?
Hamburger Kid Z at 10:47PM on 05/21/07