Club Paris opened in downtown Anchorage in 1957. The building dates to the 1920s and has housed a home, a furniture store, and a funeral parlor over the decades. When the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded in North America, leveled the JCPenney across the street, Club Paris stood.
The Selman family has owned the restaurant since the 1970s. Some staff members have worked there for decades. The vintage pink neon sign with the Eiffel Tower still glows outside. Inside, red leather booths, wood paneling, and art deco bar fixtures create an atmosphere that ownership has deliberately resisted updating.
The real reason Anchorage food people make lunch reservations weeks in advance: the burger. It’s made from house-ground filet mignon trim, only available at lunch, and it’s the kind of thing you have to know about to find. It made the best burger in every U.S. state…