Why are there so many burger stands around Tacoma?
It was a question I asked myself as Frisko Freeze, perhaps the most iconic of the bunch, was sold in 2023 to new owners outside the founding family for the first time in its now-75-year history.
I asked a few trusted sources — both long-time Tacomans and relative newcomers — and their responses mostly circled around the irrefutable fact that burgers are delicious and also relatively inexpensive. One astute burger consumer posited that Route 99, better known today as South Tacoma Way, drew car traffic and thus a need for stop-offs. That theory works for Frisko and its midcentury bedfellow Pick Quick Drive-In, followed by Jubilee and the late Burger Ranch in the Lincoln District and what became Don’s Drive-In in Puyallup, but it doesn’t necessarily explain why others have cropped up in recent years to, it seems, much success. Some also noted the region’s working-class history and the port…