Why Gino’s Hamburgers?? Why?!

Once a month, my Mom needed to go to some office on an errand and would take me along (this is when I was very young.) The whole time, I would be begging to go to McDonald’s or Burger King, since I knew they were both in the area. Without fail though, she would insist on going to Gino’s.

There I would get one of their weird long jumbo burgers and complain the entire time. I asked her why, we went there a few years ago, and the answer was simple. She wanted their chicken, and she knew I wanted a burger, so she was trying to do both.

At the time, all I could think was, “Cursed chicken!!”

Now though, I think back to their burgers and Sirloiners and I really miss them. I was so obsessed with what I couldn’t have, I didn’t pay enough attention to how good what I was having was, and now they are gone forever.

I actually knew very little about the chain until I decided to do some research online.

Gino’s Hamburgers was a fast-food restaurant chain founded in Baltimore, Maryland, by Baltimore Colts defensive end Gino Marchetti and running back Alan Ameche, along with their close friend Louis Fischer, in 1957. In Dundalk, Maryland, just outside Baltimore, it got its official name in 1959 when the owners brought on Colts’ captain Gino Marchetti. It was an East Coast regional fast food restaurant and had 359 company-owned locations when they were acquired by Marriott Corporation in 1982. Marriott discontinued the brand and converted locations to their Roy Rogers Restaurants chain.

Here is a commercial that has some nice food shots.

And here is an even better commercial featuring TV legend, Soupy Sales.