11/27/1986
By Del Jones/El Paso Times
Twenty-five years ago, before El Paso met McDonald’s, the Cox family opened a hamburger drive-in on the West Side. It was the day before Thanksgiving.
The Cox family was warned that Mesa Street was not a good place to start a business. Mile long stretches separated stores and more tumbleweeds than customers blew by.
But Mesa had just been widened to six lanes, and Robert Cox Sr. figured there had to be a reason. Seven years later the millionth car passed through the Charcoaler.
Fast-food franchises have since discovered the joy of Mesa. More than 40 other restaurants have moved in. But all must compete with a pair of Charcoalers, still owned by the Cox family.
They moved to El Paso from Oklahoma City in 1961 because Robert Cox Jr. had asthma. At age 10 1/2 he weighed 52 pounds and a doctor said he would die unless he moved to a dry climate.
“I doubled my weight,” in no time at all Robert Jr. said.
Burgers were 35 cents in 1961, Cokes 15 cents – pretty steep prices for the day. But the Charcoaler was the first in town with a drive-up window and the Cox family moved cars through at the rate of one per minute.
The Charcoaler also was the first to take orders with an intercom, and the family tells stories of people, upon hearing a voice, searching comically for a human body.
A taste, not only of hamburgers, but of nostalgia lingers for many El Pasoans who spent much f their youth hanging out at the Charcoaler.
Every city has a place were teenagers gather. “We were that place,” Robert Co Sr. said.
A fight once broke out after a high school football game between Austin and Coronado, bringing 13 police cars to the Charcoaler. Squad cars routinely patrolled the grounds.
Almost overnight teen-age problems disappeared in the early 1970s. “That’s when they let 18-year-olds go to bars,” Robert Cox Sr. said. Fewer cars went through the Charcoaler drive-in after that, but sales increased.
The menu has not changed much in 25 years. There are now 11 main items instead of seven. The 12th, a burrito, will be added soon.
I remember when they first opened on Mesa Street and my first Charcoaler hamburger experience. It was the very best burger ever. Now whenever I crave a burger and onion rings, it's always "oh I wish we had a Charcoaler here." I haven't been back to El Paso in 10 years but it just may be time to re-aquaint myself with the incomparable Charcoaler hamburger. Any chance they might want to open a place in Bryan/College Station? I'll be glad to find them a good location.
Bea Green, Austin HS Class of 1966
Posted by: Bea Gree | July 05, 2011 at 07:28 AM
It looks so delicious, Even i showed this blog to my mum and she promised me that she will prepare hamburger for me from this hamburger recipe. And i love to have it.
Posted by: Tom Gardens | July 16, 2011 at 05:59 AM
Wao! yummy dish. my all friends like it. even when we think to throw a party, we simply go to jim's home . His mother make it for us from hamburger recipe .
Posted by: John Dude | August 18, 2011 at 08:05 AM