This month’s Burger Bounce took us a little farther than usual. Twistee Treat Diner is in Livingston, Illinois, inside the Pink Elephant Antique Mall, and while it’s not exactly a quick trip for either of us, we knew that going in. So we decided to make a day of it.

If you’ve never been to the Pink Elephant, I’m not really sure how to describe it other than… you kind of have to see it for yourself. There is A LOT going on outside. It’s kitschy, quirky, colorful, and there are enough random roadside attractions around the place to make you wonder exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into. It’s definitely not subtle. Inside the diner, though, I really liked the 1950s feel. The checkered floor, the retro decor and all the old-school touches made it feel like we had stepped into a completely different place than the craziness outside. It was fun, and honestly, I’m a sucker for that kind of nostalgia.

We started with the fried pickle chips. Fried pickles are apparently one of those things that Jake and I continue ordering no matter how many times we’ve had them before. These were definitely greasy, although I’ve had much greasier. There was something about the breading that seemed really fresh to me, too. I have no proof of this, but I honestly got the impression that these weren’t just pulled out of a freezer and dropped in a fryer. They tasted like somebody actually made them there.

For my main meal, I went with something I had never had before, a ponyshoe. And yes, I had to look up what the heck a ponyshoe was. I knew Twistee Treat Diner offered both horseshoes and ponyshoes, but I didn’t understand why they were called that. Turns out the horseshoe is actually an Illinois original, which I found pretty interesting considering I’ve lived in St. Louis my entire life and have spent plenty of time in Illinois. Somehow, this was completely new to me. The ponyshoe was basically a burger patty topped with fries and cheese sauce, all sitting on a piece of toast. And I have to agree with Jake (you’ll hear his take in a minute), that the bread underneath really wasn’t necessary. It made the whole thing even heavier than it already was. Other than that, I really did like it. It was cheesy and filling, but definitely not something I would want to eat all the time. By the time I was finished, I felt like I needed to sit there for a minute and let my body process the decisions I had just made. But for trying something different, I’m glad I went with it.

And then there was the antique mall itself. The Pink Elephant is actually inside an old high school, which makes walking through the place even more interesting. The main part of the antique mall is in the old gym, so you’re literally walking across the original wooden gym floor while you’re shopping. The scoreboard is still hanging there, too. There was something really cool about that, especially knowing that this wasn’t just a building designed to look old. It actually had a whole other life before becoming an antique mall.

I have to admit, the outside of the whole place was probably a little much for both of us. There is so much going on that it’s almost impossible to take it all in. But once we were inside, I really enjoyed walking around and looking at everything with Jake.

Jake’s Take:

Not too far into Illinois, about 40 minutes from my place (and even further from my parents’), is the hard definition of a tourist trap destination. An abandoned high school from days long since passed, turned into an antique mall, a candy store, an attached ice cream stand, a haunted ghost tour site, and yes, for our purposes: an old-school diner. You know what you’re getting into before you even get off the highway given all the kitschy nonsense and repurposed statues outside of the place. I’m not sure what it usually looks like, I assume close to what I witnessed, though given the time of year they had already started prepping for Halloween with an undead band and skeletons and things. A retro-futuristic building that almost looked like a UFO was off to the side, which I later learned is a B&B in progress. So much going on that it was hard to understand what theme they were going for other than attention grabbing. And to be fair, it worked entirely well. The diner itself once you stepped inside was more by the books, set up to emulate the 1950’s aesthetic with checkered flooring, pink and purple on the walls, and pictures/statues of Elvis, James Dean, Marylin Monroe, and… the Blues Brothers? Lumping those characters in with real life figures even though they’re separated by decades is nothing new in the Midwest, I suppose because their style of music harkened back to a similar time in America. And at least this time I saw statues of them in Illinois, which matches the locale of the SNL skit turned movie. But I don’t know, I’ve never really understood it myself. That’s aside from the most important point though, so onto the food!

There weren’t many appetizer worthy sides to choose from, but the fried pickle chips were calling to us so that’s what we ordered. We’ve indulged in them before, but that makes no difference to the two of us. I’m sure we’ll go back to that well at some point into the future as well. And these were pretty good, it’s hard to beat simply frying slices of pickle. They might have been the hottest I’ve had, straight out of the fryer no doubt. I must wonder if they made them on site as well, as they claim to do with their meat as well? All locally sourced, that’d be even better. A downside of fried food of course is that it’s always oily and greasy, and these were especially egregious. I could feel the coating on the back of my throat and the water wasn’t helping me at all. This wasn’t a great experience, I felt like I couldn’t eat too many lest I be unable to make conversation or even just function later.

The burger, or “ponyshoe” I suppose, was excellent. I struggle to call it or the horseshoe a burger, if not the literal burger patty that sits at the bottom of the bowl. But that doesn’t matter, treat this as an experiment, in a sense. The crispy of the fries and the hot tang of the melted cheese obfuscated the meat entirely, which complemented things with surprise once you managed to get a bite. There was even a piece of toast beneath the burger to supplement a bottom bun, and it sopped up the cheese expertly. It probably wasn’t necessary at all for our purposes, and even though I enjoy biting into a bit of heated bread soaked in dairy, things would’ve been better off without it, just a little bit much. I have no real need to complain; however, I’ve eaten much more complicated things. Maybe it’s fitting given our surroundings at the time that we were eating a staple of Americana of sorts, albeit one that was foreign to the two of us. Given our venture through aisles and aisles of the adjoined antique store immediately after, the journey into a bygone America continued well into the afternoon.

There’s something about taking a little road trip with your kid that makes the destination almost beside the point. We got a ponyshoe, ate some fried pickles, wandered through an old high school full of antiques, and probably saw more random roadside attractions than we knew what to do with. But most importantly, we got another afternoon together. And honestly, I’ll take that kind of detour anytime.

With love,

Mindy