last night logan ryan smith, who i think spent several years of his childhood here in sac, wrote about his memories of a cheap-ass, trash steak house chain that was based in fresno. a quick google search and i found a pic of the happy steak tray. as a child i loved the place. because it was cheap, and because it was steak, my parents took us there all the time. i recall the baked spuds as being utterly delicious and each steak was garnished with a plastic tine label with either 'rare', 'medium rare', 'well done' and so on.

happy steak was the poor man's sizzler where any sort of pretensions were whittled down to a baked potato, steak, cheese bread [fantastic!] and fountain drinks served in red plastic tumblers. another treat was the endless supply of oily - because we're talking about the '70s here these crackers were baked in a kind of oil and were not light, you didn't go to a steakhouse if you wanted to eat healthy - rye krisp crackers placed at every table.

the store we frequented is located on arden way, a major artery that sweeps past the arden fair mall. directly across the street - and this is in answer to logan's query - was indeed a carl's jr, which is still there. so is the happy steak building but it is now a chinese buffet. happy steak closed down in the late '80s. my first serious girlfriend worked as a waitress at happy steak for a few months.

even tho i've not eaten meat in close to 20 years i still love the place. what i miss the most was the cheese bread. it was a small, totally unpretentious restaurant and i can still see in my mind's eye the lay-out of the tables, the line cooks and the corridor where the wait staff would gather our orders. and yes, logan, as i recall the interior was wood-paneled, but i have to check with my brother whose memory is greater than mine.