Burger’s done
Without fanfare, the Sparks Nugget has deleted the Awful Awful from its menu.
The regionally known hamburger was invented by Bill Webster and Dick Graves, the co-founder with Jim Kelley of the chain of Nuggets. When Graves and Kelley split the various Nuggets between them, they both continued to offer the Awful Awful. Kelley ended up owning the Reno Nugget and Graves the Sparks Nugget.
As previously reported here (“The Awful Awful Truth,” June 27, 2013), according to Graves’ recipe, the Awful Awful is by definition a double burger, something that was not common when he invented it at his Twin Falls, Idaho, club in the 1950s.
The current menu at the Sparks Nugget now offers an “Aces Loaded Burger,” but it’s a single.
In a 2010 Travel Network Food Wars competition, the Sparks Awful Awful lost to an alleged Reno Awful Awful. But the Reno Nugget serves a single burger and calls it an Awful Awful, while the Sparks Nugget served a real Awful Awful.