A beloved Pierce County burger stand gains new family operators. Here’s what’s changing

A long-established burger stand in Fife recently traded hands, and its new operator is bringing changes, including card payments and extended hours, which he believes will improve the customer experience.

Pick-Quick Drive In , 4306 Pacific Highway E., sold June 19 to an LLC representing Brad Herron and his family, who have operated the Pick-Quick sites in Auburn and Seattle’s SoDo since 2020.

What won’t change, Herron noted, is the food.

“What’s really important to us is that when the guests come here, they have exactly the same experience they’ve had all those years,” Brad Herron told The News Tribune in a phone interview Thursday. “The burgers are the same. The shakes are the same. Everything’s the same.”

The LLC involved in the purchase is also connected to an entity affiliated with Seattle-based Icon Inc. , Pick-Quick’s investor-partners.

The site traded hands for just over $1 million, according to Pierce County records, sold by the Burgi Family Limited Partnership.

Herron told The News Tribune the site essentially changed from one family operation to the next.

“They were ready to retire and sell the business,” he said. “And we ended up being the ones that purchased the business and the real estate here.”

He emphasized the family business aspect of their work.

“We’re working on the grill. We’re here every day,” he said. “Right now I’m sitting here in Fife, and my wife’s here with me, and we’re getting ready to open the store. And my son’s on the way.

“It’s similar to the Burgis, who owned it before,” he added.

Fife site history, development

Pick-Quick has maintained its family ownership model since its creation, with help from outside investors.

Jay Adolph and Henriette Olsen opened Pick-Quick in 1949, doling out hand-scooped ice cream cones, fresh-spun milkshakes, grilled burgers and hand-cut fries. It changed hands twice before Joe and Betty Burgi and another couple took over in 1980.

The Burgis and their children continued to run the business, and in 2007 they partnered with Icon restaurant investment founder Gerard Centioli to develop the brand beyond Fife via Pick-Quick Development Co., eventually leading to the Auburn and SoDo sites operated by Herron and his wife, Janice.

In 2020, the Herrons along with their two sons started Pick-Quick Operating Co., becoming the majority owner of the Auburn and SoDo sites with Pick-Quick Development before taking on the Fife site.

Centioli, a native Seattelite who now lives in Edmonds, has worked in restaurant-business development for more than 40 years, expanding several brands beyond their original city limits, including Maggiano’s Little Italy and Corner Bakery. As an executive partner of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises , one of the most influential restaurant groups in Chicago, he partnered with that company’s founder to create Icon in 1999.

Under the Icon umbrella, Centioli and his partners brought Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Coffee to the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. They also carried the Miami-famous Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab to downtown Chicago and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Concerns emerged several years ago about the Fife burger stand’s location in the path of one of three options under consideration for Sound Transit’s light rail expansion, known as the Tacoma Dome Link extension.

Public pushback in 2019 included a Change.org petition against the route that would claim Pick-Quick, which gained more than 8,400 signatures at the time.

No final route decision has been made. If the Pick-Quick site does go to make way for the rail line, it could be 2035, or later, before the line is actually up and running, according to Sound Transit’s project page.

When asked about future sites, Herron noted that for now the focus is on the current location.

“Will we look for more locations? Yes, but we haven’t set a timeline for when we’re going to do that.”

Changes at Fife Pick-Quick

Herron told The News Tribune on Thursday that he was set to make three significant changes aimed at broadening the Fife site’s customer appeal.

“We’re going to accept credit cards,” he cited as the first change, already in effect as of early July.

Second, “We’re not going to close at six o’clock. We’re going to go ahead and remain open until eight o’clock,” starting “in the next few weeks,” he said.

The third change will appeal to Pick-Quick fans who miss it in the depths of winter.

“Throughout the years, this location was closed in December in January,” he said. “We’re no longer going to do that. We’re going to remain open so we can take care of our guests for those two months.”

The site might close earlier in the evening during that season, he added, but he felt the change would be good for continuity.

“It gives the opportunity for our guests to come in and still enjoy our products on those few months,” he said. “And it also gives our employees the opportunity to continue to work.”