EDITOR'S NOTE: Following is one of several vignettes commissioned by the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce as a part of the Cozy Inn 100th anniversary celebration. The decade the grill was replaced has been corrected per information from Cozy Inn.
By TIM UNRUH
For the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce
A near century-old grill at the Cozy Inn is just about irreplaceable, said former co-owner Max Holthaus.
A restaurant equipment salesman convinced owners before him to replace the grill with a larger one, in the 1960s, assuming more grill capacity was needed.
“They took out the old grill and put it on the shelf. Two or three days later, they decided it wasn’t going to work,” Holthaus said. “Customers complained that the sliders didn’t taste the same.”
The trusty old grill was brought out of a short retirement.
The same effect was noticed when Holthaus installed an ionizer years later, to “solve the smell,” he said.
But the Cozys tasted like metal.
“It’s one of those things you cannot mess with. You cannot mimic the same taste on another grill,” Holthaus said. “I also put in a more powerful hood system but had to dial it way down. You change it, and you change the burgers. I learned my lessons. Little things matter.”
The old grill is made of thin metal, about the thickness of a car fender, he said, and it’s heated by gas jets.
“It would crack every once in awhile and we had to have it welded,”
Holthaus said. “It’s kinda porous, like a cast iron skillet. You could take a piece of fish and throw it on that griddle and it would end up tasting like a Cozy Burger.”
READ: Cozy Inn a global treasure in downtown Salina
READ: Cozy Inn: A day of gratitude and thousands of burgers