In 1978, Lower Greenville Avenue was not the place it is now. There wasn’t much business on the strip at all. That year, Pat Snuffer opened a small burger joint next to the Granada Theater with one dining room that seated 55 people. What he had in mind was simple: a fun place where SMU students could get a burger and a cold beer.
Cheddar fries weren’t on the original menu. As Snuffer told the story, a group of SMU students asked the kitchen to put cheese on their fries, and he kept working on the idea from there. He later said that, as far as he knew, Snuffer’s was the first place to serve them. The menu at Snuffer’s still credits that first order to the original location on Lower Greenville in 1978.
Here’s how the menu describes the Cheddar Fries today. They start with hand-cut Idaho potato fries, piled with freshly grated aged Wisconsin cheddar. Ranch comes on the side. If you want them loaded, add bacon crumbles, sour cream and jalapeños.
Back in 2011, Snuffer talked about second- and third-generation customers still coming in, people who had been eating there since high school or college.
The restaurant on Greenville kept growing until it could seat around 350, and by 2013 there were seven Snuffer’s around the Metroplex. That was also the year Pat Snuffer lost the company he built.
In March 2013, Snuffer’s Restaurants Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That spring he tore down the old Greenville building with plans to put up a new one that, as he promised at the time, would look and feel like the original. That summer, Mike Karns of Firebird Restaurant Group, the company behind El Fenix, bought the Snuffer’s bank note. It was Snuffer himself who had introduced Karns to the bank.
In November, the bankruptcy court handed Firebird six Snuffer’s locations along with the name. Pat kept the Greenville Avenue property. Firebird and Pat sent out announcements within minutes of each other that same evening, and Pat’s said he would open Pat’s Burger & Cheddar Fries on the very spot where Snuffer’s began, with his son Mike and longtime associate Steve Cole. CraveDFW covered that news the day it broke.
Firebird went to court to stop it, arguing that a burger-and-cheddar-fries restaurant on that corner was Snuffer’s in everything but name. A judge issued a temporary restraining order, and just before Christmas the two sides settled. Pat dropped his plans. The rebuilt building on Greenville reopened as a Snuffer’s in March 2014, under its new owner.
It was a hard way for a 35-year run to end. Pat didn’t stay out of the restaurant business for good, though. Some years later he and Mike opened State 28 Grill near Love Field, a restaurant named for Texas’ place as the 28th state.
Today there are Snuffer’s locations around the Metroplex, including Addison, Rockwall, Highland Village and Colleyville. The menu still credits the cheddar fries to the original Snuffer’s on Lower Greenville in 1978.
If you only order one thing, order the fries. If you’re staying for a while, the burger menu includes a Dr Pepper burger, and a basket of cheddar fries in the middle of the table goes with all of it.
One more date for the calendar. Snuffer’s has made a tradition of celebrating National Cheddar Fry Day in April, and the original Greenville Avenue spot is the obvious place to mark it.
Snuffer’s is at 3526 Greenville Ave. in Dallas. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. Call 214-826-6850, or find the other locations on the Snuffer’s website.
