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The first time you drop by Pal’s Sudden Service for a burger, you might, as I did, find yourself driving all the way around the restaurant, looking for the entrance. Don’t bother, because there is none. Get in the fast-moving line, behind everyone else, and roll up to the window, where someone — typically very patient, congenial, even — will be glad to take your order. (No talking into a microphone, here.)

You don’t pay now; that happens later, after you’ve driven around the building, typically a rectangular stack of a thing, painted robin’s egg blue and appearing to be swallowing a giant hamburger, while also providing a place for a giant hot dog, French fries, and a soda to sit and relax. Pal’s is nothing like a normal fast food joint. The whole look screams retro-fabulousness, the kind you see all over Southern California, except that you’re thousands of miles away, in East Tennessee.

Founded in the 1950s by Fred “Pal” Barger, Pal’s fast food is regarded by its industry peers as one of the best-run burger chains in a country that’s spoiled for burger options; so well-oiled a machine is Pal’s, it even managed to snag the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award one year — it’s an honor that typically goes to hospitals, educational institutions, even luxury hotels. It was the first time the award went to a fast food chain.

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