Love sliders? Don’t love feeling ill after a trip to White Castle? If your travels bring you to the Mountain Time Zone, look up GoodTimes. This mini-chain, mostly in Colorado, sells, among other things, a 59 cent Bambino burger, which is like a slider, but even better. Here’s how: They use Coleman beef – 100% natural – for one. Okay, so Coleman’s not Niman Ranch, but this is fast food we are talking about. The meat tastes real. This is not SOP for a fast food restaurant, in my recollection.

Also, they use really decent potato rolls (mmm….yellow bread) instead of white-bleached-boring. Top it off with fry sauce (really just 1,000 Island Dressing), pickle and in my case, cheese, and you’ve got a fantastic and affordable slider.

They also sell custard, chicken tenders, other burgers and more typical fast food. Not paying attention. Too busy eating sliders.

You will sometimes find GoodTimes sharing space with another chain that you might not have heard of, called Taco John’s. It’s like Taco Bell, except when you eat their food, you actually taste something beyond the container the food was shipped in.

Taco John’s does a grilled burrito that they’ll add nacho cheese and sour cream to, if you so prefer. Horrible, horribly good. Again, their meat is real, and the tortillas are decent – again, they taste like something. They fry their own chips and taco salad baskets, and sell cinnamon-dusted sopapilla bites for dessert.

You’ll find Taco John’s mostly in the cold states, stretching all the way from Wisconsin to Seattle. Essentially, they seem to have found a hole in the market and pounced. Now, nobody driving across the Dakotas ever need go without a taco burger. (That’s right – a taco burger. It’s a taco, but it’s also a burger. Why do we not have this at home?)