Kelsey:

Among the many things I’ve picked up from my Dad over the years (fishing, hiking, prompt oil changes in my car), fast food is probably my number one love, or better yet, fast food from old school drive thrus.

An example of this is Side Trax Diner in Blairmore in the Crowsnest Pass. Complete with tiled floors, red chairs and the old school table side jukebox, Side Trax has vintage flair with an extensive and quite modern day menu. Don’t get me wrong they still serve up a great burger and fries but Side Trax is a little different than your average drive thru.

For starters the place serves up either homemade burgers or you can go for the usual not-homemade and secondly, it’s not just a burger and fry joint as you can also get menu items such as salads, jambalaya, Philly cheese steak and breakfast offerings.

I had a homemade Trax burger ($5.25) which comes with the usual suspects lettuce, tomato and mayo and I added cheese, bacon and mushrooms ($0.55 each) and banana peppers ($0.35). The homemade burger was grilled to perfection, very tender and went well with my chosen marriage of flavours but was a tidge small for the very fresh bun it was served on. The Holy Grail of burgers is one that has the perfect bun to patty ratio and such a unicorn is quite rare.

My sweet potato fries were deep fried nuggets of love with a sprinkling of sea salt and the home cut fries Papa Bear had were quite tasty. For the gluten-free fans in the crowd, Trax was more than happy to serve my mom a burger sans bun on a lovely bed of lettuce with all the fixins’.