Currently, across from Mich-e-ke-wis Park, at the corner of State Avenue and Mason Street, is a car wash and quick oil change complex.

For the better part of the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, on this site stood a small one-story wooden building known as Tony’s.

During this time era, the park was known for its summertime beach and a stadium there where Alpena High and Catholic Central played football. During the winter the field was flooded for hockey, speed and figure skating. Nearby was the city water plant once surrounded by massive evergreen trees. This area was known as a great makeout site.

The Eatery

Courtesy Photo Sadik Hysen, better known in Alpena as the legendary Tony of Tony Burger fame, is seen in this undated photo.

Tony’s, owned and operated by Sadik Hysen, was perhaps a 600-square-foot green and white painted structure. Near the front door was a variety of Coca Cola metal signs affixed to the building.

Once inside you followed the path of a well-worn linoleum floor heading toward the stainless-steel grill and nearby serving table.

Cokes were served from a large red and white floor cooler where you slid open the top drawer, reached in and brought out your beverage from a pool of water and ice. The 6.5-ounce glass beverage bottle caps were pried open using a bottle opening device affixed to the cooler.

Tony’s had a limited seating area of wooden and chrome tables and chairs. Black paper napkin dispensers were on each table. Ketchup and hot sauce bottles were placed on the serving table.

Tony’s hamburgers tended to always come with grilled onions and mustard. Sometimes with a slice of cheese on top. There were no serving plates or containers. The hamburgers were handed to you wrapped in wax paper.

Additional food offerings? Bags of potato chips from Bay City’s Made-Rite.

That’s it for Tony’s menu. However, sometimes he would offer children a chocolate bar.

Tony usually had a female server working with him. In a 2017 Alpena News article reflecting on Tony’s, Doug Pugh described Tony’s server, “rouged, gum chewing – lounging.”

There also seemed to be a number of cats roaming the eatery. Well fed, for sure.

The aroma of Tony’s was glorious.

In a recent Facebook posting on Tony’s, Lorraine McCormick commented, “We had our Catholic Central High School football games on Friday nights at Mich-e-ke-wis field. As Catholics we could not eat meat on Friday. The aroma from Push ’em Up Tony’s was a killer.”

On the hamburger meat being delivered to Tony’s, Anne Jodway Peters noted on Facebook, “My dad, Harland Jodway, owned Phil’s IGA. I worked there all through high school. I delivered 25-pound trays of burger to his shop three to four times a day on weekends, during the winter skating season, and more during festivals.” She continued, “Tony would open each hamburger tray and taste a bit of raw burger to be sure it was not too fatty, before he would pay me! I loved going there as he always offered me a burger. Tony was highly offended because I always asked for no onions. I found out that was an insult to him.”

Tony: The Legend

Pugh’s article and Facebook postings revealed Tony arrived in Alpena from Albania known as Sadik Hysem. He changed his name to Tony Harrison. Pugh added, Tony was a Muslim.

How he received his nickname; “Push ’em up,” Pugh commented it was a line he frequently said when preparing a customer’s order over the grill.

However, on the Facebook site honoring Tony’s, Dave Pruden offered this history, “Tony worked on a road maintenance crew with my father-in-law. He actually got the name push ’em up from there. Back then there was no hydraulics on the dump carts. Tony being the biggest guy had the job of lifting the front of the cart to dump the load. When it was in position the teamster of the horses and cart would holler, ‘Push ’em up Tony.’ And that moniker stuck with him for life.”

When Tony’s ceased operations, Calvin Kemp recalled, “My father purchased that property for his State Street Auto Wash site in 1972. We found hundreds of hot sauce bottles buried in the ground. It was definitely an Alpena institution.”

In a Facebook post, Sally Szczukowski offered perhaps the best overall reflection on Tony’s, “It was fun being a kid during those days when Tony was making his famous burgers … we could walk in with our ice skates on in the winter … and walk in with our wet bathing suits on in the summer. Nobody has ever come close to making burgers like Push ’em up Tony!!”

Tony passed in 1965 and is interred in Alpena’s Evergreen Cemetery.

The Legend Lives On

In the sky above us, the late Tony Harrison must still be grilling hamburgers and petting his cats.

Back here on Earth, a slice of Tony’s culinary art lives on.

Former Alpena resident Jerry Murrell, a graduate of Alpena Community College and the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor founded the international Five Guys hamburger restaurants.

In numerous interviews Murrell states, in part, he patterned his hamburger concept after Tony’s.

However, his restaurants have added French fries, hot dogs, grilled cheese, multi-beverage dispenser, milk shakes, and peanuts to toss on the floor. The hamburgers are not wrapped in wax paper, but rather aluminum foil.

If you head west on M-32 you will find a Five Guys on Main Street in Gaylord. There are over three dozen Five Guys across Michigan’s lower peninsula.

Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes feature stories and op-eds for various newspapers, magazines, and social media sites.. As a Vietnam-era veteran, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He served on the public affairs staff of the Secretary of the Navy. He grew up in Alpena and resides in suburban Detroit.