Murphy's Steakhouse, Bartlesville, Okla.

My first dinner back in Bartlesville this weekend was at the six decades-old diner out on the west side of town, Murphy's Steakhouse. This is a place I've gone since I was but a wee child, and everyone in Bartlesville goes there, from ranch hands to Phillips Petroleum executives. You never know who you'll see when you go out.

I'm starting to feel a bit old, though, since I remember when the founders of the diner still cooked and presided over the cash register; today, not only has their son retired from running the place, their grandson now runs it.

Not much has changed inside the restaurant, though. They still have the same old booths with the same old vinyl banquets, the same style plates and plastic glasses. I've always been in awe of the waitresses here and their ability to carry three or four hot plates full of food on one arm and two or three plates in the other hand.

The menu is much the same, too, and we ate the traditional foods at Murphy's, which, interestingly enough, isn't steak.

I had a hamburger steak. It's one of the great traditions here. They take an oversized hamburger patty, cook it on the grill, cover it with grilled onions, drown it in their own brown gravy, and serve it up, hot and steaming. Along with the steak is a shredded iceberg lettuce salad with a delicious garlic dressing I've gotten no where else, and a huge baked potato dripping in butter and sour cream. This is definitely not the place for dieters and those watching their cholesterol levels! It's really enough food for two, especially if you were to get a second salad, but everyone always gets their own.

My parents each chose the other Murphy's tradition, the "hot hamburger." This is a big tower of food made by starting with a couple of pieces of thick toast on which is placed a big grilled hamburger patty, then it's topped with a mound of hand-cut French fries, and then covered in brown gravy. In the case of both of these entrees, the plates in the photos are really much larger than they appear (look at the baked potato plate—that's the size of a normal plate at many diners). The food's still good here; in fact, I think it's improved somewhat over a slump they had a few years back.

Once we were done, we waddled home.