‘Mad Men’ re-creates Burger Chef along Route 66

The AMC television series “Mad Men” last week ended an episode with several of its characters dining at a Burger Chef restaurant.

For a drama that takes place during the 1960s, it was appropriate to stage a scene in one of that era’s quintessential burger chains. To accomplish this, the show’s creators used a former Burger Chef along Route 66 in Rialto, California, reported The LAist and other media outlets.

The actual restaurant used was Jim’s Burgers at 765 E. Foothill Blvd. (aka Route 66) in Rialto. The Burger Chef left there long ago, but the chain’s basic architecture remains the same.

On the restaurant’s Yelp page, someone uploaded an image from the “Mad Men” scene:

Here’s what Jim’s Burgers looked like in August 2013. And here’s a Google Street View image of the restaurant:

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We’re assuming the restaurant has kept the paint job added by the show’s producers.

The Burger Chef saga could take up a sizable blog post of its own. Founded in 1954, Burger Chef counted more than 1,000 locations by the early 1970s and was the No. 2 restaurant chain in the country. But it gradually sold out to Hardee’s, and the last Burger Chef shut down in 1996.

Time magazine, in the wake of the “Mad Men” episode, published a short history of the chain here. And even though the restaurant has been defunct for almost two decades, Burger Chef fans — such as this one — still populate the Internet.