But he said there had not been "one mention of what made Keith's so different from others".

"Keith's Kitchen specialised in providing an open burger on a plate with a knife and fork, with the option of having the egg sunny side up, not the smashed version served today, to be eaten in cubicles attached to the wall for the same price," Carl said.

"This civilised method still serves me today, as I have drawn attention at the big burger place, carrying and using a paper plate and knife and fork."

All we can think of now is George Costanza eating a Mars Bar with a knife and fork in an episode of Seinfeld.

The debate over reports of a second Keith's Kitchen is heating up.

"There was a second Keith's Kitchen in Hunter Street in Civic block - between Wheeler Place and Auckland Street - on the southern side of the street," Cardiff's Howard Trevethan said, adding that it operated in the mid-to-late 1950s.

"It would be about where the eastern corner of the new university building is today. Nock and Kirby built a store very near to it."

Howard said his wife had typing lessons in 1958/59 at Power Coaching College, "which was opposite Keith's Kitchen".

"After lessons, she crossed the street to get a hamburger, then waited for the bus home. The bus stop was near Keith's Kitchen.

"It's nice to remember old Newcastle."

Cameron Park's Ian Wright is among those who dispute the existence of a second Keith's Kitchen in Hunter Street.

"As a lifelong Newcastle resident and a regular at the Town Hall dances in the 1950s, I was pretty familiar with the Civic block," Ian said.

"There was definitely no hamburger joint in that part of Hunter Street. There was Chris's milk bar between the Civic Theatre and Auckland Street, but it didn't serve hamburgers.

"I was also a regular at Keith's Kitchen in Pacific Street; best hamburgers in town. Mind you, in those days there weren't hamburger places on every second corner as there are today."

Memories have been flooding back about Joe Wellings, who ran Keith's Kitchen in Pacific Street.

Back in the day, Redhead's Col Murray prepared plans and gained approval for a two-storey addition to the rear of the hamburger shop.

The plans were missing a crucial measurement. Col, a late night operator, drove into Pacific Street at 1am one morning, parked opposite the lane adjoining the shop and headed down the lane armed with a torch and measuring tape.

A slamming car door in the night alarmed Col, who turned to see three blokes at his car. Col quietly slipped along the laneway wall to Pacific Street, then hurled the torch high in the air. The spinning light flashed around in all directions before hitting the road and shattering with a crash and bang.

The car thieves were so startled, they shot through. When the account for the work was presented to Joe, it showed a dollar value for the work, plus one torch.

When Joe questioned the torch part and heard the story, he responded with a cheque and a big hamburger. The hamburger, he said, covered the busted torch.

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