Photos by Eric Marks
Sometimes you just want a juicy burger and a delicious milkshake. It doesn’t have to be fancy—in fact it’s better if it is not. But no matter who you are, every once in a while, you need to indulge in this quintessential American meal.
Enter Scooper’s. Sure, there are a million places to get your fix, but Scooper’s offers a dose of nostalgia alongside your crispy fries. With two locations—one in Reno and one in Sparks—the establishment boasts those drive-up car parks where you can read the menu from the comfort of your car and wait for a carhop to bring out your order. Or you can skip up to the window, which is always open (carhop services may be sporadic).
A small inside space with a few tables is ideal on a rainy day, but when the weather allows, parking your tush on a picnic table in one of two outdoor seating areas is preferred.
Food is all made to order, which means it’s fresh. It also means you should plan to wait 15 minutes for your grub to come out, and don’t show up five minutes to closing because they might have already stopped taking orders. Don’t worry, all this preparation is worth it.
The menu is heavy in burger options, offering up classics and also some more specialties. The Hawaiian burger is dripping with teriyaki sauce and Swiss cheese. Plus, the burger doesn’t skimp on grilled pineapple or bacon. The Bullseye burger is more akin to your typical cowboy order, with Swiss and American cheeses, bacon, two onion rings, BBQ sauce and Thousand Island dressing smothered on a bun. The Ortega burger kicks it up a notch with Ortega chili and American cheese.
Basically, there are a lot of options, and every one of them starts with a ¼-pound to ¾-pound patty of delicious ground beef. It’s part of what helped earn Scooper’s the designation of Best Hole in the Wall Burger from MSN.
Regardless of the seemingly endless options, my go-to order is a classic quarter pound burger with American cheese (hold the tomato). The finished product is cooked perfectly and the burger is always juicy, never dry. The lettuce on the burger is ideal, shredded so it’s easy to consume, plus chopped onions and “special sauce,” (which we all know is basically Thousand Island).
Because everything is made to order, the options to customize are also endless. You can build your own burger or add basically any available ingredient to one on the menu (there just may be an extra charge).
And if you don’t feel like a burger, it’s not the only choice (even if it is the main one). Hot dogs, tacos and burritos are all available, plus grilled cheese and grilled chicken sandwiches. Kids meals include an option for chicken tenders.
Get a family-size basket of fries to share (it’s huge) and you can be out the door without breaking the bank. In fact, you can feed a family of four for less than $25. No seriously. The “family pack” is an order of four single burgers, four small fries and four 16 oz. sodas for $21.99.
The milkshakes are the other standout item on the menu, in large part because there are just so many flavors to choose from. The Oreo one comes with a full-sized Oreo inside.
Then there are fruity flavors like peach, strawberry and blueberry, and those that are a bit more decadent: Butterfinger, Reese’s Pieces, hot fudge, candy cane, birthday cake, butter pecan and cheesecake. I’ll be honest, this is only scratching the surface; there are over 50 flavors in total, and that’s before you start getting creative.
