Paying homage to that stubborn, all-American, in-your-face spirit, an iconic southern-Maine business is refusing to compromise its red-meat principles.
“Turkey burgers will not be served for the 72nd year in a row,” Rapid Ray’s owners posted on Facebook to widespread applause.
“Not all heroes wear capes,” Travis Herring of Saco said, praising Ray’s no-woke-burger policy.
To any Karens doubting that Ray Camire’s family-owned burger joint in Saco can stick to its guns, let them eat cake.
“We’re not budging,” the Camire clan told anyone who would actually relish a turkey burger over hamburger.
The late Ray Camire, a meat-cutter by trade, began his side hustle selling burgers out of a step-van in 1953 to red-blooded carnivores. In fact, the tiny truck take-out barely had enough room for him and a grill.
He’d finish his meat-cutting shift and then jump into his van and work another twelve hours hawking burgers and hot dogs.
Ray got his nickname of “Rapid Ray” in the ’60s from a group of high-school kids who couldn’t believe how fast he was.
The name stuck.
Nowadays the popular fast-food joint still bearing Ray’s nickname is putting out burgers and fries from a fully-staffed modern architectural edifice in downtown Saco.
The description “fast food” actually does Rapid Ray’s a great disservice.
Ray was McDonald’s before McDonald’s was McDonald’s.
And truly, using McDonald’s in the same sentence as Ray Camire is blasphemous.
Almost as bad as turkey burgers.
#NoTurkeyBurgers.Ever.
