For loyal customers, Figgs Fast Food is a ‘legend spot’

Generations have returned to the same Battle Creek corner for burgers since 1988

By Nick J. Buckley/Downtown Battle Creek Zine

Customers dapped each other up as they stood on the corner of Angell Street and Hamblin Avenue, patiently waiting for the first Figgs burger of the season.

On opening day June 29, the community returned to Figgs Fast Food. For Andrew “Andy” Figgures, who opened the restaurant in 1988, what keeps his customers coming back is not too complicated.

“The burger,” he said. “Homemade fresh ground burger, never frozen. I get it fresh every morning.”

After 38 years on the edge of downtown and the Washington Heights neighborhood, Figgs remains familiar, even as new generations take their places behind the counter and in line. The red-painted building sits quietly on its own, surrounded by vacant lots, railroad tracks and the Kalamazoo River.

Figgures grew up eating hamburgers at Mr. Don’s, which originally occupied the same building. He drove past the vacant restaurant each day after the Clark Equipment plant where he worked closed. Eventually, he decided to buy it.

“I can do it too,” he recalls thinking.

It opened as Figgs Fast Food on June 30, 1988. His wife, Patricia, helped build the business and became known for her sweet potato pies and peach cobbler before her death in 2022.

Today, some of Figgures’ grandchildren help at the restaurant, part of a small team that he described as family, working shoulder-to-shoulder inside the tiny kitchen. Customers wait for orders from their cars, lean against the red-painted building or find shade at nearby picnic tables.

Taja Kirklin, a Battle Creek native, drove from Kalamazoo for opening day.

“It just brings me back to my childhood,” she said. “I love Figgs. They’ve been here forever. So, I just appreciate it that they still can give us the good food that we’ve been getting our whole life.”

Now 81, Figgures has reduced the restaurant’s season and hours in recent years as family members take on more of the work. Over the years, he has endured recessions, a pandemic and personal loss.

“I hung in there all the years,” he said.

John Thomas ordered three Figg burgers on opening day.

“It’s a legend,” he said. “It’s a legend spot.”

This article originally appeared in Downtown Battle Creek Zine and is republished with permission.

IF YOU GO
Figgs Fast Food
*Cash only
Where: 559 Hamblin Ave., Battle Creek
Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 2-7 p.m. (subject to change)
Contact: 269-753-5989
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