An out-of-this-world creation that has been a fixture of Gate City area cuisine for more than six decades is preparing for one final takeoff.

The famous flying saucer-shaped spaceburger will soon become just a nostalgic conversation piece of Pocatello’s past when Tastee Treet, the only place in town that served the UFO-themed burger, closes its doors for good next week.

After operating the restaurants that have served up spaceburgers, slush puppies and over 20 milkshake flavors to the Gate City area for 67 years, owner Steve Porter has recently decided to sell both of the buildings that Tastee Treet calls home, the original location at 1555 S. Fifth Ave. in Pocatello and the second location that opened 18 years ago at 5231 Yellowstone Ave. in Chubbuck.

“It was not my intention to sell Tastee Treet,” Porter told the Idaho State Journal during a recent phone interview. “I started working here when I was 12, so I’ve been doing this for 34 years and after more than three decades of doing the same thing, I was just not as passionate about it as I once was. I told my family if I could sell it for what I paid for it, I’d walk away. It’s not that Tastee Treet was failing. We’re choosing to do this and walk away. It’s sad. It’s hard for some members of my family, but you know what, it’s time.”

As the local community prepares to say goodbye to one of its beloved burger joints, with the Chubbuck location’s last day set for April 14, Porter spoke to the Journal about the storied history of Tastee Treet and its one-of-a-kind spaceburger machines, the future plans for both of the buildings and some of the items he plans to cross off the “honey-do” list his wife has been making for him for the past 20 years.

Porter’s father, Rhoud, purchased the original Tastee Treet in Pocatello across from Mountain View Cemetery in 1975. Porter said he is unsure of the exact year the late Kay Smith founded the restaurant but he has vendor records dating back as early as 1955.

Many have rumored over the years that Tastee Treet invented the spaceburger, but the machines that make the UFO-shaped burgers actually debuted at the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, Porter said.

Spaceburgers are simple. A mixture of seasoned ground beef, cheese and shredded lettuce is sandwiched between two pieces of white bread that is then loaded into a special circular machine. At about 400 degrees, it takes less than a minute for the machine to simultaneously cut off the crust, crimp the outside edges together and toast the bread, with the final product resembling a flying saucer.

“Kay did not invent the machines as some people believe.” Porter said. “Actually, he bought them from a salesperson.”

In 1992, Rhoud had the old cinder block Tastee Treet building on South Fifth torn down and replaced it with the building that sits there today, Porter said.

In 2005, the family opened the second location on Yellowstone Avenue in Chubbuck. Porter purchased Tastee Treet from his parents, Rhoud and his mother Susan, about 12 years ago.

When the original location was torn down in 1992, Porter said they needed more spaceburger machines and he also wanted to see if the iconic burgers could be improved at all. He worked with a local machine shop to reverse engineer the spaceburger machines and then had some new ones custom built. The new machines allowed Tastee Treet to make two spaceburgers per machine at once and were also a little deeper, which resulted in bigger burgers, Porter said.

“We had talked to an attorney about whether or not we could patent these and just the research to get to that point would have cost us tens of thousands of dollars,” he added. “I heard from a lady years ago that she found one at a thrift store in Boise for 25 bucks. I offered her $1,000 on the spot for it and she wouldn’t take it.”

Though local residents only have until April 14 to grab one of Tastee Treet’s last spaceburgers, it may not be everybody’s last one. Rather than put himself in the impossible position of being forced to choose who he should sell the spaceburger machines to when the business closes, Porter says he is going to auction them off with Primetime Auctions. He said he knows he’ll never get back what he paid to have the machines custom built, but he wants to be able to let some local residents keep the nostalgia alive inside their own kitchens.

“I just figured the most fair way is for the public to decide what they’re worth to them,” Porter said. “I think mostly it’s the locals that are going to be interested. I’m not going to ship them and I’m not going to do eBay. I want people in Pocatello to be able to enjoy them if they want them.”

Porter said he has a notebook at the Chubbuck location where local residents can provide their name and contact information and he will notify them when the spaceburger machines are going to be auctioned off.

Porter said, “I just don’t want to be the guy that says, ‘Well, I’m gonna give it to my friend’ or, ‘Oh, you’re a closer friend than this guy is.’ I just don’t want to play that game. I don’t want to be the bad guy, you know. I’m already going to be hated because I’m the one that closed down Tastee Treet.”

As for the future plans for both buildings, Porter is hopeful the local community will show some support to the incoming tenants. He said the new tenants are a little weary of being known as the folks who helped usher in the end of Tastee Treet.

He said the Pocatello location, which closed down in January after the general manager suddenly passed away, will soon become a used car dealership while the Chubbuck location will be the new home of two longstanding businesses. LDA Security, a locksmithing company, is moving from Pershing Avenue into part of the Chubbuck store and Double Shot Coffee will set up shop in the Chubbuck store’s drive-thru area, Porter said.

Porter said both deals came together incredibly quickly. He agreed on the terms to sell the buildings on March 20. Porter said that because of how fast the deals came together, the goal is to sell out of every item at Tastee Treet, so he encourages anyone who wants to have one last spaceburger to get one while supplies last.

While his days at Tastee Treet are numbered, Porter isn’t quite ready to leave the food industry behind altogether. And his next venture includes a food item that’s almost as equally out of this world as UFO-shaped burgers: Flying pigs.

Porter isn’t actually in the flying pig business, but he will be selling something called a pig wing at the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot this summer. He’ll also be dishing out some deep-fried watermelon.

“I reached out to Bob File (the president of the Montana-based meat company Pioneer Meats) and got his permission to use the copyrighted name of pig wings, which is a slow-smoked pork shank that comes off of the anterior thigh bone right next to the ham bone,” Porter said. “It’s tender like ham but falls off the bone like a really meaty rib. We dip them in our own barbecue sauce and they’re just fantastic.”

Porter continued, “And then we worked with Sysco to use their test kitchen in Boise where we tried out several different batters for a deep-fried watermelon. We developed a crispy batter that we slather on a watermelon wedge and then dress it up with a raspberry drizzle and some powdered sugar. We’re super excited about both of these.”

Porter said he also has some investment properties and some other irons in the fire to keep him busy.

“I’m telling people that I’m retiring at 45 but, you know, it’s really that there’s 20-plus years of a ‘honey-do’ list that I’ve never been able to have time to get to that my wife’s now going to have me getting to,” he said. “I just want to give a huge kudos to the employees that worked with us over the years, the ones that are sticking with us until the end here and to all of the customers who have supported us over the years. Thanks for the many great years.”