Space Burger booth to open next week

MOSES LAKE — Space Burgers are back. For a few days, anyway. 

The Moses Lake Lioness Club will open its Space Burger booth March 21-23 at the Grant County Fairgrounds, Lioness Michaelle Boetger wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. 

The Space Burger is one of Grant County’s most enduring traditions, a flying-saucer-shaped toasted sandwich of ground beef, shredded lettuce and a special sauce. It made its debut at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, and when that was over, the Moses Lake Lioness Club acquired the machines used to make them. They’ve been a big seller at the Grant County Fair ever since. 

“Since 1964 the Lioness Lions Club of Moses Lake has given back over $1,000,000 to the Moses Lake community,” Boetger wrote. “That’s a lot of Space Burgers!” 

For many years, the fairgrounds hosted an annual three-day Spring Fair in April that featured some of the same attractions as the August fair, including carnival rides, vendors and food. The Spring Fair ceased to be in 2012, according to the Columbia Basin Herald’s archives, but the Lioness Club continued to open its booth for one weekend every spring. 

“We do probably half as much in sales (in the spring) as we do at the fair,” said Lioness Club Secretary Sarah Bullinger. “That's a pretty substantial amount. We get a lot of the people calling, (asking) ‘Can we get 75 Space Burgers? We’ll be there at 11 to pick them up.’” 

Space Burgers will be available Friday and Saturday, March 21-22, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge that weekend to get into the fairgrounds, where a youth livestock show and an RV show will also be taking place. The Lionesses are hoping to coordinate next year’s Space Burger weekend with the Columbia Basin Home and Garden Show, which took place this year Feb. 28-March 1, Bullinger said. 

Some of the proceeds from the Space Burgers will benefit Care Moses Lake, Lioness Michaelle Boetger said via email. Care Moses Lake serves the community by making up 200 free sack lunches every week for those in need, supplying food to New Hope/Kids Hope, Youth Dynamics and the Boys and Girls Club, according to its website. 

“The rest goes in to cover expenses, and then whatever is left over goes back into the community as well,” Bullinger said. “We put it into our donation account, and when people reach out for a donation, we use those funds for that.” 

The Lioness have funds available for other community organizations, Bullinger added. Organizations interested in receiving assistance from the Lioness Club can submit a request to the club at P.O. Box 21, Moses Lake, WA, 98837. 

    Space Burgers come hot off the machine at the Lioness Club’s booth at the Grant County Fairgrounds.