How City Boy's Blair Hicks dreamed up the burger Anchorage wants

I already liked City Boy Burgers before I went inside the first time. It was a dark evening in early spring and idling cars filled the parking lot, bass beats thumping in the dark, snow feathering down. You could tell people were into it.

Then I picked up my order and the burger bewitched me.

City Boy, which is take-out only and located in a Mountain View Drive strip mall just north of the Glenn Square Mall, has only four items on the menu: burgers, fries, a patty melt and wings. The burger must be the skinniest smash burger in the north, pressed so thin on a hot grill that it’s lacy and caramelized on the edges. They dress it a little like In-N-Out Burger’s animal-style burger — stacked with salty pickles, savory grilled onions, melty American cheese and house-made Thousand Island dressing and slide it inside an ultra-soft brioche bun.

You can get a single patty or stack them, but nothing tops the City Boy jalapeño b…