15 Things You Should Know About White Castle Before Your Next Burger Binge
The facts will teach you everything you wanted to know about your favorite fast food joint!
Walt Anderson was a line cook in Kansas and was frustrated with the way meatballs stuck to the griddle. So, we smacked one with his spatula and accidentally created the flat patty.Â
Anderson opened a burger stand with an $80 loan that had fast, efficient service and sold 5 cent burgers by the stack. He quickly expanded to four locations.
Beef burgers were thought of as low quality meat. The name White Castle, conveying purity and royalty, was used to combat that.
Billy Ingram, White Castle's CEO started a subsidiary called Porcelain Steel Buildings to build lightweight structures. He later started a company called Paperlynen that made paper hats.
The original burger was a small beef patty that was cooked over shredded onions and then placed in a bun.
Ingram offered pension plans, sick days and pay grades of $18-$30 a week when the company first started. Many people wanted to work there.
It was called the Hot Hamburger. It contains short stories, sales advice and jokes.
New employees were expected to undergo a two week unpaid apprenticeship, wear all white, be extremely courteous to customers and keep their hair short.
Ingram funded some odd studies, one involving a med student who only ate White Castle for 13 weeks to prove that the food is nutritious.
The Hamburgers to Fly program delivered burgers anywhere in the U.S. within 24 hours.Â
The hall of fame for devoted diners started in 2001. A couple collectively ate 200 pounds of sliders.
Kal Penn ate veggie sliders while shooting the movie, which helped further popularize the restaurants.
You can get one here.
Lisa Ingram, the current CEO, will take a shift everyone now and then at a location near headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.