USA TODAY International Edition
Culver’s flips for ‘butter burgers’
‘Slowest’ fast-food outperforms big chains
PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. – A hunk of fresh ground beef hits the hot flat-top grill in the test kitchen at Culver’s headquarters.
Craig Culver, 68, uses a spatula to press the beef into round patties.
When gray edges form around the patties, they’re ready to flip.
“That’s exactly what we’re looking for,” Culver says.
Culver can’t even estimate the number of burgers he has flipped since founding the first Culver’s with his wife, Lea, and his parents, George and Ruth.
The chain, which celebrated its 34th birthday July 18, has become known for its burgers, cheese curds and frozen custard. It is the Midwest’s answer to New York-based Shake Shack and California’s In-N-Out Burger. But Culver’s tops both in annual sales – $1.43 billion last year, compared with Shake Shack’s $359 million and In-N-Out’s $908 million, according to the Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report 2018 by Technomics.
It took three years for the first Culver’s to turn a profit.
“It was like throwing a party and nobody ever came,” Culver says of those early days.
Culver’s was a fast-casual eatery decades before it would be the hottest trend in the food industry.
“We were a pioneer in that,” Culver says. “We wanted to make it to order. I like to call us the slowest fast-food restaurant in the world, and we’re proud of it.”
As Culver’s CEO Joseph Koss puts it: “We’ve taken this Wisconsin hospitality and bring it to all the markets we come to.”
Culver’s butter burgers were inspired by a Milwaukee drive-in that was the model for Arnold’s on the TV show “Happy Days.” Its frozen custard is patterned after an Oshkosh drive-in from Craig Culver’s college days. And, of course, there are cheese curds.
“It’s really an old tavern-style burger, using fresh beef we press into a hot grill,” Culver says.
Culver’s has all the pieces in place to expand into every state from coast to coast, says David Henkes, a senior principal at Technomics.
“I think the entire Culver family has created the culture,” Koss says.
All of which Culver says provides owners and employees the “opportunity to make such a difference with so many people each and every day by just being themselves. Just being a good person.”