White Castle (restaurant) facts for kids
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White Castle in Shepherdsville, Kentucky
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Trade name
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White Castle |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Fast food |
| Founded | September 13, 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
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| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Number of locations
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345 (2024) |
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Areas served
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Key people
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Lisa Ingram (CEO) |
| Products | Sliders, french fries, breakfast, soft drinks, milkshakes |
| Revenue | US$ 720.6 million  (2019) |
| Owner | Ingram family |
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Number of employees
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10,000 |
White Castle Management Co. is an American fast-food restaurant chain. It is famous for its small, square hamburgers called "sliders." White Castle has about 345 restaurants in 13 states. Most of these are in the Midwest and the New York metropolitan area.
The company started on September 13, 1921, in Wichita, Kansas. Many people believe White Castle was the world's first fast-food hamburger chain. Their burgers cost only five cents for many years. In 2014, Time magazine called the White Castle slider "The Most Influential Burger of All Time." White Castle restaurants look like small white castles. The company celebrated its 100th birthday in 2021.
Contents
The Story of White Castle
How it Started
Walter "Walt" A. Anderson was a cook who ran food stands in Wichita, Kansas. He started his first diner in 1916. He met Edgar Waldo "Billy" A. Ingram, who worked in insurance and real estate. Together, they decided to create the White Castle chain.
Building the Brand
White Castle officially began in March 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. Anderson and Ingram wanted to make White Castle a chain of restaurants. They also wanted to market their special burgers. In 1924, they officially formed their business. They called it White Castle System of Eating Houses Corporation.
Anderson and Ingram started with only $700 for their first White Castle. The very first building is no longer there.
At that time, many Americans were worried about eating ground beef. This was because a book called The Jungle had shown how unclean some meat factories were. The founders of White Castle wanted to show that their restaurants were very clean. They built small restaurants with shiny stainless steel inside. Their employees wore spotless uniforms. Their first restaurants in Wichita were very popular. Soon, they opened more restaurants in other Midwestern cities. The first expansion was in 1922 in El Dorado, Kansas.
Growing and Expanding
White Castle started its own magazine for employees around 1925. It was first called The Hot Hamburger. Later, it was renamed The Slider Times. This magazine helped employees learn about new ideas and progress across the company.
Early White Castle buildings, like Indianapolis White Castle #3 built in 1927, had white brick exteriors. The inside was made of enameled steel. The Indianapolis restaurant stayed open until 1979. This made it the longest-running fast-food restaurant in the country at that time.
Other buildings, like White Castle Building No. 8 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, were built in 1936. They used special white porcelain enamel on steel for the outside. These buildings were designed to look like the Chicago Water Tower. They had castle-like features such as towers and walls.
Many other restaurants tried to copy White Castle's success. They copied the castle-like buildings and used similar names. Some examples were Little Kastle, White Tower, and Krystal. But most of these copycat restaurants did not become as successful as White Castle.
Making Their Own Supplies
When White Castle started, there was no system for fast-food restaurants to get supplies. So, the company created its own bakeries and meat supply plants. They also had their own warehouses. It was said they did almost everything themselves.
In 1932, Billy Ingram started a company called Paperlynen. This company made paper hats for employees. It also made other paper products used in the restaurants. Paperlynen made millions of paper hats each year.
In 1936, White Castle moved its main office to Columbus, Ohio. This city was more central to where their restaurants were located.
In 1934, White Castle also created a company called Porcelain Steel Buildings. This company made special buildings for the restaurants. These buildings were made of steel frames with porcelain panels. They could be put together easily at any restaurant site. This was the first time this material was used in building design.
Changes in Leadership and Growth
In 1933, Walter Anderson sold his share of the business to Billy Ingram. Billy Ingram's son, E. W. Ingram Jr., and then his grandson, E. W. Ingram III, later led the company.
White Castle has always been a private company. This means it is owned by the Ingram family and not by public shareholders. All its restaurants are owned by the company. They are not franchised out to other people, except for a short time in Japan and more recently in China.
New Locations and Plant-Based Options
The first White Castle in the western U.S. opened in Las Vegas in January 2015. This was the first time White Castle expanded outside the Midwest and Northeast in 56 years. On its first day, the demand for food was so high that the restaurant had to close for two hours to get more supplies! It sold 4,000 sliders per hour. Since then, more White Castle locations have opened in Las Vegas.
In September 2015, White Castle started offering Veggie Sliders. These were made with dairy-free buns for people who wanted a vegan option. In 2018, they also began selling plant-based meat Impossible Burgers. These burgers are designed to taste and feel like real beef burgers.
Lisa Ingram, Billy Ingram's great-granddaughter, became the CEO of White Castle in December 2015. She is the fourth CEO from the Ingram family.
White Castle returned to Florida in 2021 after leaving the state in 1968. The first new restaurant opened in Orlando on May 3, 2021. This Orlando location is the largest White Castle in the world. Its opening was part of White Castle's 100th anniversary celebration.
In 2020, White Castle started testing a cooking robot called Flippy. This robot helps cook burgers, chicken fingers, and french fries. By the end of 2022, many White Castle locations were using the updated Flippy 2 robot. This robot can cook 60 baskets of food per hour without human help.
Where You Can Find White Castle
In the United States
The Ingram family has always kept White Castle a private company. They have not taken on debt or sold shares to the public. This has kept the chain smaller than big competitors like McDonald's. As of May 2024, there are 345 White Castle restaurants. Most are in the Midwest, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There are also over 50 locations in the New York—New Jersey area. Other locations include Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Orlando.
Even if there isn't a White Castle restaurant near you, you might find their frozen sliders in grocery stores across the country.
White Castle has restaurants in these major U.S. cities:
- Chicago, Illinois
- Clarksville, Tennessee
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Columbia, Missouri
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dayton, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Lexington, Kentucky
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota
- Nashville, Tennessee
- New York – New Jersey
- Orlando, Florida
- Phoenix, Arizona
- St. Louis, Missouri
The main office and the Porcelain Steel Buildings division are in Columbus, Ohio.
Around the World
As of 2021, White Castle does not have any restaurants outside the United States.
In the past, White Castle tried to open restaurants in other countries. They had franchised locations in Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They also tried in Mexico and South Korea. However, these restaurants did not become popular and eventually closed.
In 2017, White Castle opened two restaurants in Shanghai, China. These were the only White Castle restaurants outside the U.S. at that time. Besides beef sliders, they also sold spicy tofu sliders and cherry duck sliders. These locations closed by September 2021.
White Castle in Canada
White Castle has never opened restaurants in Canada. However, Canadians can buy frozen White Castle hamburgers in some grocery and convenience stores. They have been available since 2015 and also at Walmart stores.
For the 2004 movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a full-size White Castle restaurant was built in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. But it was never opened to the public.
What White Castle Sells
White Castle sells its famous small, square hamburgers, called sliders. They also sell them in large boxes. A "Crave Clutch" has 20 burgers, and a "Crave Case" has 30 burgers. A "Crave Crate" holds 100 burgers!
To celebrate its 100th birthday, White Castle brought back its original burger, called the 1921 Slider. This burger has lettuce, tomato, and caramelized onions. Regular sliders are steamed on a griddle with onions and water. The 1921 Slider is grilled directly on the griddle.
You can also buy many White Castle products, mostly frozen, in grocery stores.
White Castle has tried different ideas over the years. For a while, some locations shared space with Church's Chicken. They also experimented with a noodle restaurant concept called Laughing Noodle.
Even though White Castle started in Wichita, Kansas, there hasn't been a restaurant there since 1938. White Castle is one of the few restaurant chains that does not have a location in its original city.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, White Castle gave free meals to healthcare workers. They also offered free desserts to people who showed proof of vaccination in May 2021.
Why People Love White Castle Sliders
Because White Castle restaurants are not everywhere, many former customers really miss their burgers. They sometimes go to great lengths to get them. In the early 1980s, people would ask friends and family to ship them White Castle burgers.
In 1980, a town in Arizona ordered 10,000 hamburgers for a festival fundraiser. The next year, they started an annual festival where they sold over 100,000 burgers!
In 1982, White Castle started a special program called "Hamburgers to Fly." Customers could order burgers to be shipped frozen to them. By early 1983, White Castle was shipping 10,000 hamburgers every week this way.
Because this was so popular, White Castle started selling their frozen hamburgers in supermarkets. They began testing this in 1986. By 2014, you could buy White Castle frozen burgers in all 50 states.
White Castle's Big Impact
Walter Anderson is often given credit for inventing the hamburger bun. He also helped create the idea of a "kitchen as an assembly line." This means that food is made in a very organized way, step by step. This helped lead to the modern fast-food industry we know today.
Billy Ingram's smart business ideas helped White Castle become successful. They also helped make the hamburger a very popular food. Time magazine called the White Castle slider "The Most Influential Burger of All Time" in 2014.
The restaurant is also a main part of the funny movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
See also
In Spanish: White Castle (restaurante) para niños
- List of hamburger restaurants
