Who owns white castle and krystal

Today, if you go to a Krystal restaurant, you'll find that some offer in-restaurant dining rooms, but many are smaller restaurants with dual drive-thru service and a walk-up order counter almost similar to the same set up you'll see at a Rally's or Checker's location. However, this design is relatively new.

The first Krystal restaurants looked more akin to a diner counter, with customers seated at a series of stools along a lengthy counter. According to The Chattanoogan , all the way through the s, Krystal restaurants operated like this, with customers coming through the door, picking a seat at the counter, and ordering from a waitress, who would call out the order to the cook.

In the s, Krystal restaurants switched to a counter-service model, wherein guests walked in, placed their order at a counter, and then carried their food to non-counter seating options like tables and booths. Something you probably don't expect to see when dining at a fast-food restaurant? A real plate. However, Krystal set itself apart all the way through the s by serving its food on just that: a real, porcelain plate, rather than using wrappers or boxes, like the competition.

Around that time, Restaurant News also says, the Krystal menu was also expanded a bit, to include french fries, chili, and milkshakes bacon, eggs, and pie had been added earlier , and drive-thrus were added to many Krystal locations.

Despite all the change and progress, though, the porcelain plates helped Krystal keep in touch with its roots and its namesake dedication to cleanliness. The plates reflected the founders' wish for the actual Krystal restaurant building to look as clean as possible, which prompted them to use porcelain for the exterior via Chattanooga Today. The white porcelain and stainless steel building pieces were manufactured in Chicago before being shipped, prefabricated, to restaurant locations for assembly.

It's been well-documented that Elvis Presley didn't have the healthiest relationship with food , and Even The King loved Krystal, according to wife Priscilla Presley.

She says, in a Local Memphis interview, that Elvis loved Krystal sliders, saying "The hamburgers were so small! He didn't like big things to eat. In the book " Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay " by Louis Cantor, this love is attributed to both men's fairly impoverished upbringings, stating that, for Phillips, the burgers, and particularly buying sacks of them for a group, were like an "opulent" treat.

The book states that Presley and Phillips would order as many as a hundred burgers at once and then, Phillips' wife says, "they'd come walking in the front door both of 'em carrying just sacks full of those durn things. While, as we can see with the case of Roy Ward and French Jenkins, Krystal customers have been challenging each other to Krystal-eating contests quite literally since the first Krystal restaurant opened its doors, it wasn't until that these eating contests became official and Krystal-sanctioned, with the founding of the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship.

According to Major League Eating , the Krystal Square Off was one of only two major events in competitive eating and the only world hamburger-eating contest with Major League Eating sanction. Unfortunately, the Krystal Square Off events didn't last long. The last event took place in and the event's Twitter profile hasn't been updated since. So, just how many Krystals do you have to eat to win the Krystal Square Off? At the last event, professional speed-eater Takeru Kobayashi won the contest by eating 93 burgers in eight minutes via The Chattanoogan.

Previously, contestants had eaten over burgers over the course of the challenge's eight minutes, but the challenge organizers imposed a new no-dunking rule in , which likely slowed the contestants down. The Hall of Fame recognizes the brand's biggest fans and, each year, Krystal chose 10 new inductees from 10 different locations based on submitted stories and applications. In recognition of each inductee, Krystal created a caricature based on each and then featured that caricature on Krystal burger boxes for a limited time, alongside fun facts about the inductees, as well as their favorite menu items.

Over the years, inductees included life-long dedicated employees, couples who ate Krystal burgers at their wedding, and diners who would travel from the North to their nearest Krystal location in the South on a regular basis. The last Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame induction seems to have taken place in , though, as the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame web page has been removed, as has the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame social media profiles, and the induction was the last covered in news outlets.

Currently, it's difficult to imagine going to a fast-food restaurant and not being able to log on to the restaurant's WiFi. If you're ever traveling and need to get some work done, fast-food restaurants are reliable spots to sit with your laptop for an hour or two.

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November , Newsletters Never miss a beat Sign Up Now Subscribe now to get the latest news delivered right to your inbox. Newest Slideshows. Special Issues City Guide. Holiday Guide. The scene: In two business partners had an idea about how to open a restaurant that could survive in the throes of the Great Depression.

They believed that if they emphasized friendly excellent service, a clean shining space and good food at very low prices, they would win over customers despite the hard economic times. These beliefs were known as the Krystal Kreed, and their very first customer saw the value message when he ordered half a dozen burgers and a cup of coffee for a grand total of 35 cents.

In the decades since, their original restaurant, The Krystal, in Chattanooga, Tenn. It is tempting to compare Krystal with White Castle previously explored in this column , since both are regional chains specializing in the niche of miniature square burgers sold in volume, and have loyal followings.

However, the mainstay dishes, the burgers, are very different. What makes White Castle special is the fact that its burgers are steamed and have a uniquely soggy texture, while Krystal is a miniature version of a traditional burger. In as the company celebrated its 80th birthday, the Krystal chain was sold and is now owned by Argonne Capital Group some locations are franchises. The new owners are expanding Krystal aggressively, with the stated goal of reaching restaurants in the next two years.

Today, Krystals come in various shapes and sizes, but unlike the diner-style sit-down original, they are decidedly fast-food roadside places with sparse synthetic surfaces, where you order and pick up at the counter or drive through, with value meal combinations and revolving limited-time specials. The restaurants are still clean in the same sense that most leading fast-food chains are, intentionally designed with easy-to-clean surfaces and layouts.

The product line has been greatly expanded over the years to include breakfast sandwiches, mini hot dogs, mini chicken sandwiches and so on.