10 Weird Facts About White Castle
One of the original fast food chains has an interesting history.
White Castle is basically the epitome of consistency and longevity in the fast food game. Having been around since the 1920s, with over 300 locations around the Midwest and East Coast, it's remarkable for anything to have lasted that long. It's notable how well known White Castle is even though it's comparatively much smaller than many other fast food chains. From its appearances in major movies to how the restaurant's square sliders have evolved over the years, here are some interesting facts about this historic fast food chain.
It Claims the Title of "Original Slider"
White Castle has the distinction of being one of the original fast-food chains, with its first location cropping up in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. Founders Walt Anderson and Bill Ingram started the chain together, and had to battle against consumer hesitance over beef burgers as their main product. Until 1929, its square sliders cost 5 cents each.
Cleanliness Was Key in the Early Days
It seems obvious that keeping your restaurant clean will please customers, but the White Castle founders were very particular about clean appearances due to sanitation issues with the meatpacking industry that were exposed in the novel The Jungle in 1906. Locations were thus designed with stainless-steel interiors, and staff uniforms had to always be crisp and clean, to assuage hesitation as soon as customers walked in the door.
White Castle Is a Square Patty Pioneer
White Castle's steamed patties have been square since day one, there are a couple of innovations of their formula that have occurred over the years. An employee at a Cincinnati location reportedly recommended putting holes in the patties so they can cook easier without flipping in 1954, which is why White Castle sliders have five holes to this day.
Their Mouth-Watering Original Cooking Method
White Castle sliders are cooked from frozen patties with the previously-mentioned holes, atop a bed of onions and water that steams them. This provides perfectly great sliders but we can't help but miss the initial method. It sounds similar to the trendy Smash Burger cooking style, with unfrozen beef being placed on a grill in balls with diced onions on top, then flattened with a spatula on the grill into a patty shape and flipped. To increase efficiency and speed as the business scaled up, White Castle eventually phased this out and began steaming frozen patties.
White Castle Had Its Own Magazine
The restaurant ran its own internal employee magazine, the White Castle Official House Organ (originally dubbed The Hot Hamburger) in 1925 and continued for decades until the 90s. It mostly featured employee milestones, as well as letters and photographs submitted by workers.
Imitators Popped Up All Over the U.S.
A ton of restaurants tried to emulate White Castle's distinctive style and put their own plays on the name, causing some customer confusion. One copycat that cropped up in Wichita around the chain's founding was Little Kastle, and tons of other restaurants combining all number of adjectives with different buildings... yes, really. White Tower, Royal Castle, and Red Barn are just a few examples of this Mad-Libs style restauranteur strategy.
White Castle Was a Backup Location for 'Harold & Kumar'
The stoner buddy comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle starred John Cho and Kal Penn as two friends on an epic quest for some fast food, but White Castle wasn't in the original story. Early versions of the screenplay instead had roommates Harold and Kumar trying to make it to a Krispy Kreme, but the donut chain refused to have its merchandise and location used for the film. Hats off to White Castle for being down to clown and appearing in a cult classic 2000s comedy!
That Wasn't White Castle's First Movie Cameo
Saturday Night Fever gave White Castle a silver screen appearance back in 1977 way before Harold & Kumar made use of it. This location has since closed, but it was located on 92nd street between Third and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.
White Castle Has Relatively Few Locations
Compared to McDonald's staggering 14,000 stores in the U.S. alone, you'd think that White Castle would feel the push to expand with only 345, but the Ingram family has been staunchly against franchising. It also has very few international locations with only two currently in Shanghai, China. They are also heavily bolstered by the sale of frozen sliders to supermarket chains.
You Won't Find a White Castle in Kansas Anymore
Even though the flagship locations were in Wichita, the company moved its headquarters to Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-'30s and eventually closed that original store. The closest remaining White Castle location to Wichita is in Columbia, Missouri, and that's a lengthy four-and-a-half hour drive just for some fast food.
Jacob is a Temporary Partnerships Editor at Hearst based in Queens, New York with his partner and cat Tiger. He loves learning and writing about Film and TV, Video Games, and the weird histories of unexpected subjects.
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