Most people familiar with Culver's know it serves up tasty food and decadent desserts,
but there's probably plenty you don't know about this fast food restaurant known for
its Concrete Mixers and oh-so-craveable ButterBurgers.
Here's everything you need to know about the chain that started in America's Dairyland.
Survey says…
Culver's is the nation's third favorite QSR, behind only Chick-fil-A and Tropical Smoothie
Cafe.
Wait, what survey?
And what's a QSR?
QSR means "quick service restaurant," which is a fancy, restaurant-industry way of saying
fast food joint.
As for the survey, it was published in December 2018 by Restaurant Business, and reports data
collected from more than 100,000 customers during the previous year.
Customers were asked to rate top-selling nationwide and regional chain restaurants on five different
categories: service/hospitality, ambiance/appearance, food/beverage, takeout/convenience, and value.
A different Restaurant Business report broke
that same survey data down by category, singling out Culver's as the top burger chain.
The second-ranked burger chain was In-N-Out, which beat Culver's out in value but was found
to be less convenient and to have food that wasn't quite as good since, you know, Wisconsin
dairy products just make everything better.
Restaruant Business' consumer data represents overall customer experience, but the company
also compiled a list of the top 500 restaurant chains in the United States based solely on
sales figures.
Not surprisingly, the chains with the highest overall sales volume were all the usual suspects,
with McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway taking the top three spots.
Culver's came in at number 40 overall, with 2018 sales totaling nearly $1.6 billion as
opposed to $38.5 billion for top-selling Mickey D's.
Where Culver's deserves kudos, though, is for not only posting overall 2018 growth in
units sold as well as sales, but for the fact that it was the ninth overall burger chain
in sales, beating out favorites like In-N-Out and White Castle.
What's more, Culver's was miles ahead of the next custard-selling chain, Freddy's Frozen
Custard & Steakburgers, which came in at number 87.
Custard-wise, it's Culver's for the win!
The original "butter burger," whose name alone inspired Craig Culver's own creation was,
in fact, quite a bit different from the ButterBurger we know and love today.
The Wisconsin butter burger dates back to 1936, more than 50 years before Culver's ever
made them a household name.
It was created by Solly's Coffee Shop, a restaurant which is still doing business as Solly's Grille
and is still serving up their butter-heavy version.
The type of butter burger made by Solly's is served on a dry-toasted bun and topped
with stewed onions and a dollop of butter that melts even as you're eating it.
Guilty pleasure?
Absolutely!
The Culver's ButterBurger, on the other hand, is not, quote, "cooked, marinated, dunked,
fried or drizzled with butter," though that doesn't sound so bad.
Instead, the top of the bun is lightly buttered before the burger is served, and it's done
that way because this is how Craig's mom used to make her burgers.
Although Culver's think their original ButterBurger is good enough to stand on its own, you can
actually get them served in a wide variety of ways, including topped with such adornments
as cheese, mushrooms, onions, cheese, bacon, and yet more cheese.
Yum, cheese.
Mega-chain Starbucks usually gets the credit or blame, depending on who you're talking
to, for starting the trend of putting pumpkin into things nature never intended.
"Pumpkin spice latte!
High five it!"
But, it turns out that Culver's was actually doing pumpkin way back when Starbucks was
still in its infancy.
In fact, Culver's was making this fall flavor fave over a decade-and-a-half before Starbucks
started purveying pumpkin spice lattes to the masses in 2003.
The ButterBurger chain actually started adding pumpkin to their frozen custard back in 1986,
and Craig Culver likes to say they were the first on the pumpkin train to trend-town.
One thing's for sure: Culver's, at least, has been using real, fresh pumpkin in their
custard from the get-go, while it wasn't until 2015 that Starbucks finally gave in to media
pressure and put a little actual pumpkin puree in their pumpkin spice latte recipe.
Culver's sales figures and popularity make it an attractive opportunity for would-be
franchisees.
Forbes lists Culver's as number two on its list of best high-investment franchises for
2018, and it also made Franchise Business Review's unranked top 30 list of 2018's best
food franchises to buy.
Sounds like a no-brainer, at least, if you happen to have an extra $3,347,500 lying around,
as this is what Forbes calculates to be the midpoint initial investment.
Oh, you do have that kind of cash?
Still, not so fast there.
It takes more than just money to make it as a Culver's franchise owner.
Back in 1987, Culver's opened its very first franchise, and the experience was not so good.
But, as co-founder Craig Culver said, quote, "you learn something from mistakes," and this
failure taught him to develop what a rigid system for their franchisees to work within.
Under this system, prospective franchise owners must first spend a week working at a Culver's
restaurant where they perform, and are graded on, every single role.
Only if they perform well enough will they then be invited to spend four months in the
small town of Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin for a training program from which they must graduate.
Oh, and don't forget about minor details like selecting a site, building a restaurant, hiring
employees, and all that other stuff.
So no, not easy, but still a pretty sweet gig if you can swing it.
While Culver's website gives as their reasons for expansion into southeastern and southwestern
states the facts that balmy beaches and shady palm trees go well with frozen custard and,
quote, "desert lands call for cool, refreshing desserts," the real cause for their southeastern
expansion may have more to do with targeting a certain demographic: the seasonally-migrating
Midwestern snowbird.
When asked about the company expanding its Florida franchising opportunities in 2014,
director of public relations and communications Paul Pitas had this to say:
"There's a lot of transplant Midwesterners and snowbirds who know us well down there."
"My parents are moving to Florida!”
“Are you kidding?”
“Can you believe it?!
It’s happening!
It’s finally happening, I’m free!”
Jeff Liegel, owner of a Culver franchisee group, similarly explained the expansion:
"We had a lot of Midwest people familiar with Culver's, and where do they go in the wintertime?
They go to Arizona and Florida."
Whatever the rationale behind it, Culver's targeted expansion seems to have been very
successful — Arizona and Florida are the leading non-Midwestern Culver's states, with
more on the way.
With its cheese, custard, and of course the butter that makes the ButterBurgers, well,
Butterburgers, Culver's is more than a Dairy Queen, it's a Dairy Emperor.
As it turns out, dairy has been the Culver family business for many a generation.
The Culver restaurant chain was originally started not only by current chairman Craig
Culver and his wife Lea, but also by Culver's dad George and his mom Ruth.
Before getting into the restaurant biz, George had worked for the Wisconsin Dairies Cooperative
as an inspector and grader of dairy farms, so obviously he was a man who knew a quality
dairy product when he tasted one.
George himself had actually had dairy in his blood prior to embarking on his career as
a dairy inspector.
His own father, Craig's grandpa, had been a cheesemaker.
What's more, the cheesemaker's father had been a Wisconsin farmer.
What type of farmer, Culver's history fails to specify, but we're going to assume cows
were involved because, you know, Wisconsin.
Plus it just makes for a more moooving story.
See what we did there?
It turns out the ButterBurger has an interesting connection to a classic TV show.
Craig Culver was chatting with an old college buddy of his about drive-in restaurants, and
his friend mentioned the best burger he'd ever eaten, called a "butter burger," from
a now-closed drive-in in Milwaukee called the Milky Way.
That was just enough inspiration to get Culver's wheels spinning on what would eventually become
the chain's menu staple.
But Culver's ButterBurger isn't the only thing the Milky Way inspired.
It turns out this diner may have been a teen hangout of local boy Tom Miller, who would
later become co-creator and producer of the TV show Happy Days.
The Happy Days gang spent a lot of time hanging out at a restaurant called Arnold's, whose
exterior was modeled after the old Milky Way.
So there you have it, a link between Wisconsin's favorite burger chain and the TV show that
made Milwaukee famous.
"You mean this could really be big?"
"Sure!
Bigger than hamburgers, Al!
We're talkin' about factories, franchises!
New York Stock Exchange!"
Every once in a while, in the fry basket at Culver's, when two cheese curds love each
other very much… well, they might stick together and form a double-sided cheese curd
that comes out in the shape of a heart.
Culver's suggests you can pull these apart like a very gooey wishbone, and of course
they're an excellent excuse to hit up Culver's on Valentine's Day.
There are a few more reasons to love Culver's curds, no matter what shape they're in.
For one thing, they come from a very specific supplier, the family owned and operated La
Grander Hillside Dairy in Stanley, Wisconsin, and are provided exclusively to Culver's.
For another, if you're into sharing the love with Culver's kitchen workers, cheese curds
are reputed to be the quickest and easiest thing on the menu for them to make.
A few years back, Culver's was not performing too well in one area: employee relations.
They made at least one list of America's worst restaurants from the standpoint of places
to work, and the 2012 Diner's Guide put together by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
gave Culver's their lowest grade of 0 for paying a livable wage, considered to be $9
an hour, which Culver's didn't meet, providing paid sick days, which they didn't do, and
offering opportunities for advancement.
Culver's did not meet their minimum standard of 50 percent promotion.
By the time the 2014 Diner's Guide came out, Culver's had, well…
It's hard to tell for sure when all categories are marked either "does not meet criterion"
or "declined to answer," but it's not the best look, is it?
In 2017, things had evidently started to turn around.
Business Insider found, with the aid of Glassdoor data, that Culver's ranked as the sixth-best
fast food company to work for.
Glassdoor ratings had become largely positive by June 2019, with a 3.6 rating and comments
such as, quote, "good job, good company… it felt like family" and "very good hours
and decent pay."
Indeed.com reviewers give Culver's 3.7 out of 5 stars, so it seems things may really
be looking up for Culver's crew members.
Even though Culver's has expanded into many, many other states, they've never forgotten
their Wisconsin roots.
In fact, they are known for using Wisconsin-sourced ingredients whenever possible.
That includes beef from Midwest-raised cows, butter from a local creamery, milk for the
custard from local cows, and cheese from Wisconsin dairies.
Culver's even launched a "Help Us Support Wisconsin Dairy Farmers" campaign which led
to them supplying care packages to 800 dairy farmers nominated by customers.
These care packages, aka Culver's gift cards, were probably greatly appreciated in these
days of declining dairy prices.
"It's really neat that Culver's are aware of the situation that the dairy farmers are
in.:
Another thing Culver's has done to show some love for its home state is to introduce burgers
named for and/or highlighting its products and roots.
2017's limited-time Wisconsin Big Cheese Pub Burger came complete with a whole lot of cheese
— American, cheddar, and Havarti, to be exact.
In 2018, Culver's upped the ante with its Oktoberfest-inspired Pretzel Haus Pub Burger,
a nod to Wisconsin's German roots.
This burger must have been as amazing as it sounds, since it won a MenuMasters award for
showcasing home state products.
You should never forget where you came from, and Culver's?
They make sure no one ever forgets what it is that made them who they are.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite restaurants are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.