Five Guys, which doesn’t freeze its meat, lures its customers with quality and quantity, not price.
The cheapest item on the menu we looked at was the Little Hamburger at $3.29
(anything with just one patty is called “little”). The regular bacon cheeseburger was $5.59.
Another Five Guys staple since the first one opened in 1986: shelled peanuts near the cash registers.
"We have a very simple, quality-driven menu and don't try to be a lot of things to a lot of people,”
says CEO Jerry Murrell. “It can be tough to convince franchisees to stick with the formula."
Smashburger features regional burgers;
the “Lonestar Burger” near Dallas is served
with chili, onions, jalapenos and a knife and fork,
while the “NorCal Smashburger” features brie and balsamic vinegar-marinated tomatoes.
Burger prices range from $3.99 to $6.99.
Smashburger’s high-energy founder Tom Ryan loves social media, insisting that each restaurant
in the chain have its own Twitter account.
Says Ryan: “Our goal is to be every city’s favorite place to eat burgers.
And to do that we’re really focusing our attention on burger lovers and the people
who live with them.”
Burgerville
If John Muir ever decided to start a chain of burger
joints, this is what they would have looked like.
CEO Jeff Harvey says 70 percent of Burgerville ingredients
come from local farmers and ranchers,
and the company converts its trans fat-free cooking oil
into biodiesel.
Founded in 1961, Burgerville has 39 locations,
most in Oregon with a few in Washington state.
The cheapest hamburger is $1.29
while the Half-Pound Colossal Cheeseburger
tops the price range at $5.29.
Burgerville offers straight-forward high-end burger fare, with some interesting seasonal offerings
— such as fresh hazelnut or pumpkin in the milkshakes. The chicken sandwiches currently feature
pear chutney — try finding that at White Castle.
The Burgerville home page shows a picture of a wind farm, and Burgerville executives say
their restaurants and company headquarters are powered entirely by wind power credits.
Says Harvey: “Our customers appreciate our commitment to supporting self-reliant communities.
They know that when they purchase a meal from us, the money goes back into the local economy
and to farmers and ranchers in Pacific Northwest.”
Fatburger
Ice Cube may have immortalized Fatburger in rap in the early 1990s
(“No helicopter looking for a murder / Two in the morning got the Fatburger”),
but the chain founded by Lovie Yancey in 1952 had already developed a strong following
in Southern California.
Fatburger has more than 75 restaurants in the U.S., with almost half in California.
More than most other regional chains, it has expanded overseas, with franchises in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Indonesia.
The small burger, or “Baby Fat,” starts at $2.99, while at least one location sells the 24 oz XXXL for
$9.49 — which looks like it could feed a family of five, or a small hippopotamus.
Decades after both Ice Cube and the Beastie Boys name-dropped Fatburger,
the celebrity connection remains strong. Among the famous people who have owned part of
Fatburger or its restaurants: Magic Johnson and Montel Williams.
In-N-Out Burger
This low-cost burger with fresh ingredients has developed a cult-like following in Los Angeles, where it originated. For years, the chain’s T-shirts
were uniform in Southern California college
campuses (Jon Favreau can be seen wearing one
in “Swingers”) while fans tried to crack
the restaurant’s complicated secret menu
— ordering “animal style” will get you pickles and
grilled onions.
How heavily worshipped is In-N-Out? The chain has 248 locations and 528,000 Facebook followers — 150,000 more than the 25-times larger Wendy’s.
After staying in Southern California for most of its 62-year history, In-N-Out has crept up
the coast north of San Francisco, settled in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico and has more expansion
plans.
While the menu has only a handful of items, the prices are among the lowest of the regional chains
— a hamburger is $1.60 and the double-double at $2.75 is still the most expensive thing
on the menu.
Says In-N-Out Burger President Mark Taylor: "We've always tried to keep our prices low
as possible in order to give our customers the greatest value."
KrystalWith its first restaurant opening in Chattanooga, Tenn. in 1932, Krystal and its square-bunned burgers are nearly eight years older
than McDonald’s. But it never moved out of
the South, with more than 380 locations in 12 states,
nothing north of Virginia.
Price is a draw — a four-burger combo meal ($4.69)
costs a lot less than several single items
on the Four Guys menu — and so is convenience.
Many Krystal locations are open 24 hours.
The chain is known for the Krystal Square Off
— the hamburger equivalent of the Nathan’s Hot Dog-eating contest.
(Kobayashi defeated Joey Chestnut in last September’s Square-Off, 91 hamburgers to 83.)
And the company promotes its Hall of Fame, putting the faces of its most loyal customers
and employees on hamburger boxes.
President and CEO James F. Exum explains: "Our Krystal Lovers are the stars of our brand,
and each year we're thrilled to recognize our most passionate guests by inducting them
into the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame and featuring them on the packaging of our most famous menu
item, the Krystal hamburger."
Original Tommy’s
Even if you’ve eaten a few dozen burgers at Los Angeles-based Original Tommy’s, chances are good you’ve never seen one. The burgers
— and pretty much everything else on the menu
— are smothered in chili.
The food that Tommy’s serves may look like
a crime scene, but the retro-cool burger joint has
a loyal following. Tommy’s doesn’t advertise,
and despite being around since 1946 and
occupying 33 locations mostly in the less touristy
parts of Southern California, we couldn’t find
a single press release or trace of a publicist.
With low overhead (no one would mistake Tommy’s for a high-end chain) the restaurants keep
the prices down, charging $1.85 for a single hamburger and $4.35 for a triple cheeseburger.
Tommy’s purists make pilgrimages to the original location at the corner of Beverly and
Rampart boulevards, where day laborers and Hollywood executive types enjoy their chili burgers
shoulder-to-shoulder on communal outdoor tables.
Culver’s
Wisconsin residents are known for doing crazy things to their hamburgers — like sticking them in beer Jacuzzis and then smothering them
in cheese. (Someone, somewhere in the state,
is serving hamburgers with a waffle instead of a bun.)
Culver’s, a Wisconsin-based better burger chain
with more than 400 locations in 18 states,
sells the ButterBurger, and constantly pushes
the envelopes of culinary decency, making things
like the current Triple Pepper Dare Ya
— which puts jalapeno peppers, chipotle mayonnaise
and habanero cheese on a single burger.
Culver’s is priced on the low side for gourmet burgers (under $2 for a basic hamburger, up to $5
for a triple bacon cheeseburger) and sells an equally decadent array of frozen custards and
sundaes.
Says co-founder and CEO Craig Culver: “The key to Culver’s success is our people and
the unique tradition of delivering honest food with genuine family values. This has been
a guiding principle since my parents George and Ruth opened our first restaurant in 1984.”
Fosters Freeze
Fosters claims to be the first fast food chain in California, and it continues to push its retro appeal. The mascot, an anthropomorphic
soft serve ice cream cone in a chef’s hat,
would be comfortable in a “Leave it to Beaver”
episode.
There are 90 locations, all in California,
with heavy concentrations in agricultural towns
and other inland outposts. Clovis and Bakersfield
each have two Fosters Freezes. Fresno has five.
Want a little more culture?
There’s a Fosters Freeze across the street from the Stanford campus in Palo Alto.
The menu is as unexciting as any burger chain, but the portions are decent,
even on the kiddie menu. A child-size burger costs $1.99.
The vanilla soft serve is a surprising 180 calories. (We don’t want to know the calorie count
in the $5.59 double-decker burger with cheese.)
Tastee-Freez
So let it rock … let it roll … Leo Moranz and Harry Axene may not have known it when they founded the company in 1950, but they received
millions of dollars of free radio advertising
— all because so many words rhyme with “Freez.”
Along with the famous line from John Cougar’s
“Jack and Diane” (Sucking on a chili dog, outside
the Tastee-Free-eez!”), everyone from Chicago to
Trisha Yearwood to Rascal Flatts has paid tribute
to the company in song.
The Tastee-Freez founders built the company’s first soft serve ice cream maker, and while the technology
has changed, general manager Tim Mulks says the formula is almost exactly the same in 2010.
The Tastee-Freez web site lists just 50 locations in 19 states, but the company’s soft serve ice cream
can be bought in hundreds of Weinerschnitzel locations across the country.
Mulks says Tastee-Freez isn’t trying to match the new more expensive gourmet burger chains:
“Our customers like what we do. They say it’s a good feeling, a feeling of simpler times …
We’re looking for the guy who doesn’t want to spend $9 or $10 on lunch.”
White Castle
Endorsed in song by the Beastie Boys and craved by the movie characters Harold and Kumar, White Castle has a lot of friends in high
places.
While the New York locations may be the most
celebrated, the great majority of White Castle’s 421
restaurants are in the Midwest. There are 45
in the greater Cincinnati area alone.
The prices are slacker-friendly — White Castle is
currently promoting a three-burger combo meal for
$2.99. And while White Castle may not be consulting with famous chefs about their menu or
grass-feeding the cattle that make their burgers, the food is great for teaching kids about shapes.
(The “slider”-style burgers are square, and breaded chicken sandwich meat comes in the shape of
rings.)
White Castle has some of the best promotions in the fast food world for its loyal following.
This year the company offered thousands of slider-scented candles, which quickly sold out.
Arctic Circle
Unknown to most of the nation, Arctic Circle lays claims to such fast food innovations as the chocolate-dipped ice cream cone and the kids
meal.
Founded in 1950, the chain expanded rapidly
in the 1980s and 90s, and now has 73 restaurants
— all but 13 in Utah and Idaho. Prices are on the bargain end,
with $1.15 for a hamburger and $3.69
for a half pound deluxe.
Arctic Circle’s menu is a paradox. Its Angus beef
burgers look like mountainous piles of meat, cheese and ranch dressing, and yet it offers impressive
salads and fresh fruit in its shakes. The Arctic Circle signature is its fry sauce, invented
by company founder Don Carlos Edwards, which the restaurants sell by the bottle.
Whataburger
Distinctive for its orange flying “W” signs
— which look like a cross between a Winnebago
logo and Wonder Woman’s chest plate
— Texas-based Whataburger has been a popular
fixture in the lower third of the United States for
six decades, with more than 700 restaurants
in 10 states from Arizona to Florida.
Whataburger celebrates its 60th anniversary
this weekend, but maintains its Texas roots,
offering even larger piles of American beef and cheese than the competition. (The burger formula,
down to the exactly three tomato slices, is virtually unchanged.) Most locations are open 24 hours
a day, so you can start your food coma early with newer menu items such as the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit.
Chairman and CEO Thomas Dobson says when his father opened his first Whataburger in 1950,
he had to find a bakery that would make special 5-inch buns that were bigger than the competition.
Says Dobson: “His goal was to have every person that sank their teeth into one of his burgers exclaim:
‘What-a-burger!’ Sixty years later, we have stayed true to his original goal and now serve over 460,000
customers a day.”
Good Times Burger & Frozen Custard
Good Times out of Boulder, Colo., was one of the first
gourmet burger chains to embrace rapid expansion,
becoming a publicly traded company just five years
after it was founded in 1987.
Company founders seem to be aiming at younger
crowds, with a Web site that seems tailored for short
attention spans. Whether you’re down to your last dollar
or a Rockefeller, the menu has plenty of options,
from the 89-cent “Bambino” hamburger to the double patty
$6.49 “Big Daddy.”
The chain is mostly centered in Colorado — with 45 locations there, plus a few in Wyoming, Idaho
and North Dakota. Good Times has announced plans to expand to the Midwest.
Blake’s Lotaburger
Blake’s has been fighting the good fight for burger dominance in New Mexico for more than 50 years,
and is arguably winning — there are 34 Lotaburgers in the greater Arbuquerque area and just
33 McDonald’s.
Blake’s Lotaburger takes credit for introducing the green chile to the hamburger. The menu has
a heavy Southwestern kick, with bean burritos as a breakfast option. The prices range from $1.59 for
a kiddie burger to $4.06 for a Lota Burger with chiles and cheese.
All of Lotaburger’s 77 locations are in the state, and Blake’s has its own construction division that
builds new restaurants.
Blake’s is the preferred burger of the meth-cooking lead characters on the AMC series “Breaking Bad”
and the late Jim Varney, who reprised his “Ernest” character for New Mexico-based Lotaburger
commercials in the years before his 2000 death.
