Today Culver’s is a well-known fast casual restaurant chain, and its frozen custard and ButterBurgers can be found in more than 1,000 locations across 26 states. But in 1984, when it first opened, it was a single restaurant in Sauk City, Wisconsin. If you could turn back time and have a meal at the original Culver’s more than 40 years ago, you’d find quite a lot of changes from today, but some familiar things as well.
The first thing you’d notice would be the building. When George and Ruth Culver, who gave the restaurant chain its name, opened their new restaurant in partnership with their son Craig Culver and his wife Lea, it was in an old A & W drive-up restaurant that they had originally bought in 1961 when they first got into the restaurant business. It looked different than today’s Culver’s and didn’t even have a drive-through when it first opened.
Once inside, you may have given your order to Lea or Ruth Culver, known as the “Queen of Hospitality,” at the counter. On the menu you’d recognize Culver’s signature ButterBurger, likely made by Craig Culver manning the grill and using an ice cream scoop to form the beef balls for the grilled burgers with their signature buttered and toasted buns. And, of course, you would have been able to get the company’s frozen custard. But there were some differences as well.
At Culver’s some things have changed, while others have stayed the same
Culver’s has had ButterBurgers and frozen custard since day one, along with items like its chili, crafted by George Culver. Fried fish was also on the menu. This Wisconsin tradition is rooted in the Catholic Lenten tradition of not eating meat on Fridays (just one of the unexpected facts about Culver’s). The restaurant still uses fresh cod that’s hand battered and fried up when you order it. If you would have eaten at the original Culver’s in 1984, you’d get free refills on your coffee in-store and have your order brought to your table (table numbers were originally hand-written on Styrofoam cups), traditions which have remained to this day even as the restaurant has grown…