In May 1921, Walter Anderson and Edar Waldo “Billy” Ingram opened a hamburger restaurant in Wichita, Kansas, under the name of White Castle.
The name was chosen because ‘White’ signifies purity and cleanliness and ‘Castle’ stands for strength, permanence, and stability. Indeed, the hamburger sandwich rose from obscurity and disrepute to prominence in less than ten years.
They also reassured wary customers by packing the grill directly in front of them, so they could see the sanitary conditions under which their food was being prepared.
White Castle changed American culture dramatically. Hamburgers became one of America’s most important foods during the 1920’s.
Customer surveys indicated that they liked the taste of the hamburger, the low price, the quality of all the products served, the cleanliness of the outlets, and the convenience.
The first white Castle restaurant served hamburgers sandwiches, smothered with cooked onions, for a nickel apiece. White Castle was a true pioneer in fast food. The company has to be given credit for starting or creating so many different things that are now standard in fast food restaurants.
The White Castle System of Eating Houses, as the chain was called, expanded rapidly during the 1920s due in part to its innovative marketing strategies.
American soon began carving White Castle-style fast-food hamburgers, and by the end of the decade they were s staple of the American diet.
By 1931, White Castle was operating 115 restaurants across the Midwest and East Coast, all of which featured the same floor plan and distinctive medieval architecture that served as a sort of advertising for the chain.
As of 2011, there were more than four hundred under White Castle outlets, mainly in the Midwest, Tennessee and Ne w York.
White Castle and fast food hamburger chains
