Had lunch out at............

[Fading Fast]

Times up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dale Mulder opened up a Lansing, Michigan, A&W franchise in 1961.Mulder added to his menu in 1963 the bacon cheeseburger after a customer made repeated orders for bacon to be added to his cheeseburger. Thus A&W is credited with inventing the bacon cheeseburger. I remember it well when I first saw it offered on the menu. I remember it well when I first saw it on the A&W menue

If ever a man deserves a Ken Burns documentary, the inventor of the bacon cheeseburger gets my vote.

 

[Touchofevil]

If ever a man deserves a Ken Burns documentary, the inventor of the bacon cheeseburger gets my vote.

And maybe an alter or shrine of some sort so that we could have a place wherein we could gather to pay our respects.

 

[31 Model A]

YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everybody has got in on the act, including WC!!! For all you bacon and WC lovers!!!

https://www.whitecastle.com/food/menu/Sliders/Bacon-Cheese-Slider

 

[Touchofevil]

Oh, I love bacon, so my only real complaint was that, as F.F. noted, it wasn't what I ordered. And this place had been in business long enough for everyone working there to know what a double bacon cheeseburger is. I was a semi-regular, so my best guess is that the cooks were just screwing with me that day. On the other hand, it was owned and operated by a nice but somewhat odd Armenian family and "double bacon cheeseburger" wasn't part of their regular menu, so...who knows?

My wife used to make something similar. Take a package of hot dogs (pork sausage would probably work just as well, maybe better), slice half-way through the dogs length-wise, fill 'em with Asiago cheese, wrap them in bacon using toothpicks to hold the bacon in place, stick 'em in the broiler oven until they're nice and brown, then serve 'em with your favorite side dish. Dee-lish!!!

Maybe that was a something special kind of treat they did for semi-regulars. Maybe it was their way of saying, "we appreciate you." Maybe it was just your Lucky Day and you didn't realize it.
Maybe...

 

[Zombie_61]

Maybe that was a something special kind of treat they did for semi-regulars. Maybe it was their way of saying, "we appreciate you." Maybe it was just your Lucky Day and you didn't realize it.
Maybe...

Interesting theory, but the co-worker I had lunch with that day had been frequenting that place far longer than I had and he'd never seen anything like it.

 

[Touchofevil]

Interesting theory, but the co-worker I had lunch with that day had been frequenting that place far longer than I had and he'd never seen anything like it.

Maybe they liked you more than they liked him. Maybe they didn’t even like him. Maybe...

 

[EngProf]

No WC here but we do have Krystal.

White Castle has a bridgehead here in Nashville and seems to be moving south (like W.T. Sherman in 1864).
I still refer to White Castles as "Yankee Krystals" - also, no one called the small hamburgers "sliders" until the White Castle invasion in the relatively recent past.
(And around here neither puts mustard on when served. You get to do that yourself.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

White Castle started out in Kansas, and its prime territory in the Era was the Midwest -- it actually didn't do a whole lot in the Northeast except for New York and New Jersey, where it had a beachhead by the early 1930s. It was completely unknown in New England. To this day, its biggest representation is in the Midwest, but it has completely withdrawn from its birth state.

However, quite a few regional chains that started in that period essentially swiped the concept -- Krystal among the earliest to do so, along with White Tower, which did make it into New England.

I've only been to WC once, a little run-down location outside Trenton, NJ about thirty years ago, and I was annoyed when I realized I couldn't eat the product due to my chronic onion allergy. I like the idea of WC far more than the execution of it.

 

[Fading Fast]

White Castle started out in Kansas, and its prime territory in the Era was the Midwest -- it actually didn't do a whole lot in the Northeast except for New York and New Jersey, where it had a beachhead by the early 1930s. It was completely unknown in New England. To this day, its biggest representation is in the Midwest, but it has completely withdrawn from its birth state.

However, quite a few regional chains that started in that period essentially swiped the concept -- Krystal among the earliest to do so, along with White Tower, which did make it into New England.

I've only been to WC once, a little run-down location outside Trenton, NJ about thirty years ago, and I was annoyed when I realized I couldn't eat the product due to my chronic onion allergy. I like the idea of WC far more than the execution of it.

Are there White Castle burgers in the freezer section of your grocery stores up there like there are in NYC? I've never tried them from the freezer as buying a hamburger that way just isn't in my routine way of thinking about them and we really only eat red meat out as a treat now and then.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, we do see the freezer ones here, and one of the trade publications I get often has ads from the WC company promoting them as a concession stand item for theatres, the idea being to heat them up in a microwave. The people we get in here who whine about the smell of popcorn would really go to town with that.

A lot of local places now have "sliders" on the menu, although pulled-pork sliders are far more popular than the hamburger ones. But still no actual White Castle restaurants.

 

[Bamaboots]

I used to see them in the freezer section of the grocery stores here but haven't really looked for them in a long time so I don't know if they're still offered. We used to always say why buy them when we can go to Krystal.

For those of you that need that WC fix but can't get to one, maybe this will do it. Don't know if it would upset Lizzie's onion allergy but it gags me just thinking of that odor filling my house.
https://www.perpetualkid.com/white-castle-burger-scented-candle.html

 

[Fading Fast]

Yep, we do see the freezer ones here, and one of the trade publications I get often has ads from the WC company promoting them as a concession stand item for theatres, the idea being to heat them up in a microwave. The people we get in here who whine about the smell of popcorn would really go to town with that.

A lot of local places now have "sliders" on the menu, although pulled-pork sliders are far more popular than the hamburger ones. But still no actual White Castle restaurants.

You've mentioned the complaints you get about the smell of popcorn before; what the heck is with those people? I'd complain if the lobby didn't smell of it - that's how you know you're in a movie theater.

Interestingly, while the theaters here have greatly expanded their menus - hamburgers, hot-dogs, pizza, tacos and fried chicken, for example - the theater lobbies still smell of popcorn.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our patrons complain about everything. One of them thought the water in the bubbler wasn't as clear as it could be.

 

[ChiTownScion]

My dear wife loathes White Castle, so any "crave " satisfying has to be done on my own time. Their shakes and fries are pretty good: the signature sliders (my opinion) seem too soggy. I do remember that, decades ago, after a hard night of bar hopping nothing provided better ballast before sailing off to bed. Perhaps my palate has matured.

 

[31 Model A]

My dear wife loathes White Castle, so any "crave " satisfying has to be done on my own time. Their shakes and fries are pretty good: the signature sliders (my opinion) seem too soggy. I do remember that, decades ago, after a hard night of bar hopping nothing provided better ballast before sailing off to bed. Perhaps my palate has matured.

My crave is usually only once a year, being a senior now, help with a bowel movement comes about once a year!!!!

 

[scottyrocks]

My dear wife loathes White Castle, so any "crave " satisfying has to be done on my own time. Their shakes and fries are pretty good: the signature sliders (my opinion) seem too soggy. I do remember that, decades ago, after a hard night of bar hopping nothing provided better ballast before sailing off to bed. Perhaps my palate has matured.

Soggy? One of WC's claims to fame is that those little burgers are steamed.

 

[Peacoat]

I've only been to WC once, a little run-down location outside Trenton, NJ about thirty years ago, and I was annoyed when I realized I couldn't eat the product due to my chronic onion allergy. I like the idea of WC far more than the execution of it.

My father had an onion allergy of sorts. It caused indigestion (heartburn), but he could eat them if they were cooked. As I got older, I developed the same problem. I could remove the center of the onion or eat them cooked with no problems. Have you tried that?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mine's gotten much more intense as I've aged -- I can't even be in the same room as raw onion fumes without my throat closing up. If I eat cooked onion, even in small amounts, the bowel consequences are violent and horrific, usually incapacitating me for the better part of two days. So I keep my distance.

I used to be able to tolerate garlic fairly well, but the last time I ate some, the results were, again, violent and horrific. So now that's on the avoid list as well.

But bizarrely, I can eat "Funyuns" ad infinitum. Apparently the onion content in these is subatomic.

 

[3fingers]

Our patrons complain about everything. One of them thought the water in the bubbler wasn't as clear as it could be.

One hope I have for immedite ascension is that I have dealt with the public for a large part of my working life. Purgatory is already marked off my list.

 

[Zombie_61]

Are there White Castle burgers in the freezer section of your grocery stores up there like there are in NYC? I've never tried them from the freezer as buying a hamburger that way just isn't in my routine way of thinking about them and we really only eat red meat out as a treat now and then.

As I mentioned upthread, in this part of southern California the frozen White Castle burgers are our only option because the nearest restaurant is about 260 miles away in Las Vegas. My wife and I had some last week--they aren't horrible, but still not as good as the genuine article. That said...

My dear wife loathes White Castle, so any "crave " satisfying has to be done on my own time. Their shakes and fries are pretty good: the signature sliders (my opinion) seem too soggy...

This would be my primary complaint about the frozen variety--they're pretty dry by comparison.