Royal Castle was a Miami, Florida-based hamburger restaurant chain known for its averaged-sized hamburgers that were similar to White Castle's hamburgers, [1] and its Birch Beer beverage, a version of root beer. [2]
Royal Castle's motto was: "Fit for a king!" [3] The restaurant chain also served breakfast, with orange juice freshly squeezed to order.[ citation needed ]
One Royal Castle still exists in Miami, at 2700 NW 79th Street. [4]
In 1938, Royal Castle was founded by William Singer, with an initial restaurant located at N.E. Second Avenue and 79th Street in Miami. Royal Castle eventually grew to 175 locations throughout Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Louisiana, [3] with the bulk of them in Miami. [5] Singer, who was from Columbus, Ohio, was inspired by the success of White Castle, which had moved its headquarters to Columbus from Wichita, Kansas, in 1934. [6]
During its heyday, in 1961, Royal Castle sold its hamburgers for 15 cents (equivalent to $1.53in 2023), and fries and Birch Beer for 7 cents each (equivalent to $0.71in 2023). [2]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 The End of an Era in Fast Food; Royal Castle |
In 1969, Royal Castle was acquired by Nashville, Tennessee-based Performance Systems for about $9.1 million. [7] Performance Systems had been active creating and marketing chicken franchise restaurants, most notably Minnie Pearl's Chicken. However, the company became overextended due to lack of executive restaurant experience, collapsed amid allegations of accounting irregularities and stock price manipulation, and was forced to sell off its assets, including Royal Castle. [8]
By the 1970s, the Royal Castle chain began to lose ground to other fast-food hamburger chains, including McDonald’s as well as Burger King, which also had been founded in Miami in 1954. [6] [9]
In 1975, the remaining shareholders of Royal Castle voted to liquidate the company at $2 a share, down from the $12 per share when the company had been acquired by Performance Systems. [10]
The cuisine of the American Midwest draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.
A hamburger, or better known as a burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis; condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger.
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
White Castle is an American regional hamburger restaurant chain with 345 locations across 13 states, with its greatest presence in the Midwest and New York metropolitan area. Founded on September 13, 1921, in Wichita, Kansas, it has been generally credited as the world's first fast-food hamburger chain. It is known for its small, square hamburgers referred to as "sliders". The burgers were initially priced at five cents until 1929 and remained at 10 cents until 1949. In the 1940s, White Castle periodically ran promotional ads in local newspapers which contained coupons offering five burgers for ten cents, takeout only. In 2014, Time named the White Castle slider "The Most Influential Burger of All Time".
MOS Food Services, Inc., doing business as MOS Burger, is an international fast-food restaurant chain (fast-casual) from Japan. Its headquarters are in the ThinkPark Tower in Ōsaki, Shinagawa, Tokyo. At one time its headquarters were located in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Krystal is an American regional fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Dunwoody, Georgia, with restaurants in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. It is known for its small, square hamburgers, called sliders in places other than the Southeast, with steamed-in onions. Krystal moved its headquarters from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it had been based since 1932, to the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody in early 2013.
Harvey's is a fast food restaurant chain operating in Canada, with locations in every province except British Columbia. It serves hamburgers, poutine, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, and other traditional Canadian fast-food fare. The chain is owned by Recipe Unlimited.
Pollo Tropical is a South Florida-based restaurant chain and franchise specializing in food inspired by Latin-Caribbean cuisine. Founded in 1988, the chain has its headquarters in Doral, Florida, It is best known for marinated and grilled chicken and various sides including black beans and rice, mojo roast pork and more.
Jack's Family Restaurants, LP is an American fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in Birmingham. Restaurants feature sit-down dining, drive-thrus and takeout service. The menu features primarily burgers, fried chicken, breakfast and various other fast food items including french fries and soft drinks.
A&W is a fast-food restaurant chain in Canada, franchised by A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc.
Wetson's was an American fast food hamburger chain that existed from 1959 to 1975. At its peak, Wetson's had approximately 70 locations in the greater New York metropolitan area.
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. McDonald's traces its origins to a 1940 restaurant in San Bernardino, California. After expanding within the United States, McDonald's became an international corporation in 1967, when it opened a location in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. By the end of the 1970s, McDonald's restaurants existed in five of the Earth's seven continents; an African location came in 1992 in Casablanca, Morocco.
A hamburger is a specific type of burger. It is a sandwich that consists of a cooked ground beef meat patty, placed between halves of a sliced bun. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as dill relish (condiment), mayonnaise, and other options including lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and cheese.
Evidence suggests that either the United States or Germany was the first country where two slices of bread and a ground beef patty were combined into a "hamburger sandwich" and sold. There is some controversy over the origin of the hamburger because its two basic ingredients, bread and beef, had been prepared and consumed separately for many years in both countries before their combination. Shortly after its creation, the hamburger quickly included all of its currently typically characteristic trimmings, including onions, lettuce, and sliced pickles.
Royal Castle is a fast food restaurant chain in Trinidad and Tobago.
Oliver George Gleichenhaus named the "re-inventor" of the hamburger, was an American restaurateur, best known for his small North Miami Beach, Florida, restaurant "Ollie's Sandwich Shop", located at Third Avenue and 23rd Street, where in the mid-1930s, he created his signature "Ollie Burger" which he prepared with his secret blend of 23 herbs and spices. Extremely profane and irascible, Gleichenhaus was known to curse at and eject diners who requested condiments like ketchup to add to his "perfect burgers".