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]
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 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]
A hamburger, or simply a burger, is a dish consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis with 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. Under some definitions, and in some cultures, a burger is considered a sandwich.
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.
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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.
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Kewpee Hamburgers is the second oldest chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants, founded in 1923 in Flint, Michigan under the name "Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs". Kewpee's current headquarters is located in Lima, Ohio. The chain is named after the Kewpie doll. Kewpee was one of the first to institute curbside service, which later morphed into a drive-in service, and then finally was transformed into drive-thru service. The Lima Kewpee locations have locally raised beef delivered daily to each Kewpee restaurant. The Kewpee Restaurant in Lima, Ohio is considered a historic site.
Jack's Family Restaurants, LP is an American fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in Birmingham, Alabama. 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.
When the predecessor of international fast food restaurant chain Burger King (BK) first opened in 1953, its menu predominantly consisted of hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida franchisees and renamed in 1954, BK began expanding its menu by adding the Whopper sandwich in 1957, and has since added non-beef items such as chicken, fish, and vegetarian offerings, including salads and meatless sandwiches. Other additions include a breakfast menu and beverages such as Icees, juices, and bottled waters. As the company expanded both inside and outside the United States, it introduced localized versions of its products that conform to regional tastes and cultural or religious beliefs. To generate additional sales, BK occasionally introduces limited-time offers of special versions of its products, or brings out completely new products intended for either long- or short-term sales. Not all of these products and services have been successful; in 1992, Burger King introduced limited table service featuring special dinner platters, but this concept failed to generate interest and was discontinued.
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, United States. 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.
Originally just a ground beef patty, as it is still interpreted in multiple languages, the first hamburger likely originated in Hamburg (Germany), hence its name; however, evidence also suggests that the United States may have later been the first country where two slices of bread and a ground beef patty were combined into a "hamburger sandwich" and sold as such. Shortly after this combination, 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".