Kewpee

Last updated
Kewpee, Inc.
Type Private corporation
Industry Fast Food
Founded Flint, Michigan, U.S., (1923;100 years ago (1923))
Founder Samuel V. Blair
Headquarters
Lima, Ohio
,
United States
Number of locations
5 Restaurants (2022)
3 corporate
2 franchises
Area served
 Midwest United States
Key people
  • Harrison E. Shutt (President [1]
  • Myrna Shutt (VP)
  • Scott Shutt (VP & GM) [2]
Products Fast food, including hamburgers, french fries, pies, and Frozen Malts
Servicesfranchising
Revenue$6+ million (2009) [2]
OwnerHarrison E. Shutt [2]
Website kewpeehamburgers.com
Kewpee in Racine, Wisconsin OutsidePro.jpg
Kewpee in Racine, Wisconsin

Kewpee Hamburgers is the second oldest chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants, founded in 1923 in Flint, Michigan under the name "Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs". [2] [3] Kewpee's current headquarters is located in Lima, Ohio. [2] The chain is named after the Kewpie doll. [2] [4] 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. [2] [3] The Lima Kewpee locations have locally raised beef delivered daily to each Kewpee restaurant. [2] The Kewpee Restaurant in Lima, Ohio is considered a historic site.

Contents

History

Kewpee Hamburgers is a chain of fast-food restaurants founded in 1923 in Flint, Michigan, by Samuel V. Blair [2] under the name "Kewpee Hotel" in a stand. [3] In 1926, Blair sold the rights to the Kewpee trademarks to Toledo, Ohio Kewpee Hotel operator Ed Adams. [5]

In Lansing, Michigan, the Weston family has owned and operated the Kewpee's restaurant since it opened in 1923. The Weston family has had as many as two Kewpee restaurants open at one time in Lansing. The Westons are in their fourth generation of operating Kewpee. [4] Kewpee's early plans under Blair and Adams seemed to stay out of major cities. After Prohibition, some Kewpee restaurants added real beer to their staple of root beer, which was on many Kewpee menus joining the standard coffee offerings of other hamburger chains. [3] In 1928, the Lima, Ohio, location opened under the ownership of Hoyt “Stub” Wilson. [2] [6] About 200 Kewpee locations existed by 1929. [3] In 1936, with a Kewpee already located in Findlay, Ohio, Wilson opened a restaurant there called Wilson's Sandwich Shop. [6] At its peak just before World War II, there were more than 400 Kewpee restaurants in operation. [3]

Blair, upon his retirement on April 1, 1944, started renting the original location. Blair died in 1945 and licensees continued to lease their locations and paid royalties for use of the Kewpee name from Adams. The Blair estate owned locations went up for sale in 1958. The original location was sold to leaser William "Bill" V. Thomas with Thomas paying license fees to Ed F. Adams's Kewpee Hotels partnership of Toledo, Ohio. [3] [7] [8] About 1958, Harrison "Harry" E. Shutt went to work for Wilson at his Lima restaurant. [1] In 1963, the Grand Rapids licensee locations were sold and separated from Kewpee as Mr. Fables. [9]

Ed Adams' partnership, Kewpee Hotels transferred the Kewpee trademark to Kewpee Hotel Systems, Inc. in 1965 [8] of which Ed Adams was president. [10] The number of Kewpee locations dropped considerably in 1967 when the Kewpee Hotel Systems, Inc. demanded a full franchising arrangement and a percentage of the profits. The locations which objected either closed or changed their names. The original Flint location changed its name to Bill Thomas' Halo Burger which is still a thriving business, [7] but not at the original location which was torn down in 1979. [11] After Edwin Adams died in 1974, his widow Hortense M. Adams took over as president of Kewpee Hotel System, Inc. by March 1975. [12] In 1969, a Kewpee International partnership, (later most likely incorporated as Kewpee of Toledo) led by former Kewpee Hotel System Vice President Robert L. Dame, purchased the Kewpee rights from Kewpee Hotel System, Inc. [13] The Kewpee, Inc. was formed in 1969 by Harold J., James F. and Richard E. Meredith based in Lima, Ohio. [14] Upon the closing of Kewpee's operations in Toledo, The owner of Kewpee in Lima, Ohio acquired the Kewpee trademarks in 1985. [15] "The Kewpee, Inc. of Toledo" assigned the trademark of Kewpee to "The Kewpee, Inc." [16] Shutt became president in 1970 of Kewpee, Inc. [2] and purchased Wilson's Lima location upon Wilson's death [6] in 1980. [2]

According to a 2001 interview with Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, as a child, he lived near the intersection of Douglas and Kalamazoo Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thomas used to love eating at a Kewpee restaurant, which stood at Burdick and South. He said it was what inspired him to go into the business. Kewpee's sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, much like the famous restaurant that Thomas eventually founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. [2] [17]

In January 2010, Kewpee was named to the National Restaurant News 50: All-American Icons list, [18] and the Lima City Council passed a resolution congratulating the company. [19]

A book about Kewpee's history titled Kewpee Hamburgers: A Mity Nice History became available on July 24, 2023. [20]

Slogans

Their advertising slogan is: Hamburg pickle on top, makes your heart go flippity-flop! [3]

Earlier Slogans

Locations

There are five remaining Kewpee restaurants. Three of these are in Lima, Ohio.

Kewpee Restaurant 2.jpg
The Kewpee sign at the downtown Lima, Ohio, location
Kewpee Restaurant.JPG
Kewpee in downtown Lima, Ohio

In addition, Racine, Wisconsin and Lansing, Michigan each have one Kewpee restaurant. The Lansing location is named Weston's Kewpee Sandwich Shop.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburger</span> Food consisting of a beef patty between rounded buns

A hamburger, or simply burger, is a sandwich 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burger Chef</span> Defunct American fast food restaurant chain

Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States, and at its peak in 1973 had 1,050 locations, including some in Canada. The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Boy Restaurants</span> American restaurant chain

Big Boy Restaurant Group, LLC is an American restaurant chain headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. The Big Boy name, design aesthetic, and menu were previously licensed to a number of regional franchisees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stouffer's</span> Brand of frozen prepared foods

Stouffer's is a brand of frozen prepared foods currently owned by Nestlé. Its products are available in the United States and Canada. Stouffer's is known for such popular fare as lasagna, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, ravioli, and salisbury steak. It also produces a line of reduced-fat products under the Lean Cuisine brand name. In February 2023, Nestle Canada announced their intentions to wind down and exit the frozen meals and pizza business within the next six months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Pablo's</span> American Tex-Mex restaurant chain

Don Pablo's was an American chain of Tex-Mex restaurants founded in Lubbock, Texas, in 1985. The menu featured Tex-Mex items, made-from-scratch salsa, tortillas and sauces, and a range of other Mexican specialties. At one time, this chain had as many as 120 locations throughout the United States and was the second largest full-service Mexican restaurant chain within the United States during the late 1990s, second only to Chi-Chi's. The chain had 34 restaurants in 14 states when it was acquired in 2014 by Food Management Partners. By October 2016, the chain was reduced to 12 restaurants in 9 states, 6 restaurants in 4 states by July 2018, 5 restaurants in 3 states by September 2018, and later 3 restaurants in 3 states by November 2018. The remaining restaurants in the struggling chain gradually and quietly closed over the next seven months until the last restaurant in Deptford Township, New Jersey, finally closed on June 23, 2019.

MLive Media Group, originally known as Booth Newspapers, or Booth Michigan, is a media group that produces newspapers in the state of Michigan. Founded by George Gough Booth with his two brothers, Booth Newspapers was sold to Advance Publications, a Samuel I. Newhouse property, in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biggby Coffee</span> American coffee shop chain

Biggby Coffee is an American coffeehouse franchise based in Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1995 in the city of East Lansing, Michigan, by Bob Fish and Mary Roszel as Beaner's Coffee. By the end of the 1990s, the company had three locations in Lansing, and began to expand during the 21st century by means of franchising. Between 2007 and 2008, the chain was officially renamed Biggby Coffee due to corporate concerns over the meaning of the word "beaner"; the name Biggby was derived from the letter B in the company's logo. In 2022, the chain had over 280 locations throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Tower Hamburgers</span> Restaurant

White Tower Hamburgers was a fast food restaurant chain that was founded in 1926 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With its similar white fortress-like buildings and menu it is considered to be an imitator of White Castle chain that was founded in 1921. The chain was successful and expanded to other cities, including Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Dayton, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York City, Albany, Boston, Richmond, Virginia, and as far south as Sarasota, Florida. During the Great Depression, White Tower sold hamburgers for five cents. The whiteness of the restaurant was meant among other things to evoke the notion of hygienic conditions, and the chain had staff dressed as nurses, dubbed the "Towerettes," to help make this argument.

McDonald's has been involved in a number of lawsuits and other legal cases in the course of the fast food chain's 70-year history. Many of these have involved trademark issues, but McDonald's has also launched a defamation suit which has been described as "the biggest corporate PR disaster in history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erbert & Gerbert's</span> Restaurant franchise in the United States

Erbert & Gerbert's Sandwich Shop is a restaurant franchise specializing in submarine sandwiches. The chain was founded in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1987, with the first store opening in 1988. The company has more than 50 locations throughout Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin, as well a single location in both North Carolina and Georgia. Its headquarters are in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Their shops are often located near college areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Michigan</span> Lower Peninsula of Michigan in the United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J.W. Knapp Company</span>

The J.W. Knapp Company, more commonly known as "Knapp's", was a chain of department stores based in Lansing, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halo Burger</span> Fast food chain based in Flint, Michigan, United States

Halo Burger, formerly known by its full name Bill Thomas' Halo Burger, is an American fast-food restaurant chain based in Genesee County, Michigan. Begun in 1923 as the original Kewpee location and separating from the Kewpee chain in 1967 with two locations, the chain has maintained a number of locations in and around Genesee County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flint Phantoms</span> American indoor football team

The Flint Phantoms were a professional indoor football team based in Flint, Michigan. The Phantoms joined the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) in 2008 as an expansion team. They were the second professional indoor football team to be based in Flint, with the first being the Flint Flames of the original Indoor Football League. The Michigan Pirates played a home playoff game in Flint, in 2007, with the idea of moving there, but the team folded after the 2007 season. The Phantoms played their home games at the Perani Arena and Event Center in Flint, Michigan.

Sun America, Inc., d/b/a JetAmerica, was a proposed American low-cost scheduled public charter airline headquartered in unincorporated Pinellas County, Florida. On March 10, 2009, the airline announced a number of public scheduled charter flights from underutilized airports to Newark and Minneapolis–St. Paul using a Miami Air International Boeing 737-800 to begin on June 30, 2009. On May 27, 2009, the airline held its first press conference at Toledo Express Airport, Ohio, announcing its first focus city and the start of flight operations on July 13, 2009. The airline announced the station markets of Lansing, Michigan; Melbourne, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Newark, New Jersey; South Bend, Indiana; and Toledo, Ohio. The airline also publicly stated it was evaluating service to Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, West Virginia Chicago Midway, Illinois; Rockford, Illinois; Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio; Greensboro, North Carolina; Hartford, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Clearwater, Florida. The airline later delayed the start of service to August 14, 2009. However, JetAmerica did not begin service as it was unable to finalize slots at Newark.

Peter G. "Pete" Jubeck was a Czech-American businessman who founded, with partner Robert Swartz, the restaurants Sir Pizza of Michigan and Clara's Lansing Station, both in Lansing, Michigan, and with partner Ross Simpson, Clara's on the River in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Libbey, Inc., is a glass production company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1818 in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the New England Glass Company, before relocating to Ohio in 1888 and renaming to Libbey Glass Co. After it was purchased in 1935, it operated as part of the Libbey-Owens-Ford company and as a division of the Owens-Illinois glass company until 1993, when it was separated back into an independent company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson's Sandwich Shop</span>

Wilson's Sandwich Shop is a restaurant located in Findlay, OH founded by the owner of the Kewpee Hamburger restaurant in Lima, OH. It is a local institution with people going there to get in touch with the community with it being a regular stop for local Courier reporters getting "man-on-the-street perspectives". Various famous people and politicians have visited including singer Johnny Mathis, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and former Vice President Dan Quayle.

References

  1. 1 2 "Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Inductee". Lima City Schools. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Whit Smyth (2010-01-24). "Kewpee Hamburgers - Lima, Ohio". Nation's Restaurant News. Archived from the original on 11 October 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hogan, David Gerard (1997). Selling 'em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food (1st ed.). NYU Press. p. 50. ISBN   0-8147-3567-3 . Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  4. 1 2 Jack Schaberg (October 1, 2005). "Dining Delights". Lansing Business Monthly Magazine. The Greater Lansing Business Monthly, Inc. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  5. ↑ "Birth of a legend: Kewpee". 16 December 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 Mike Lackey (2008-05-24). "Final words (maybe) on a few recent topics". Lima Ohio.com. Freedom Communications, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-10.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. 1 2 Rauschert, Jeff (2010-12-28). "Halo Burger to be sold by Thomas family to Dortch Enterprises". NBC 25 News. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  8. 1 2 Ed F. Adams (1965-05-13). "Assignment of Registration". Business Filing Information. Ohio Secretary of State. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  9. ↑ Rademacher, Tom (September 11, 2008). "Sorry, folks, I can't pry loose the Fables secret". The Grand Rapids Press. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  10. ↑ Ed F. Adams (1965-05-17). "Trademark Renewal Application". Business Filing Information. Ohio Secretary of State. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  11. ↑ Christy Ryan (2008-04-21). "Halo Burger reluctant to leave in fall". Michigan Times. Flint, Michigan: University of Michigan-Flint. Archived from the original (shtml) on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  12. ↑ Hortense M. Adams (1975-03-25). "Trademark Renewal Application". Business Filing Information. Ohio Secretary of State. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  13. ↑ Robert L. Dame (1985-08-15). "Trademark Assignment". Business Filing Information. Ohio Secretary of State. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  14. ↑ "Articles of Incorporation". State of Ohio. 1969-11-17. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  15. ↑ https://www.toledoblade.com/frontpage/2001/03/26/Kewpee-owner-offers-full-menu-of-charity.html
  16. ↑ "Assignment of Trademark". State of Ohio. 1985-12-12. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  17. ↑ "Wendy's Founder, Dave Thomas, and the Kalamazoo Kewpee". WWMT. Freedom Broadcasting of Michigan, Inc. 2002-01-08. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  18. ↑ "NRN 50: All-American Icons". Nation’s Restaurant News. Jan 25, 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  19. ↑ "City Council honors Kewpee". The Lima News. February 22, 2010. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  20. ↑ "Kewpee Hamburgers: A Mity Nice History|Paperback".
  21. ↑ Mike Lackey (2008-05-24). "Final words (maybe) on a few recent topics". Lima Ohio.com. Freedom Communications, Inc. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  22. ↑ Phyllis G. Hopkins (May 15, 1980). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Lima Multiple Resource Area" (PDF). National Park Service . Retrieved 2015-08-17.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.