matter for the restaurant to deliver quality food along with very fast service, simply because they had such a limited menu. The customer was, in a sense, waiting on himself under the self-service system. This eliminated costly overhead and assured a high margin of profit.
The year 1948 was the watershed year for what soon became known as the fast-food business. Richard and Maurice McDonald were the pioneers who conceptualized an idea which was to take America and the world by storm. Their food-service methods also marked the beginning of the end for the carhop drive-in industry, which experienced such significant growth in the thirties and forties by catering to an increasingly mobile America. After the McDonalds’ conception opened and became so obviously successful, the public became transfixed with limited-menu, self-service restaurant concepts of all kinds. This was destined to forever change the character and style of the food-service industry in both the United States and abroad.
According to the US Department of Commerce, eating and drinking place sales for 1948 totaled $10.7 billion. Forty years later the McDonald’s system was generating annual food sales of over $14 billion.
The often-told story of Ray Kroc’s introduction to McDonald’s makes the point. In 1954, Kroc was an equipment salesman selling a line of Multimixer milkshake machines. The Multimixer was a machine with five rotary spindles that could make up to five milkshakes at a time. To make a milkshake, special stainless steel containers were filled with several scoops of ice cream, some milk, flavoring, and malt. The containers were placed on the spindle assembly where the contents were blended by high-speed mixers to produce a fine-tasting milkshake. Kroc believed that it was most unlikely that a single restaurant operation would require more than one single Multimixer machine. The McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino had ordered ten of these machines. Kroc was curious about this order and wanted to see for himself why this single establishment needed ten machines with the capacity to whip up fifty milkshakes at a time. He traveled to California and witnessed the phenomenal business McDonald’s was doing. He noted that there was always a steady line of people waiting for service and standing all the way out to the street. The food was good, and it was offered at low prices and served in a clean facility. McDonald’s customers were served in a matter of seconds. Kroc probably decided right there and then that he had to be part of that.
After considerable discussions and negotiations with the two McDonald brothers, Kroc agreed to become the sole agent for the McDonald’s franchising program. He entered into an exclusive contract with the brothers to perform that service.
The success of the McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino attracted the trade press, which began publishing numerous articles about this modern-day food-service phenomena. Restaurateurs from all over the country came to California to see what this remarkable new innovation looked like. Before long, the McDonald’s operation was copied by restaurant operators in many parts of the country who thought they could create a similar success on their own.
After signing an agreement with the McDonald brothers, Kroc returned to Chicago and opened his first McDonald’s restaurant on Lee Street in Des Plaines, Illinois. That historic event occurred in April of 1955. The restaurant was successful right from the beginning.
Cramer and Burns heard about the phenomenal success of the McDonald’s unit, and like many others, wanted to see for themselves. They were greatly impressed. While in California they heard about the Insta-Machines which the inventor, George Read, described as machines capable of automating the production of hamburgers and milkshakes. Deciding to examine these machines while they were there, they met Read who demonstrated how the machines worked. They liked what they saw and ultimately entered into a contract with Read to purchase the machines under a licensing arrangement which required them to open restaurants somewhat similar to the innovative McDonald’s concept. In collaboration with Read, Cramer and Burns designed a restaurant building similar to the one they had just visited. They felt that their concept would work and hoped that Read’s Insta-broiler and Insta-shake machine would give them a competitive advantage in exploiting the opportunity.
The contract with Read established Cramer and Burns as the first territorial licensee and gave them the state of Florida to develop. The agreement gave them the exclusive right to use the Insta-Machines and the Insta- name in their territory. The agreement also authorized them to license others to operate restaurants of a uniform design using the Insta-Machines and the name. For each restaurant opened, Read was to receive a modest franchise fee, his profit on the sale of the Insta-Machines, and a share of the 2 percent royalty fee each of the franchisees were required to pay. Cramer and Burns decided that their first restaurant would be named Insta-Burger, and the building was soon under construction. What they could not have imagined at the time was how much trouble the machines would give them.
The Insta-Hamburger Broiler was something that might have been dreamed up by Rube Goldberg. The machine was about three feet long, one foot wide, and two and a half feet high. It had twelve baskets that held a patty and bun. The baskets traveled around electric calrods to broil them. After one revolution, the patty would slide down a chute into the sauce. The sauce, concocted by Read, Cramer, and Burns, was a hot mixture of ketchup, mustard, relish, and “special seasoning.” Upon receiving an order, the operator would lift the cooked patty from the pan of sauce, place it on the bun, then wrap it in paper to serve. Unfortunately, the machine often failed to mesh properly with the chute, which ground it to a halt and shut down operations until repairs could be made.
The Insta-shake machine used a process of flash freezing a liquid dairy mix into a thick milkshake that was really good. The shakes were so thick they had to be eaten with the wooden spoon they were served with. The flash freezing method was a fairly fast process that helped to justify the Insta- name.
The machine was built with two separate refrigerated tanks located at the top. One tank contained a vanilla milkshake mix, and the other one a chocolate mix. In the center of the machine was the freezing cylinder. Over the cylinder was a motor that drove an attached beater assembly. The beater had hinged blades extending down into the freezing cylinder.
When a shake was ordered, the operator pulled a little lever at either the chocolate or vanilla tank. This activated a device that lifted a measured portion of mix and ladled it into an adjoining stainless steel reservoir. From there, the mix drained down a clear plastic tube directly into the freezing cylinder. At the precise moment the mix entered the cylinder, the shake machine operator threw a switch on the motor to activate the beater assembly. This had the effect of throwing the liquid mix against the stainless steel freezer cylinder wall where the mix froze and thickened instantly while the beater blades scraped the product off the cylinder wall and extruded it into a paper cup positioned at the bottom of the assembly.
If the ladle had picked up the right amount of mix, the cup would be full. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work out that way. If the ladle had picked up too much mix, the cup overflowed and left a mess to clean up. If too little mix entered the cylinder, there was a need to jostle just enough additional mix for another run-in order to fill the cup. Usually that exercise resulted in drawing too much mix, which created still another mess. We tried not to talk about slightly discolored vanilla shakes, produced after a chocolate had been run, which were referred to internally by employees as mochas. We just hoped the customers wouldn’t object.
Notwithstanding all of the problems we encountered in using the Insta-shake machines, the product was really exceptionally good. It had a velvety smooth texture, and it was quite cold and never grainy. Thanks to the unique process, the shake was produced with a very small overrun, which is a term used to describe the amount of air that is incorporated into a milkshake. Very little air was beaten into this product which made it much more palatable than shakes made today on the modern batch-type milkshake machines.
When Cramer and Burns were building their first Insta-Burger restaurant in Jacksonville, they met with Dave on several occasions. He had spoken to their regional manager and obtained approval to serve hamburgers in his planned Dairy Queen store.
