articles, photographs, and a personal account written by Kenneth Lassen, Louis’ grandson.
You can still enjoy one of Louis’ famous hamburgers; the fifth generation of Lassens now runs Louis’ Lunch. The burgers come with cheese spread, tomato, and onion.
Fletcher Davis
Texas historian Frank X. Tolbert said in 1979 that Fletcher “Uncle Fletch” Davis was the inventor of the hamburger. He even hosted a contest to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary, claiming that the hamburger was introduced at the World’s Fair in 1904. The original burger, said Tolbert, was a half-pound beef patty on a toasted bun with mustard, lettuce, tomato, and onions.
In November, 2006, Texas state representative Betty Brown asked the Texas Legislature to “formally designate” Athens, Texas, as the “Original Home of the Hamburger.” This designation is based on Fletcher Davis’s lunch counter, where he sold meat sandwiches in Athens sometime in the late 1800s. On March 22, 2007, the resolution was passed.
We will probably never know exactly who came up with the hamburger that we all love so much. I do have a quote from the Indianapolis Star in November of 1964 that is a perfect segue to the next chapter.
For many years a so-called hamburger sandwich had been sold at fairs, amusement parks, carnivals, and in some restaurants. These sandwiches were prepared by placing a thick patty of ground beef on a griddle or skillet, allowing it to cook over a slow fire for an indefinite time, and placing it in a cold bun. The meat in this sandwich was practically tasteless, as most of the valuable juices and nutriment had been cooked out of it.
—Billy Ingram, Cofounder of White Castle
Who would have thought that a five-stool burger stand in Wichita, Kansas, would be responsible for changing the course of hamburger history?
Walter Anderson, who had owned and operated many restaurants, got the ball rolling. He created a unique method of preparing the hamburger. It involved smashing the beef patty, along with some shredded onions, with a spatula, then turning it over and placing both halves of the bun on the meat to pick up the steam and flavors. Across the street from the hamburger stand where he worked was a remodeled street car, now home to a shoe shop.
On October 16, 1916, after purchasing the street car for sixty dollars (almost $1,500 today), he installed three stools and a counter that he built, along with an icebox. His small budget left him with enough money to buy a flat piece of iron that would act as a flat-top. It wasn’t the ideal situation for cooking hamburgers because the grease would drip off the edges, but he made do. He also ground and prepared the meat directly behind the counter, which helped dispel the public’s uneasiness about eating ground beef.
Outside of his hamburger stand, he hung a sign that read “Hamburgers 5¢.” Anderson made $3.75 in sales on that first day. He launched the catchphrase, “Buy ’em by the Sack,” to encourage customers to buy his burgers by the half dozen.
Walter Meets Billy
Anderson’s first location proved to be successful, and by 1920 he had added two more stands. Around this time, he met Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram, a real estate broker and insurance salesman. Ingram also helped Anderson get the lease for his third location. It was when Anderson attempted to get a lease for a fourth location that some issues arose, and Billy intervened. This new partnership was called White Castle, a name was chosen by Billy, who said that White stood for purity and cleanliness, while Castle represented strength, permanence, and stability.
To get the first stand open, they borrowed seven hundred dollars in bond money, which they paid back in about ninety days. In 1926, the cost to open a burger stand was $3,500, or about fifty thousand dollars today. The first White Castle building had only five stools, measured fifteen by ten feet, and was made of cement blocks. It opened at 110 West First Street in Wichita, Kansas, on March 21, 1921.
White Castle was such a hit that by the end of 1921, copycat restaurants started to pop up.
These stands not only sold hamburgers but used a variation of the “Buy ’em by the Sack” catchphrase. A few straight-up used, copied, or were inspired by White Castle architecture. The best known were Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs (Flint, Michigan), The Krystal (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Little Tavern (Louisville, Kentucky), Maid-Rite (Muscatine, Iowa), Royal Castle (Miami, Florida), and White Tower (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
Even the cities where White Castle opened faced the same issue. Once they established themselves, new competition would show up. Indianapolis was different. A former employee opened a shop there before White Castle had even arrived.
White Castle Innovates
Billy Ingram started to differentiate White Castle from everyone else through innovation, pioneering new methods and ideas:
Better spatulas
Pancake turners were used to cook hamburgers, but they were not made to stand up to the job. So they cut old saws into pieces that were roughly about two inches square, then soldered a handle to make a custom spatula. Eventually, they found a manufacturer.
Electric dishwashers
White Castle was one of the first to install under-the-counter electric dishwashers. These forced them to redesign their mugs so that the rinse water would drain through slots on their bottom rims.
Better exhaust systems
Billy created an exhaust system that allowed the fumes from the hot flat-top to escape upwards via an enamel hood and later a glass hood.
Improved meat sources
As they expanded into new cities, White Castle would locate a meat supplier that only used US government-inspected beef from specific cuts to give it the right flavor.
Paper hats
They procured a patent for folded-paper hats to replace the linen ones of the day. Four years later, as the Paperlynen Company, they manufactured paper hats not only for themselves, but for other restaurants.
Custom buns
White Castle had two bakeries making all of their buns.
Special cartons
A cardboard carton with heat lining was created (the first of its kind in the food industry) so that the burgers at the bottom of the sack would not get soggy or crushed.
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In 1924, the company transitioned from partnership status to incorporating as the White Castle System of Eating House Corporation. The following year, they opened their twentieth location.
To encourage closer relationships between the home office and its employees, plus customers who might be interested, Billy Ingram created a company newsletter named the Hot Hamburger. The name was later switched to The White Castle Official House Organ after a December 1925 contest.
The creation and patenting of a moveable, all-metal White Castle building design with enamel panels on the outside happened in 1928. Due to constant design changes in their early days, fifty-five of them were built. Six years later, White Castle created a new division, Porcelain Steel Buildings Company, to fabricate their castles and equipment.
The
