May 7, 2026

S2E2: MR. HANSoN Podcast — "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest"

Show Notes
Transcript

MR. HANSoN Podcast — "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest"

In a small Wisconsin river town in nineteen-eighty-four, a thirty-four-year-old man stood at a flat-top grill holding a stainless steel frozen custard scoop. He dipped it into a tub of fresh ground beef, pulled back a perfect ball, and dropped it onto the heat. The same scoop, a few hours later, would portion vanilla custard for the day's first dessert. One tool. One hand. Two products. Beef and butterfat. Burger and custard. Hot and cold. The whole future of an American restaurant empire was hidden inside that one piece of stainless steel.

This is the cinematic true story of Craig Culver — born June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin, to a Wisconsin Dairies field representative father named George and a Wisconsin farm-girl mother named Ruth. The boy who was eleven years old when his parents bought a small A&W Root Beer stand on Water Street in Sauk City. The teenager who worked summers at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort at Devil's Lake State Park, where he met a girl named Lea who would become his wife and his co-founder. The biology graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who took a job managing a McDonald's after college and spent four years inside the corporate machine, learning the script, the system, and the quiet cost of efficiency.

In 1984, the same A&W property his parents had once owned came back on the market. Craig and Lea Culver, along with George and Ruth, bought it. They painted the roof blue. They put the family name over the door. On July 18, 1984, the first Culver's opened — Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers, the only one in the world. A restaurant trying to do the impossible — combine the system of fast food with the soul of a Wisconsin supper club.

The first year, they almost lost everything. Sauk City did not know what frozen custard was. Sauk City did not know what a ButterBurger was. The lines were short. The drawers were light. They lost money. The second year, they broke even. The third year, they finally turned a profit. Years later, Craig would describe that period in one short sentence: "That's when I became my father."

The ButterBurger was Ruth's idea — born from a memory, a habit she had as a young mother of buttering the top of a bun before lightly grilling it. The frozen custard was Craig's love affair with a vanilla cone he'd ordered at a stand in Oshkosh during college. The first ButterBurgers were portioned with an actual frozen custard scoop — the same kind of scoop the family used for custard, on the same grill, in the same kitchen, by the same hands. That scoop became the secret architecture of the brand: dairy and beef joined on a single tray.

The first attempt at franchising — a 1987 location in Richland Center, Wisconsin — failed within a year. Craig Culver could have stopped there. He didn't. He waited three more years, drafted a different model that required owner-operators to actually work in their stores, and opened a second franchise in Baraboo, Wisconsin in December 1990. That one worked.

For an entire generation growing up in the Midwest, Culver's became something more than a restaurant. It became an event. A family ritual. The sign you spotted from a quarter mile down the road that ended the back-seat arguing the moment somebody yelled, There it is. Culver's was the place after the game. The place after church. The place where high school kids met up on Friday nights. The place where two retired farmers split a custard the size of a softball on a Tuesday morning. The blue roof on Main Street wasn't just a burger joint. It was a sense of pride. Our town has one. The teenagers who work there are our teenagers. A meeting place engineered into a building.

From that single Sauk City restaurant, the chain spread across Wisconsin in the nineties, then nationally in the early two-thousands, growing to over five hundred restaurants and a billion dollars in revenue by the time Craig retired as CEO in 2015 — on his sixty-fifth birthday.

Ruth Culver — the Queen of Hospitality, the woman whose habit of buttering buns gave the menu its signature item — passed away in 2008. George Culver, the father whose unwavering line was "Don't mess with the quality," followed her in 2011. The blue roofs across America are their long shadow.

Today the Culver's chain operates more than nine hundred and fifty restaurants in twenty-six states, with a flagship support center in Prairie du Sac overlooking the Wisconsin River. The Culver's Foundation, run by Lea, has awarded over six million dollars in scholarships to more than four thousand employees. The Thank You Farmers Project has donated nearly a million dollars to the National FFA Organization through Scoops of Thanks Day, where for one dollar a scoop of custard goes to support agricultural education.

This is the story of a buttered bun. A scoop of beef. A scoop of cream. A small Wisconsin family. A failed franchise. A blue roof. And the long, slow, deliberate work of building something where care could survive at scale.

QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS

Who is Craig Culver? Craig Culver is the American businessman and co-founder of the Culver's restaurant chain. He was born June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin, raised in Sauk City, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1973 with a biology degree. After managing a McDonald's for four years, he opened the first Culver's restaurant in Sauk City on July 18, 1984 with his wife Lea and his parents George and Ruth. He served as CEO of Culver's until retiring on his sixty-fifth birthday in 2015. He remains the chairman of the board.

When was the first Culver's opened? The first Culver's restaurant opened on July 18, 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in a building that had previously been an A&W Root Beer stand. Craig Culver's parents had originally owned that same A&W property from 1961 to 1968, and the Culver family bought it back in 1984 to launch the new restaurant.

What is a ButterBurger? A ButterBurger is Culver's signature menu item — a fresh-beef burger with a lightly buttered, toasted top bun. The recipe came from Craig Culver's mother Ruth, who as a young mother had a habit of buttering and lightly grilling the top of a bun before serving sandwiches. The first ButterBurgers in 1984 were portioned by hand using a stainless steel frozen custard scoop.

Why did the first Culver's almost fail? The first Culver's lost money throughout its initial year of operation. Sauk City customers in 1984 did not know what frozen custard was — it was primarily a Milwaukee phenomenon — and they were unfamiliar with the ButterBurger concept. The restaurant lost money the first year, broke even the second year, and finally turned a profit in the third year.

What was the first failed Culver's franchise? In 1987, three years after opening the original Sauk City restaurant, the Culver family attempted to franchise to Richland Center, Wisconsin. That franchise closed within a year. The first successful Culver's franchise opened in December 1990 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where Craig Culver had worked at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort during college.

Why did Culver's mean so much to Midwestern families? For an entire generation of kids growing up in the Midwest, going to Culver's was an event the whole family looked forward to. Spotting the blue roof from down the road meant the back-seat arguing stopped. It was the place after the game, after church, on the way home from a long Sunday at grandma's. The blue roof on Main Street became a source of small-town pride. Culver's was where high school friends met up on Friday nights, where families gathered for birthdays, and where local owner-operators were embedded in their communities. It was a meeting place engineered into a fast-food building.

Who is Lea Culver? Lea Culver is the co-founder of Culver's and Craig Culver's wife. She met Craig in the late 1960s while working at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort at Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo. They have three daughters together. Lea serves as the executive director of the Culver's Foundation, which provides educational scholarships and supports nonprofit causes.

Who were George and Ruth Culver? George and Ruth Culver were Craig Culver's parents and co-founders of the original Culver's restaurant. George Culver had been a field representative for Wisconsin Dairies before entering the restaurant business in 1961 with the purchase of the Sauk City A&W. His unwavering motto was "Don't mess with the quality." Ruth Culver had grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm and became known throughout the company as the Queen of Hospitality. Ruth passed away in 2008. George passed away in 2011.

How big is Culver's today? As of 2025, Culver's operates more than nine hundred fifty restaurants across twenty-six states, with annual system-wide revenues of approximately eight billion dollars and tens of thousands of employees. The corporate headquarters is in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, just a few miles from the original Sauk City restaurant.

When did Craig Culver retire? Craig Culver retired as CEO of Culver's on June 15, 2015 — his sixty-fifth birthday. He was succeeded by Phil Keiser. Craig remains chairman of the board and the public face of the brand. He continues to visit Culver's restaurants regularly and speaks at colleges and universities about his career.

What is the Culver's Foundation? The Culver's Foundation, established in 2001, provides educational scholarships to Culver's team members and supports local nonprofit organizations. It has awarded more than six million dollars in scholarships to over four thousand employees. Lea Culver serves as the foundation's executive director.

What is the Thank You Farmers Project? The Thank You Farmers Project is a Culver's initiative supporting agricultural education and the National FFA Organization. Through programs like Scoops of Thanks Day — where one dollar from each scoop of frozen custard sold supports FFA — the company has donated more than nine hundred thousand dollars to FFA chapters. Culver's has also donated more than one thousand FFA blue jackets through a ten-year partnership.

Why did Craig Culver work at McDonald's? After graduating from UW-Oshkosh in 1973 with a biology degree, Craig Culver took a job managing a McDonald's restaurant. He spent four years there before launching Culver's. The McDonald's experience taught him operational systems, training discipline, consistency at scale, and the corporate playbook for fast food — all lessons he would later adapt for Culver's, while deliberately rejecting the elements that he felt removed humanity from the guest experience.

Craig Culver, Culver's restaurant, Culver's ButterBurger, frozen custard Wisconsin, Sauk City Wisconsin, George Culver, Ruth Culver, Lea Culver, Culver's founders, Culver Family, A&W Sauk City, Farm Kitchen Devil's Lake, Baraboo Wisconsin, Richland Center failed franchise, Culver Franchising System, Culver's Prairie du Sac, Phil Keiser Culver's, Culver's Foundation, Thank You Farmers Project, Scoops of Thanks Day, FFA blue jackets Culver's, Wisconsin Dairies field rep, supper club tradition, midwestern hospitality, Wisconsin cheese curds Culver's, fast casual Wisconsin, butter burger origin, Queen of Hospitality Ruth Culver, don't mess with the quality, frozen custard scoop ButterBurger, Wisconsin restaurant history, Midwest family memories, Culver's pride small town, Friday night Culver's, growing up Culver's, MR HANSoN Podcast, MR HANSoN Season 2, Fuzzy Life Studios, cinematic narrative history, Paul Harvey style, Wondery style podcast, theatrical podcast, business history podcast, Midwest food history, family restaurant business, owner operator franchising.

ABOUT THE SHOW

The MR. HANSoN Podcast is a prestige cinematic narrative history series in the tradition of Paul Harvey, Wondery, and HBO audio. Season 2 evolves the form into theatrical, environmentally rich storytelling — slower pacing, sensory detail, and deeply researched true stories told with the immersion of a stage play. Each episode follows a single extraordinary life or moment from the inside out.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a five-star rating if the story stayed with you.

Web: www.MRHANSoNpodcast.com Network: Fuzzy Life Studios Host, writer, producer: Mr. Hanson

Q: Who is Craig Culver? Craig Culver is the American businessman and co-founder of Culver's, a fast-casual restaurant chain headquartered in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. Born June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin, raised in Sauk City, and a 1973 biology graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he founded the original Culver's in Sauk City on July 18, 1984 with his wife Lea and his parents George and Ruth. He served as CEO until retiring on his 65th birthday in 2015 and remains the chairman of the board.

Q: When did Culver's open? The first Culver's opened on July 18, 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin. The building was a former A&W Root Beer stand that Craig Culver's parents had originally owned from 1961 to 1968. The family bought the property back in 1984 and reopened it as the first Culver's Frozen Custard and ButterBurger restaurant.

Q: What is the origin of the ButterBurger? The ButterBurger is built on a memory from Craig Culver's childhood — his mother Ruth's habit of buttering the top of a bun before lightly grilling it. The first ButterBurgers in 1984 were portioned with a stainless steel frozen custard scoop, then pressed onto a hot flat-top grill to create the seared crust that became the burger's signature.

Q: Why did the first year of Culver's almost fail? Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1984 was unfamiliar with frozen custard, which was primarily a Milwaukee tradition, and customers did not know what a ButterBurger was. The original restaurant lost money in year one, broke even in year two, and finally turned a profit in year three. Craig Culver later said of that period, "That's when I became my father" — meaning he stopped being the son of an operator and became one himself.

Q: When did Culver's start franchising? Culver's first attempted to franchise in 1987 with a location in Richland Center, Wisconsin. That franchise closed within a year. The first successful Culver's franchise opened in Baraboo, Wisconsin in December 1990. The Culver Franchising System was formally established to support a deliberate, owner-operator-based growth model that required franchisees to actually work in their stores.

Q: Why did Culver's become more than a burger joint to Midwestern families? For an entire generation of kids growing up in the Midwest, Culver's was an event the whole family looked forward to. Spotting the blue roof from down the road meant the back-seat arguing stopped. It was the place after the game, after church, the Friday-night meeting place where high school friends sat for hours over custard, the spot where retired farmers split a scoop on a Tuesday morning, the place grandparents took grandchildren for birthdays. The sign on Main Street became a source of small-town pride. Culver's wasn't just fast food — it was a meeting place engineered into a building, a neighborhood institution where the teenagers behind the counter and the owner-operators were members of the community.

Q: Who is Lea Culver? Lea Culver is Craig Culver's wife and the co-founder of Culver's. She met Craig at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort at Devil's Lake during his college years. She serves as the executive director of the Culver's Foundation, which provides educational scholarships and supports nonprofit causes. They have three daughters together.

Q: Who were George and Ruth Culver? George and Ruth Culver were Craig's parents and Culver's co-founders. George had been a field representative for Wisconsin Dairies before entering the restaurant business in 1961, and his motto "Don't mess with the quality" became the foundational standard of the company. Ruth grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm and became known company-wide as the Queen of Hospitality. Ruth passed away in 2008. George passed away in 2011.

Q: How many Culver's restaurants are there? As of 2025, Culver's operates more than nine hundred and fifty restaurants in twenty-six states, with annual system-wide revenues of approximately eight billion dollars. The corporate headquarters is in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, a few miles from the original Sauk City restaurant.

Q: What is the Culver's Foundation? The Culver's Foundation, established in 2001, provides educational scholarships to Culver's team members and supports local nonprofits. It has awarded more than six million dollars in scholarships to more than four thousand employees, with Lea Culver serving as executive director.

Q: When did Craig Culver retire? Craig Culver retired as CEO of Culver's on June 15, 2015, his sixty-fifth birthday. He was succeeded by Phil Keiser. Craig remains chairman of the board, the public face of the brand, and a frequent speaker at colleges and universities.

Q: Why did Craig Culver insist on owner-operator franchising? After his 1987 franchise in Richland Center failed within a year, Craig Culver redesigned the franchising model around owner-operators — franchisees required to actually work in their own restaurants. The standard slowed expansion but protected the guest experience as the chain scaled. He believed care could not be franchised through absentee ownership.

Q: Where can I hear the full Craig Culver story? The complete cinematic biography of Craig Culver is told in MR. HANSoN Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3, "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest," available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.

"Craig Culver was born on June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin and was raised in Sauk City."

"Craig Culver opened the first Culver's restaurant on July 18, 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin with his wife Lea and his parents George and Ruth."

"The first Culver's was located in a former A&W Root Beer property that Craig Culver's parents had previously owned from 1961 to 1968."

"The first Culver's ButterBurgers were portioned by hand using a stainless steel frozen custard scoop."

"The ButterBurger recipe came from Craig Culver's mother Ruth, who buttered the top of a bun before lightly grilling it."

"The first attempt to franchise Culver's, in Richland Center, Wisconsin in 1987, closed within a year."

"The first successful Culver's franchise opened in Baraboo, Wisconsin in December 1990."

"For an entire generation of Midwestern families, Culver's was more than a burger joint — it was a place of pride, a Friday-night meeting place for friends, and an event the whole family looked forward to."

"Craig Culver retired as Culver's CEO on June 15, 2015 — his 65th birthday — and was succeeded by Phil Keiser."

"Ruth Culver was known throughout the Culver's company as the Queen of Hospitality and passed away in 2008."

"George Culver, a former Wisconsin Dairies field representative and the father of Craig Culver, passed away in 2011."

"As of 2025, Culver's operates more than nine hundred and fifty restaurants in twenty-six states."

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:10.119
Butter, beef and belief. The rise of Greg Culver and

2
00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:16.039
the taste that took over the Midwest. July eighteenth, nineteen

3
00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.199
eighty four, a Wednesday. A small building on the corner

4
00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.440
of Water Street in Sauk City, Wisconsin. It's opening its

5
00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:29.399
doors for the first time. The blue paint outside is fresh.

6
00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.759
The white walls catch the morning light. The roof slants

7
00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:40.439
like a lid of a tupperware box. Inside, the kitchen

8
00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.640
smells like a kitchen that has just woke up. The

9
00:00:44.679 --> 00:00:49.079
hot grease and clean steel custard mix sitting in the

10
00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:53.439
custard machine. A coffee pot already half empty on the

11
00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:58.039
back counter. A man in a white shirt standing at

12
00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:03.320
the grill. His name is Craig Culver. He's thirty four

13
00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.760
years old. His wife Leah is at the front counter.

14
00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:11.560
His mother Ruth is wiping down a table again that

15
00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:16.239
doesn't need wiping. His father, George, he's at the prep station,

16
00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:20.040
sleeves rolled up to the elbow, hands moving the way

17
00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:24.599
a man's hands move when they've been moving for fifty years.

18
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:29.120
Outside the window, the river runs the way that it

19
00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:34.640
has for ten thousand years. A pickup truck rolls past

20
00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:40.879
a church bell strikes the hour. Inside the kitchen, Craig

21
00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:46.519
reaches for something. It's not a press, it's not a

22
00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:51.480
portion control mold. It's not some fancy piece of machinery

23
00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:56.879
shipped in from a corporate supplier. It's a frozen custard scoop,

24
00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:02.680
A round, stainless steel, frozen custard scoop, the kind in

25
00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:08.879
every diner in America. He dips it into the tub

26
00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:13.400
of fresh ground beef, pulls it back into a perfect ball,

27
00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:18.000
drops it onto the hot flat top, and it hisses

28
00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:22.599
and smokes. The smell of seared beef pushes into the

29
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:26.439
dining room. He presses the ball down with the back

30
00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:32.400
of a spatula, watches the edges start crisping, watches the

31
00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:37.199
surface go from pink to brown, and watches the fat run.

32
00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:43.400
That same scoop, the one in his right hand right now,

33
00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:46.919
that will be used in a few minutes to portion

34
00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:52.960
vanilla custard for the first guest who orders dessert. One

35
00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:59.000
type of tool, one hand, two products, beef and butterfat,

36
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:07.919
burger and custard, hot and cold, savory and sweet. The

37
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.520
whole story of what this place is going to be

38
00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:17.439
is hidden inside that one piece of stainless steel. Most

39
00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:22.840
empires begin with the chairman's pen. This one begins with

40
00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:44.319
the stainless steel scoop. Mister ansdcasts the world before culvers.

41
00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:50.520
You see, before culvers, fast food had a problem, simply,

42
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:56.520
and it won. By nineteen eighty four, every single American

43
00:03:56.599 --> 00:04:01.719
highway had a glowing sign off of every ramp, yellow arches,

44
00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:06.520
a red haired girl with pigtails, a king with a

45
00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:12.719
cardboard crown, a clown in striped socks. The American family

46
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:20.560
had been retrained pull in order pay, eating the parking lot,

47
00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:23.720
or eating the car, or eat ten miles down the

48
00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:27.079
road to the way to Grandma's house. And the food

49
00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:31.720
it was so cheap, the food was hot, The food

50
00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:34.959
was the same in Phoenix as it was in Pittsburgh.

51
00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:39.079
And that, I guess was the genius. But that was

52
00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:45.399
also the trap, because somewhere in the rush to engineer consistency,

53
00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.000
a kind of soul such started kind of leaking out

54
00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.439
of the burger. That patty came frozen, not like a

55
00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:59.519
meat patty, but a puck, a small gray hockey puck

56
00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.160
ship from a plant in Iowa to a freezer in

57
00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:08.319
Indiana to some friar in Florida. You see, by the

58
00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:11.160
time it hit a tongue, it had been handled by

59
00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:15.639
everyone except the person who would actually eat it. And

60
00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.839
that is the cost of efficiency. The hand disappears and

61
00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:25.800
the faces disappear. The story just disappears. A meal becomes

62
00:05:25.839 --> 00:05:31.600
a service category on a corporate spreadsheet. For most of America,

63
00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:37.160
that bargain. Now it was acceptable. Oh well, people were busy.

64
00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:41.600
The drive through solved the real problem, then it does

65
00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:47.480
deserve real credit. But every system that solves a problem

66
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.639
creates a new one. It taught a generation that food

67
00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:55.759
did not have to mean anything really, that meals did

68
00:05:55.800 --> 00:06:01.399
not have to involve your own memory, that people serving

69
00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:05.839
you did not have to know you. But Craig Culver

70
00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.120
did not come from that world. He came from a

71
00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:13.560
world that still believed in supper clubs, in friday fish fries,

72
00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:17.879
in small town tables, where the waitress already knew your

73
00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:22.560
order before he even opened your mouth. He came from

74
00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:26.360
a world where food was now how the day got managed.

75
00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:32.560
It was how the family got remembered. The insider learns

76
00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:40.839
what is acceptable, the outsider notices what's missing. The Nina

77
00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:48.199
Boy June fifteenth, nineteen fifty Nina, Wisconsin, a small city

78
00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:52.839
on the western edge of Lake Winnebago paper mills along

79
00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:57.319
the Fox River. A working class town built on industry,

80
00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:02.639
dairy and church bot luck. A baby boy is born

81
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:08.040
to George and Ruth Culver. They named him Craig. His father, George,

82
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:12.279
is a field representative for Wisconsin dairies, and that matters.

83
00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:18.519
A field rep for a dairy cooperative spends his days

84
00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:22.839
driving from farm to farm in a company truck, visiting

85
00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:27.000
melk parlors, talking to farmers and barnes. At five in

86
00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:31.279
the morning, standing in melhouses while stainless steel coolers sit

87
00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:36.879
there and hum, smelling silage and manure and the beautiful

88
00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:41.720
smell of fresh cut hay. George Culver knew dairy the

89
00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:45.839
way some men know baseball. He knew which farms had

90
00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.240
the best cream. He knew the rhythm of a Wisconsin

91
00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:53.680
year calving season and breeding and harvest and call and

92
00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:58.360
then repeat. And he came home to a wife who

93
00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:02.360
had grown up on Wisconsin dearry farm herself. Ruth Culver

94
00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:06.800
knew dairy from the other end of the tank. She

95
00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.920
had been the girl in the milking parlor. She had

96
00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:12.879
been the daughter pouring cream off the top of fresh milk.

97
00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:18.079
So when Craig Culver was born, he was not just

98
00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:21.560
born into a Wisconsin family. He was born into the

99
00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:26.079
Wisconsin equation, beef on one side of the table and

100
00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:31.720
dairy on the other. His whole later life, every signature

101
00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.720
menu item, every signature item that Culvers would ever sell,

102
00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:39.840
was already encoded in that house before he could even walk.

103
00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:45.799
Craig also had a brother named Kurt, a sister named Georgia,

104
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:55.360
three Culver children. Growing up in Wisconsin in the nineteen fifties, snowy, winners, hot,

105
00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:01.919
unbearable summers, Sunday roast beef, twoesday, meat loaf, Friday fish,

106
00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:06.799
a family dinner table that was never even an option.

107
00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:11.799
And then when Craig was eleven years old, the rhythm

108
00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:20.879
of his life changed. His parents bought a restaurant, The.

109
00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:21.320
A and W.

110
00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:27.200
Nineteen sixty one. Sax City, Wisconsin, a tiny river town

111
00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:30.200
an hour west of Madison, sitting on a bend in

112
00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:35.799
the Wisconsin River, a population of a couple thousand old bricks,

113
00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:40.360
storefronts on water Street, church, steeple poking out of the trees,

114
00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.159
the sound of the river under the bridge, in the morning.

115
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:49.279
George and Ruth Culver had made a decision. They were

116
00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:53.519
leaving Wisconsin dairies. They are buying a fast food restaurant,

117
00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:57.240
an A and W rupier stand in the middle of

118
00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:02.080
downtown Sac City. You know kind with drive up parking

119
00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:07.320
and a walk up window. The classic frosted mugs, hand

120
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:13.440
pumped root beer, Burger's wrapped in wax paper, A teenager

121
00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:16.440
and a paper hat at the order window. It's the

122
00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:20.879
kind of place every American small town had in nineteen

123
00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:26.960
sixty one. But for the Culver family, it's something else.

124
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.320
It is the moment the father stops working for a

125
00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:36.879
co op and starts working for himself. It's the moment

126
00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:40.840
that three children, Craig at eleven, Kurt at nine, and

127
00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:45.519
Georgia younger still, find out that their last name is

128
00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:49.039
now on a sign. It's a sign you can see

129
00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:53.080
from the road. Now Craig is old enough to work,

130
00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:57.679
So Craig works. He stocks paper cups, He sweeps the

131
00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:01.320
parking lot. He watches his father count the drawers. At

132
00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:04.600
the end of the shift. He watches his mother Greek

133
00:11:04.679 --> 00:11:08.159
customers at the order window, not the way a clerk

134
00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:13.559
greets people, but the way a hostess welcomes people like

135
00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:18.240
she's been waiting for them all day. Most kids learn

136
00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:22.519
the value of a dollar from some chor chart. Craig

137
00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:27.320
Culver learns it from a register tape. Most kids they

138
00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:31.080
learn manners from their mother at the kitchen table. Craig

139
00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:35.639
learns hospitality from his mother at a stainless steel counter.

140
00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:41.840
In Wisconsin. A boy is being trained without anyone calling

141
00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:49.559
it training, and they don't even notice. Devil's Lake nineteen

142
00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:55.080
sixty eight. Craig is eighteen, just graduated from Soak Prairie

143
00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:59.440
High School. His parents, well, they make another move. They

144
00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:02.960
sell that A and W in Sac City. Then they

145
00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.720
buy a place and call it Farm Kitchen, a resort

146
00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.840
restaurant tucked into the trees at the edge of Devil's

147
00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:15.039
Lake State Park near Barboo, Wisconsin, a two lane Wisconsin

148
00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:18.759
Highway through a corridor of tall pine and birch beautiful,

149
00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.679
the hills of the Barboo Range rising on both sides.

150
00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:28.039
He wouldn't sign, hand painted with the words farm Kitchen.

151
00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:32.120
The smell of pine sap and wood smoke and lake water.

152
00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.559
The Farm Kitchen serves the kind of food supper club

153
00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:41.720
tradition in Wisconsin demands roast beef and baked chicken and

154
00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:46.840
walleye mashed potatoes the way that Grandma made them, Pies

155
00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:48.919
in the cooler that have to be cut by hand

156
00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:54.320
because the meringue won't survive a slicer. And this is

157
00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:58.600
where Craig Culver works, in the summer's home from his college.

158
00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.799
He busts tables and he runs food. He learns to

159
00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:06.360
read a dining room. He learns the difference between a

160
00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:11.320
table that's hungry and a table that's sad. In one summer,

161
00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:16.159
between trips back to Oshkosh, inevitably, he meets a girl.

162
00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:21.039
And this girl's name is Leah. She's working at the resort.

163
00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:23.600
She has the kind of face that knows how to

164
00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:28.159
smile at customers without faking it, the kind of patience

165
00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.039
that does not break under a Friday rush, the kind

166
00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:36.720
of belief that people by default deserve to be treated well.

167
00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:42.440
And Craig well simply falls in love. He doesn't know

168
00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:46.120
it yet, but he's also meeting his business partner, his

169
00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:49.960
co founder, the other set of hands that will shape

170
00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.200
this empire to come. Neither one of them yet imagines

171
00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.679
a sign with a blue roof or a scoop or

172
00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:01.759
a toasted bun, a lion out the door in twenty

173
00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:07.480
six states. But the foundation it's being port already. A

174
00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:11.879
boy from Saux City, a girl from a Wisconsin resort,

175
00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:18.120
a supper club spirit, a drive up and w upbringing,

176
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:23.320
a dairy field rep for a father, a farm girl

177
00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:31.120
turned hostess for a mother. And that's the secret recipe

178
00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:37.879
the McDonald's years. Nineteen seventy three, Greg graduates from the

179
00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:44.639
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, a bachelor's degree in biology. Biology,

180
00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:53.279
not business, not culinary arts, not hospitality management, no biology,

181
00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.919
the science of how living things work. That in its

182
00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.399
own is kind of a clue. Who this is a

183
00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:08.440
young man whose mind moves towards systems, How do things grow?

184
00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:13.279
How things fail? He does not know what he wants

185
00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:17.480
to do for a living. The restaurant business is everywhere,

186
00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:21.720
and it's everywhere around him, but it does not feel

187
00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.360
like it's mandatory form yet, so he takes a job

188
00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:29.279
that surprises every single person who knows him. He goes

189
00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:33.840
to work for that's right, McDonald's, the very company that

190
00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:38.879
many supper club families think it's the enemy, the corporate

191
00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:41.840
machine that hollowed out the small town drive in and

192
00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:46.519
replaced it with a logo. Craig Culver, Well, he works

193
00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:51.679
there for four years now, it's not undercover. He's a manager.

194
00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:57.279
He's doing the job. He's learning. What he learns there

195
00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:00.120
is going to matter for him in the next forty years.

196
00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:05.000
You See. He learns the system, the drawer counts, the

197
00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:09.000
wat sheets, the shift logs, the training manuals that are

198
00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:15.120
as thick as a bible, how to operational discipline at scale,

199
00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:20.320
and not just with a slogan. See, it is a religion.

200
00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.679
Craig Culver doesn't hate it, but he respects it. He

201
00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:30.840
understands the parts that McDonald's gets right. The system is

202
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:35.720
the mote. A new manager, a new market, a new town,

203
00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:40.919
and the customer still gets the same fries. That kind

204
00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:44.639
of consistency seems and feels like a kind of love,

205
00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:52.600
a weird mechanical mass produced love, but love. Still. He

206
00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.879
will carry that lesson for the rest of his life.

207
00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:01.799
But he also notices what is missing. The teenager at

208
00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:04.759
the counter is not allowed to be human to anybody.

209
00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:10.880
The script has eaten the conversation way. The smile is

210
00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:16.079
on a poster instead of on the customer's face. The

211
00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:20.000
food is exactly what it needs to be, and not

212
00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:25.839
one micron more. Craig Culver finishes those four years and

213
00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.400
walks away with a complete blueprint for what to copy

214
00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:39.799
and for what to refuse the backroom years. He comes home,

215
00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:44.680
helps run his parents' restaurants, takes a shot at running

216
00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.720
a place of his own, and it doesn't work. He

217
00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:50.880
goes back to the family, and for most of the

218
00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:56.079
late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties, Craig Culver is

219
00:17:56.119 --> 00:18:01.039
what the town calls a backroom guy, a capable young

220
00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:04.279
man with a degree in four years of McDonald's and

221
00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:08.160
a body that has stood at every position behind a counter,

222
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:13.559
but not yet his own thing, not yet on his

223
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:18.079
own sign. Even his friends from college are buying houses

224
00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:22.720
and having children, getting promoted at industrial firms in Milwaukee

225
00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:27.359
and Madison, Wisconsin. He's washing dishes at midnight in a

226
00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:32.200
supper club somewhere in Sax City. Now there are years

227
00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:36.039
like that in every founder's life. Gears that look like

228
00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:42.119
nothing from the outside, but gears that are doing something underneath.

229
00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:49.640
The mind that's sorting, the hands are remembering, the instincts

230
00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:55.440
are sharpening a restaurant is not building. A restaurant is

231
00:18:55.480 --> 00:19:00.240
a promise. I will feed you well, I will you

232
00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:05.480
like you, actually matter, you will leave better than you arrived.

233
00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:11.640
Most chains have forgotten the deal. Craig Culver is starting

234
00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:18.480
to think maybe somebody should remember it. The A and

235
00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:23.079
W comes back. Nineteen eighty four. The old A and

236
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:27.880
W property in Sac City is for sale again. The

237
00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:31.160
same building Craig's parents had owned in nineteen sixty one,

238
00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:36.680
the same building they sold in nineteen sixty eight, the

239
00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:40.319
same drive up where Craig had stocked paper cups as

240
00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:44.640
a kid. Sixteen years later, and it's back in the market.

241
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:49.759
Most people wouldn't see anything. A small town fast food

242
00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:54.039
building that has bounced through a couple owners, cracked asphalt

243
00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:57.200
in the parking lot, and a faded sign that nobody

244
00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:01.960
bothered to repaint. A little kitchen that has seen better decades.

245
00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:06.400
But the Culver family does not see what most people see.

246
00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.799
You see. They see a place where the story started.

247
00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:14.200
They buy it. They paint the roof blue, they paint

248
00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:19.079
the balls white, They strip out the aw signs, They

249
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:24.279
put the family name over the door. Culvers Frozen Custard

250
00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:28.920
and Butterburgers. A restaurant that does not even exist yet

251
00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:33.160
anywhere else in the world. Craig Culver walks into that

252
00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:37.640
kitchen the morning of July eighteenth, nineteen eighty four. He

253
00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:42.799
has the lessons from being a McDonald's manager, the standards

254
00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:47.480
of a supper club operator, the patience of a Wisconsin

255
00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:52.200
small town kid, the instincts of a man whose father

256
00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:58.160
once told him, don't mess with the quality, and he

257
00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:02.799
has a frozen custard school in his hand. That morning,

258
00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:06.559
he scoops a portion of fresh ground beef, drops it

259
00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:10.160
on the grill and presses it down, watches as it sears,

260
00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:14.559
butters a bun, toasts it, and wraps it and hands

261
00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:20.880
it across the counter. A customer takes a bite, stops,

262
00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:26.519
looks up, and that is the first butterburger ever sold

263
00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:30.559
under the Culver's name. It's also the moment the math

264
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:38.640
of the family's life rearranges itself forever the almost failure.

265
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:43.839
Most origin stories skip the part that matters the most,

266
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.599
the almost died part. Craig Culver's first year at his

267
00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:54.000
own restaurant. That's the almost died part. And it was real.

268
00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.759
He said it to himself plainly. Decades later, we just

269
00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:03.440
bow didn't make it. The first year, the blue roof

270
00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.480
is up, the grand opening is over, the family name

271
00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:12.839
is on the sign, and it's not working. Sox City,

272
00:22:12.839 --> 00:22:17.079
Wisconsin in nineteen eighty four doesn't even know what frozen

273
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:21.400
custard is. You see, custard is a Milwaukee thing. Sax

274
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:25.359
City does not know what a butterburger is either the name.

275
00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:31.359
It's kind of strange and a buttered bun. Why lines

276
00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:35.400
are short and drawers are light. The first year, the

277
00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:40.160
restaurant actually loses money. The second year it breaks even.

278
00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:46.640
The third year finally it turns a profit. But for

279
00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:50.559
the first twelve months, every morning Craig Culver shows up

280
00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:56.519
to the same possibility, this might not work, This might

281
00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:02.519
be the family failure. Imagine being thirty four years old,

282
00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.480
married with daughters, the family name over the door, the

283
00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:12.119
parents leaning in on the venture, and watching the ledger

284
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:18.039
run red for twelve straight months. Imagine driving home at

285
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:20.640
the end of a slow Tuesday in the snow and

286
00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:23.480
not knowing whether Friday will be busy enough to even

287
00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:27.200
make payroll. You see, that's the type of pressure that

288
00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:34.680
can hollow most normal men out or remake them years later.

289
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.039
Craig will say something about this time period. He will

290
00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:42.759
say that that's when I became my father. You see.

291
00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:48.799
It's a quiet sentence, but it's the whole turn. Because

292
00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:52.359
his father George was the man who said, don't mess

293
00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:56.000
with the quality. His father George was the man who

294
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.720
showed up before sunrise and stayed pass close. In the

295
00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:05.559
first year, Craig Culver became that man. The dining room

296
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:09.880
is empty on Wednesday. He keeps the grill clean, the

297
00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:13.880
lights stayed right, The bun is still buttered, The custard

298
00:24:13.960 --> 00:24:19.559
machine still hums. The smile at the counter is still real,

299
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:24.400
even when there's nobody to smile at. You see, you

300
00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:28.279
don't quit when nobody's watching you behave the same way

301
00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:31.519
at an empty register as you would had a pact one,

302
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:35.839
because the empty register is not your enemy. The empty

303
00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:44.000
register is simply your test. And Craig Culver he passed it, slowly, painfully,

304
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:52.279
but he passed it. The buttered bun the butterburger was

305
00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:56.799
actually Ruth's idea, not really an invention of sorts, more

306
00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:00.519
of a memory. When Craig was a boy growing up

307
00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.839
in Sock City, his mother used to butter the top

308
00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:07.799
of the bun before lightly grilling it. And that's it,

309
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:12.240
the whole secret. A pad of butter on a hot

310
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:16.680
grill in a few seconds of patience, A bun that

311
00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:21.599
arrives at the table not just hot but golden, with

312
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:25.119
that faint, nunny toast in the fresh butter that it

313
00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:28.880
gives bread when fat and starch and heat and meat

314
00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:34.400
the right moment. It costs almost nothing, it takes almost

315
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:38.359
no time. But it is the difference between a sandwich

316
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:43.799
in a memory. That is the whole genius of the

317
00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:50.759
Culver's menu. It's not exotic, it's not invented. It is

318
00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:55.279
the small, deliberate thing, the thing your mother used to do,

319
00:25:56.599 --> 00:26:00.799
the thing the chain restaurant stopped doing because somebody calculated

320
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:04.240
that butter was three cents more expensive than the cheap

321
00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:10.680
spread alternative. Craig Culver kept the butter because that is

322
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:16.359
the standard. Remember, don't mess with the quality. The fresh

323
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:21.440
ground beef gets scooped, actually scooped with that round stainless

324
00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:25.119
steel frozen custard tool and pressed onto the flat top.

325
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:30.359
The patty sear, the fat releases, the crust starts forming.

326
00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:34.599
The bun goes on the grill, butterside down, the butter

327
00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:39.640
melts and browns and lifts the bread, and then a

328
00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:45.720
customer eats it and they stop. They look up. That look,

329
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:50.400
the look of somebody recognizing care that they did not

330
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.400
even know that they were missing. You see, that's what

331
00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:58.480
Culver's was selling all along, not just a burger, but

332
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:05.319
noticing a small, deliberate buttery, noticing in a world racing

333
00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:11.920
to make people forget the custard stand. Then there was

334
00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:15.400
the second half of the story, you know, the dairy half,

335
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:21.640
the cold half frozen custard. To people outside Wisconsin, frozen

336
00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:27.079
custard is a curiosity, a regional dessert with a fan club.

337
00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:32.279
To people inside Wisconsin, frozen custard is almost a birthright.

338
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:37.240
You see. It's denser than ice cream, richer than soft surf,

339
00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.880
and it's slower to melt. It is the mostly cream

340
00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:47.279
and egg yolks and simply time. Milwaukee, eighty miles east

341
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:51.079
of Sox City, has more frozen custard stands per capita

342
00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:55.279
than any city in the world. Custard is to Milwaukee

343
00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:59.960
what gelato is to Florence. Craig Culver fell in love

344
00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:03.759
with frozen custard during college. A vanilla cone had a

345
00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:08.799
stand in Oshkosh, the kind of cold, creamy butterfat moment

346
00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:13.240
that ruins regular ice cream for you forever. When the

347
00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:16.160
family was building the menu for the first culvers, they

348
00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:21.359
needed something to balance that burger, you know, a reason

349
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:26.200
for people to come back. Custard. Of course it had

350
00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:31.000
to be custard. It tied the dairy farms that George

351
00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:35.160
had once driven a route through, and tied Ruth, who

352
00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:37.079
had grown up on a farm where the cream was

353
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:40.720
the most valuable thing in the melcows. It tied to

354
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:43.960
Wisconsin pride in a way that a soft served machine

355
00:28:44.119 --> 00:28:48.200
just simply could not. So the custard machine went in

356
00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:54.680
right next to the grill, two machines side by side,

357
00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:59.119
the grill running hot, the custard machine running cold, the

358
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:03.200
kitchen smelling of seared beef and butterfat. At the same time,

359
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:08.599
that same frozen custard scoop. The one Craig used to

360
00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:12.920
portion ground beef in the morning was scooping vanilla custard

361
00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:19.599
by the afternoon. One tool, one hand, two products. There

362
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:24.920
Wisconsin Equation made flesh beef on one plate and cream

363
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.839
on the other, both on the same tray. A family's

364
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:34.839
whole inheritance, served by lunch, and then slowly, slower than

365
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:39.680
Craig wanted, and faster than the books predicted, people started

366
00:29:39.799 --> 00:29:43.759
coming for the burger, for the cone, for the way

367
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:46.960
that the plade smelled, for the way the woman at

368
00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:50.559
the counter said hello and had a bright face, for

369
00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:53.720
the table tent with the upside down foam cup with

370
00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:59.039
a handwritten number. People returned, And that is the only

371
00:29:59.160 --> 00:30:03.759
metric that mat matters in this business. People always returned

372
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:11.559
the first franchise. Nineteen eighty seven, three years after the

373
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:16.680
sax City opening, the Culvers tried a franchise a second restaurant,

374
00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:22.200
Richland Center, Wisconsin, a small, quaint town fifty miles to

375
00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:27.559
the northwest, and it simply does not work. The franchise

376
00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:31.720
closes within a year. That detail is worth holding on

377
00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:36.279
to because the polished version of the Culver story sometimes

378
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:39.880
skips it. It skips the part where Craig Culver had

379
00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:43.799
to consider that maybe the sax City restaurant was working

380
00:30:43.880 --> 00:30:47.039
because of him, because of his parents, because of the

381
00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:52.880
specific town in the specific moment. Maybe Culver's was just

382
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:57.200
a really good local restaurant in a single small Wisconsin town.

383
00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:01.799
And that was the whole story. He could have he

384
00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:05.079
could have stopped there, A lot of owners would have,

385
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:10.440
but he kept going. Three years after the failed franchise,

386
00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:15.720
in nineteen ninety, the rights to a second franchise were drafted,

387
00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:20.640
this time bear A Boo, Wisconsin, twenty miles north of

388
00:31:20.680 --> 00:31:24.200
Saux City, right where the farm kitchen had once stood,

389
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:29.000
right where Craig and his family had met Leah over

390
00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:33.640
a dish rag and a bushboy's tray. That franchise opened

391
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:39.400
in December nineteen ninety and it worked. And that right there,

392
00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:45.880
that's the inflection point. The first successful franchise, six years

393
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:50.680
after the original. That is what scaling care looks like

394
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:56.559
in real life, not overnight, and it wasn't viral. It

395
00:31:56.680 --> 00:32:00.480
looks like a family making a mistake and then learning

396
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:04.440

S2E2: MR. HANSoN Podcast — "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest"

Listen On

Recent Episodes