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Trendy nonsense like the "Grand Opening!" of (insert store of the minute here).
Cabela's, In-n-Out, IKEA, Trader Joe's, et cetera.
Much like the hype around the Super Bowl commercials, in a few weeks the novelty wears off and it's the same ole' stuff.
I wish I could agree with you Eddie, but last Wednesday at 4PM when I drove past the In-&-Out Burger that opened up here late last fall, the drive thru line was still 30+ cars deep.
I think part of it is the fascination folks have with I&O and the rest is the craziness that is the Colo Spr food consumer. I've never seen more eateries anywhere else that comes close to what Colo Spr offers and they are all always busy. It's nuts.
I was in CA for 3 weeks and one of my coworkers (who used to live in CA) said he'd never had In-&-Out. During our trip he decided to try 'em. Like me, his reaction to their food was less than "meh" and he can't understand the hype.
I stopped at a place in TX while driving through once. Based on what the Texans I knew said, I was basically going to have a taste bud based explosion of pleasure and satisfaction. In typical Texas fashion is was a bunch of average wrapped in propaganda. It was, like In-n-Out, Culver?s, etc., not anything special. Could care less. I prefer Big Macs anyway.
Whataburger is what I grew up with, and where I visited often after high school (2am ish, for reasons). It's a homegrown thing for me.
Same type of reason I visit Rudy's BBQ and use their sauce. I was taken to the original store between Helotes and Boerne, TX many times as a kid.
The ownership of Whattaburger is interesting.
A long time (est. 1950) Texas based business, it was sold to Chicago private equity firm, BDT Capital in 2019 for $1.4 billion. The guy Behind BDT, Byron Trott, was a Goldman Sachs guy for years and is tight with Warren Buffet. BDT has stakes in Flying J and Weber BBQs, and manages $6 to $9 billion in funds depending on the sources I have read.
When you look up BDT, it jumps to GBL, a +/- $20B Belgian holding company that is publicly traded. They tout "We recognize the importance of finding the right balance between our need to seek financial returns, with the imperative to preserve the integrity of our planet and the health of the people and society who inhabit it."
They have $130 million invested in BDT and claim $24 million in distributions with no timeline mentioned.
I dug into it hoping to find something nefarious but it looks like a bunch of smart guys capitalizing on a profitable business, generating wealth for their investors.
But what do I know? I'm just a cook.
Berkshire Hathaway has a 38% stake in Flying JQuote:
Originally Posted by eddiememphis
Amen!! Me to! First place we hit every year when we head to to TX! It's a Texas thing and I would appreciate if no one else shows up so I don't have to wait in line for my food...lolQuote:
Originally Posted by 00tec
Quote:
Originally Posted by Delfuego
With a white castle in the valley, why would you go anywhere else ;)
Been to ones in Killeen, Austin and San Antonio. Meh... just an average fast food place like jack in the box, McDonald's hamburger stand or burger King.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
I grew up visiting the original Culver's when visiting the grandparents in Wisconsin as a treat. The burgers were and still are meh. The treat was the root beer floats and ice cream. My parents were more excited when they came to Colorado Springs since they grew up in Wisconsin. But they both said thier memory of the place far outweighed the food. I guess the nostalgia replaces taste buds for the dopamine hit...
I tried a Whataburger when I was working in TX, it was a bit dry IMO. Didn't trip my trigger. But there were some seriously delicious independant burger joints in my hometown in OK, so the bar is pretty high for me.
Some of the best I ever had came from a beer joint, the guy cooked burgers in the back room in a 15" electric skillet. Damn they were good! But the health department shut him down, because it wasn't a kitchen, just a skillet and a fridge in the storage room.