Have you ever wondered who started the fast food hamburger industry? I have, so I did some research and I figured it out.

Before 1921 you most likely would find a hamburger at the county or state fair and not anywhere else.

Walter Anderson and Billie Ingram, took the hamburger to a whole new level when they created White Castle hamburgers in Wichita, Kansas back in 1921. The first restaurant was modeled after the water tower building in Chicago, with it turrets and fortress-like walls.

All White Castle restaurants are using the same fortress-like look and it makes them stand out like no other fast food restaurant.

White Castle jump started America’s burger boom as the very first fast food hamburger chain. The concept was always 100% beef and the burger was prepared fresh in the restaurant. The original hamburgers were only 5 cents apiece which allowed people to buy them “by the sack”.  Now there are more than 400 White Castle restaurants and they are selling more than half a billion hamburgers every year. They were also the first ones to sell their hamburgers in the frozen section in grocery stores.

The burger is a 2.5 inch square burger (also called a slider) which is smaller than most other burger places. But the biggest difference is that they punch five holes in each patty to allow the taste from the onions they are cooked on, to be absorbed into the patty. Also the meet cooks quicker and they don’t have to flip the burger. They just take it off the grill and put it right on the bun. The size of the burger makes it a bit size snack that you can grab on the go.