Memories for Mr. Art Anderson...

[jeffs396]

Burger Chef Systems started in Indianapolis in the early 1960's, and spread rapidly across the eastern US, Rob. By 1970 they had more stores than did McDonald's. but lacked the corporate controls over their franchisees that McDonald's has always excercised (McD's owns every bit of real estate in the US where a McD is located, owns the building, the franchisee being the "owner-operator" of the business, paying rent on the property, plus a percentage of the gross of the restaurant. People may still remember Burger Chef birdhouses that were all over the place in the late 60's to early 70's--those were produced by the guy who owned the first LHS in Greater Lafayette at one time, he closed his store to concentrate on producing those birdhouse kits, which were wood, prepainted and silkscreened in BC colors and lettering. Toward the end, Hardee's took up most of the remaining BC stores, converted them to Hardee's, the rest simply faded away.

Hmmm, makes me wish I could go out right now--get a Big Chef, fries and a chocolate shake! Mmmmmmm!!!

Art

http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1438.l2649

[Greg Myers]

Had one in Flagstaff when I went to NAU.

[Greg Myers]

Ok, gotta fess up, here's the site I got the picture from: http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=65766bda-9049-4276-9ee6-1fe3ed9e6d1f

[Greg Myers]

Used to cruz this one in Tucson when I was in high school

[Greg Myers]

Oh, Oh, looks like the good Doctor got in on the fun :

[Casey]

Ironic this was posted by a "Jeff"?

[Art Anderson]

In 1968, Burger Chef Systems was bigger than McDonald's, but by 1983, they were completely gone, their last few stores in the midwest and southeast taken over by Hardee's.

Art

[Harry P.]

In 1968, Burger Chef Systems was bigger than McDonald's, but by 1983, they were completely gone, their last few stores in the midwest and southeast taken over by Hardee's.

Art

How do you go from bigger than McDonald's to completely gone in 15 years? Was there some sort of massive corporate screw up?

[Fat Brian]

Their parent company decided that fast food had peaked in the early eighties and sold the chain to the parent company of Hardee's.

[Harry P.]

Their parent company decided that fast food had peaked in the early eighties...

Wow.

I wonder how much the geniuses behind that decision were getting paid?

[Fat Brian]

Typical corporate geniousry. Their parent company was a food wholesaler and somehow didn't see the value in owning restaurants. They decided to concentrate on their core business and sell of the fast food division. Then they were bought by Phillip Morris and merged with Kraft.

[Art Anderson]

Their parent company decided that fast food had peaked in the early eighties and sold the chain to the parent company of Hardee's.

Actually, by the time Burger Chef Systems was sold to Hardee's, they had been on the skids for perhaps 12-13 years. Here in Lafayette, by the mid-1960's, we had 5 Burger Chef's (Lafayette and West Lafayette, by the 60's, had a combined population of perhaps 60,000). By the time the last Burger Chef here closed down (I was the First Assistant Mgr at a McDonald's, and saw the neighboring Burger Chef store's road sign go by us, on the bed of a sign company truck!) it was the last one in operation here.

it wasn't a matter of anyone figuring that fast foods had "had their day" (McDonald's added some 1500 stores in the US in 1983, when our last Burger Chef unit closed), but rather that McDonald's had the business figured out to a "T", and outfits such as Burger Chef (and even Hardees!) didn't much have a clue as to how to survive, let alone survive (Hardee's here lasted only abut 7-8 yrs after BC closed up--the last Hardee's facility is now a very successful Taco Bell!).

Art

[Guest Johnny]

We had two Berger Chef's here and there were at least 4 of the bird house signs in the area! One was still there up until about 10 years ago! Long after the restaraunts were gone!

[Swifster]

I loved Burger Chef when they were in business and was sad to see them go. Wiki has a nice page including some recipies for the food. If you breakdown a Super Chef, it is basically a BK Whopper but assembled in a different order. During the afternoon on a Sunday when it was slow, I bought two Whoppers but requested them to be put together like a Super Chef. Very good stuff. I don't think they would do this during a busy lunch or dinner rush. The Burger Flipper can't concentrate that hard...

[Longbox55]

The Burger Chef in my area is still operating, though the owner, Butch Schroeder (ours was a franchise, rather than company owned) changed the name to Schroeder's. The menu is pretty much the same, with only a few items not offered. Funny part is that there's a Hardee's only a few blocks away that is now offering the old Burger Chef menu, namely the Big Shef sandwich.

BTW, those of you that are into WW2 aircraft may recognize the name. Butch is the owner of Lil' Margaret, the only known P51 photo-recon plane. http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51survivors/pages/44-84786.php