A few weeks ago, I was in Springfield, MO for a couple of dealer meetings. I had gotten into town around 1 p.m. and my first appointment was scheduled for around 2 p.m. I had some time to get something to eat for lunch. It was National Cheeseburger Day and I remembered that there was a Fuddruckers that I would pass on my way into Springfield in the past and I decided to stop in and grab a burger.
I've been doing Road Tips for over nine years now. (Wow! Most blogs don't last nine months!) One of the first entries I had back in 2005 had to do with Fuddruckers. (If you want to see what the tenor of the my blog was back in the early days, click here.) In fact, it was exactly nine years ago today that I first wrote about Fuddruckers as a whole. But here's the story of the rise, fall and rise again of Fuddruckers.
Phil Romano was a native of upstate New York who settled in San Antonio in the 70's. He recognized the upswing in burger places on the restaurant landscape, but many were fast food places where the burgers were made up in advance and placed in a warming bin. Romano came up with what some call the first "fast-casual" concept for a restaurant, a burger place called Freddie Fuddrucker's that featured made to order burgers and a condiment bar that allowed the customer to customize their burgers with the right amount of pickles, onions, ketchup, jalapenos, etc.
The first Freddie Fuddrucker's opened in 1979 and the chain grew rather quickly. (After getting out of college, I lived in Houston for about nine months in 1986 and there was a Freddie Fuddrucker's near where I lived. I wasn't making a lot of money in Houston, so going to Freddie Fuddrucker's was a treat.) After shortening the name to just Fuddruckers, Phil Romano sold the chain to start a new concept he had come up with - Romano's Macaroni Grill.
DAKA International bought Fuddruckers from Romano in 1988. The investment company already owned Champps Americana sports bars (click here to see an entry on Champps) and added the 150 location chain of Fuddruckers to its portfolio. This was a period of growth for Fuddruckers, eventually growing to over 220 locations in over 35 states, Puerto Rico and five countries. But the restaurant began to run into a stagnant stretch and was eventually sold off to investor Michael Cannon in 1998.
Declaring Fudduckers as "the most boring restaurant in the world" when he took over, Cannon redesigned the concept and many of the company owned locations around the U.S. Cannon also took over ownership of the Koo Koo Roo restaurants - a chain of fast-casual restaurant that focused on broasted chicken and turkey entrees for the whole family. He then called his company Magic Brands.
Magic Brands began to feel the effects of the downturn of the economy in 2008 and within a couple years they were forced to declare bankruptcy, shutting down the Koo Koo Roo restaurants and closing a large number of company-owned Fuddrucker's. In 2010, Luby's restaurants from Houston came in and bought Fuddrucker's for $61 million. Luby's is an iconic restaurant in Texas and the "go-to" restaurant for family dining in the Lone Star State. Bringing Fuddruckers into the fold, the Luby's Fuddruckers corporation injected life back into what was a tired brand of upscale fast-casual burger joints which boldly claimed they had the "World's Greatest Hamburgers".
Now, if you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I usually run away screaming from nearly any type of a national chain. But the burgers at nearly every Fuddrucker's I've been to over the years are all consistently good. Other national chains will have the same menu item, but they're very inconsistent in their preparation and taste. Fuddrucker's - doesn't matter if it's in Omaha, Minneapolis, the Chicago suburbs, or Springfield, MO - has always been exactly the same. It's consistency like that that I look for in a national chain.
The Fuddruckers in Springfield is similar to other locations with a whimsical variety of decorations hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. The distinctive green and white checkerboard table cloths topped the tables in the dining area. It's a pretty lively place even without a lot of people in the joint.
The concept of Fuddruckers is pretty simple - you place your order at the order counter as you come into the place. The menu is on the wall above the counter and you have your choice of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 or one pound burgers, a choice of four different types of cheese, sides such as fries and onions rings, and healthy choices such as grilled chicken sandwiches, turkey or veggie burgers, and salads. The beef is ground fresh each day in house and the buns are all made from scratch at Fuddruckers in-house bakery. (They also have some awesome cookies made in-house, as well.)
After placing your order, they give you a pager and you go find a seat in the dining room. When the order is ready, the pager will vibrate and light up. Take the pager back to the front counter, pick up your order that is served on a round, high-walled tray (similar to an old time drink tray) and then you get to go to the condiment bar.
The condiment bar at Fuddruckers, to me, is one of the greatest things I've ever encountered at a restaurant. On one side, you have lettuce - chopped and leafed, tomato slices, jalapenos, dill pickles - both spears and chips, onions - sliced rings or chopped, banana pepper rings, pico de gallo... It's a veritable smorgasboard of toppings that you can put on a burger. And you can put as much as you want on each burger. On the backside of the condiment bar, you'll find the ketchup, a couple types of mustard (dark and yellow), barbecue sauce, a cheddar cheese sauce, a cheese sauce with chopped jalapenos, steak sauces, hot sauces - about anything that you can think of that goes on a burger they have it at the great condiment bar at Fuddruckers.
That day I got a half-pound burger topped with Swiss cheese. At my stop at the condiment bar, I got ketchup, mustard, both kinds of pickles, some sliced onions, jalapenos, banana pepper rings, and their wonderfully fresh pico de gall on the side.
I ordered the burger medium hoping to see a slight bit of pink in the middle. But the cook that day must have been from France as it was more a medium-rare than medium. (Nearly every burger I had in France on my recent trip there had an abundance of pink when I ordered them as medium.) It wasn't a deal buster, but I like my ground beef to have a little more of a cooked consistency in my burgers. But other than that, it was a typical Fuddruckers burger - the bun was light and fluffy and held together very well, the toppings were fresh and flavorful. It was another good Fuddruckers burger, even though it was a little undercooked to my liking.
The one thing about going to a Fuddruckers is that consistency. I know exactly what I'm going to get by going there. It's probably the same thing that fans of Applebee's or Olive Garden like about those places - they know the menu and they're comfortable with that. But there are very few places that allow you customize your food the way you want the way Fuddruckers allows you to. While I'd much rather go to a local place that has a great burger, if there's a Fuddruckers nearby and I don't feel like driving farther than I have to to get a good burger, I'll pull in there.
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