How To Buy A White Castle Franchise [TOP]
And, while the company never franchised itself, in 2004 it became the plot point for what became a small movie franchise: Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, and its two subsequent sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.
how to buy a white castle franchise
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle spawned a franchise following main characters stoner Kumar and tightly-wound Harold on their outlandish adventures. The franchise has a total of three films including Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and A Very Hard & Kumar Christmas. While critics have given the franchise somewhat mixed reviews, the franchise has become a go-to comedy series for many fans. Recently, Kal Penn provided a somewhat optimistic update about a possible Harold & Kumar 4, per Screen Rant, but concrete details at this time remain to be seen.
Playing one of the title characters, Kal Penn has established himself through the Harold & Kumar franchise. While Kumar is only concerned with getting high and having a good time, Penn himself is actually the opposite, even spending a few years working for the Obama administration at the White House. Since the release of White Castle, Penn has continued his acting career, having a main role in new Silence of the Lambs spin-off Clarice as well as in the new series The Santa Clauses. As far as film goes, he still continues to take on roles, most recently starring in the psychological thriller Smile.
John Cho plays the part of Kumar's friend and road partner Harold, who is far less impulsive and more cautious than his friend. While Harold & Kumar put Cho on the map, he had a somewhat memorable role in the American Pie franchise. Since the film, Cho's career has only flourished, gaining roles on Star Trek and more recently, the AppleTV original The Afterparty. Cho's career shows no signs of slowing down as he is lined up to star in an upcoming film called They Listen, per THR, which only excites us to what else his future may hold.
David Krumholtz played the role of Goldstein, Harold and Kumar's neighbor and Rosenberg's roommate. Before Harold & Kumar, Krumholtz starred in The Addams Family Values and The Santa Clause franchise as head elf Bernard, a role he reprised in the series The Santa Clauses. Krumholtz has been pretty active since, having small roles in comedies like Hail-Caesar! While he has yet to receive any lead roles, he continues to act with his most recent role being in The White House Plumbers, which is scheduled to premiere March 2023.
Eddie Kaye Thomas portrays Rosenberg, Harold and Kumar's neighbor and Goldstein's roommate. Thomas made a name for himself before Harold & Kumar in the American Pie franchise as Paul Finch, one of the main cast members. His career has somewhat dwindled over the years, starring in less and less, seemingly starring in more television than film as the last film he starred in was released in 2018. His most recent role was on an episode of The Prodigal Son, a role which was a one-off. It's unclear whether or not we will see a resurgence in Thomas' career, but perhaps he is more comfortable with smaller one-off roles now rather than taking on a bigger project.
One of the biggest names to make an appearance in Harold & Kumar is Ryan Reynolds, who makes a cameo appearance as an OR nurse. While Reynolds was lesser known at the time of the film's release, his cameo was still a surprise to fans of his work in Blade Trinity and Van Wilder. The actor has since gone on to have great success in the film industry, taking on the part of Deadpool, which earned him his own franchise. The Canadian actor announced in October 2021 that he was going to take a sabbatical, with his most recent releases including Spirited and Bullet Train. We can look forward to his return to the screen in IF in 2024.
The White Castle team invited Jamie West and her husband Drew Schmitt, the first people in line, up to cut the ribbon. "Storm the castle" they yelled on the blue carpet, lifting up their their faux battle axe and sword.
Giordano said she's excited every White Castle anniversary will also be her birthday. While she has been to the White Castle franchise location in Las Vegas, her friend from Chicago was adamant that it wasn't a "real White Castle."
The number of restaurants may not compare in sheer size to the thousands of locations of other chains, but this is due to the fact that each location is company owned and not franchised. Over the years, this has helped the company weather many economic downturns because of a lack of debt to fund rapid expansion.
Krystal, meanwhile, opted to go public in 1992, but by 1995 it filed for bankruptcy as it dealt with class-action lawsuits from employees over failure to pay overtime. The company emerged from bankruptcy after paying $13 million to settle the claims and in 1997 was acquired by Port Royal Holdings for $145 million. The company operated 249 restaurants at the time, with another 93 franchise stores.
By 1921, he had four hamburger stands in operation and was looking to finance the opening of a fifth. That year, he met E. W. "Billy" Ingram, a real estate and insurance broker. With a $700 loan, the two founded the first White Castle restaurant, an 11- by 16-foot cement block structure that resembled a small castle, complete with turrets and battlements.
Perhaps one of White Castle's most unusual innovations was the design and construction of semipermanent restaurants that could be easily transported from one location to another. Because White Castles were relatively small (15 feet by 11 feet), many landlords refused to lease such a scant parcel of land for more than 30 days. Ingram came up with the idea of developing a building that could be moved, thus preventing the loss of a building when landlords refused to renew the restaurant's lease. In 1928 Ingram hired L. W. Ray to patent a movable restaurant unit. Modeled after Chicago's Water Tower landmark, the restaurant consisted of a metal frame with siding, battlements, and turrets made of white porcelain. In 1934 White Castle incorporated another subsidiary, the Porcelain Steel Building Company, to manufacture Ray's unique White Castle buildings as well as most of the company's kitchen equipment. Porcelain Steel constructed 55 of these restaurants, although only two ultimately had to be moved.
While new store openings in the United States continued at a rate of 25 units a year, the company also expanded overseas in the 1980s, granting its first franchise rights to a Japanese firm in 1986. Soon, four White Castle units were operating in Kyoto, and other franchises were established in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. By 1989, White Castle had 243 restaurants in operation, with an average volume per store second only to McDonald's.
By the mid-1990s, the company was selling 500 million burgers per year, and the number of U.S. units had reached 300. In 1995 White Castle Distributing began marketing frozen hamburgers and cheeseburgers through convenience stores and vending machines. White Castle's franchise-led expansion into the Pacific Rim had proved less than successful, but the company launched another attempt at overseas growth in 1996 with its first unit in Mexico City. This, too, was a franchised operation.
White Castle first sold hamburgers for a nickel in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. Today, the company claims, its sells 500 million hamburgers a year and has sold more than 7 billion in total. That's not bad for a company that is essentially a regional operation that has never franchised any of its units. White Castle remains a family-owned company with a chain of restaurants. The company operates 348 restaurants in 12 states and 17 cities in the Midwest and Northeast. White Castle System Inc.'s signature product is its distinctively shaped and flavored burger, which measures a mere 2.5 inches, has 5 holes, and is served on a steamed bun. The burger's unique flavor results from the patty being grilled on a bed of onions and having the bun placed on top of the burger while its cooking. In this process, the bun absorbs the onion flavor (as well as a good deal of grease). It has been said that consumers either love or hate the White Castle burger.
The White Castle hamburger, a bite-sized square served on a soft and steamy bun (some would call it "soggy") often has been called a "cult" food item. It has even been judged an acquired taste and is subject to frequent put-downs. The company itself is deemed an also-ran in the American hamburger sweepstakes. The somewhat demeaning terms cannot erase the fact that, from its inception, the company has demonstrated steady growth. True, it is a slow growth. McDonald's, founded in 1954 and expanded by the franchise route, had 25,000 restaurants across the world by 2001. By comparison, White Castle, which was founded in 1921 and never franchised, had only 351 stores in 2001. Indeed, a slow and conservative approach is the creed the owners live by. New restaurants only open when profits make it possible. The owners have never borrowed to expand; the only time borrowing was ever involved was when founder Edgar Ingram borrowed $700 to start the operation. As a result, White Castle only opens about 10 to 20 new restaurants a year. Still, this approach has kept the company, which consistently posts $1.2 million in daily sales, in business for 80 years.
Such promotional strategies proved to be far ahead of their time and would be later employed, with variations, by fast-food chains that would come after World War II. The company also proved to be forward thinking when establishing its organizational policies. Essentially the first-ever fast-food franchise, White Castle established a written set of standards for its restaurant operations, food preparations, and employee conduct. These policies formed the basis of the company's expansion, as White Castle replicated all of the elements that made the company so successful in the first place. The familiar White Castle restaurant faÁade came to represent a recognizable commodity in the eyes of the consumers (just as the golden arches would later do for the McDonald's chain). 041b061a72