White Castles etc.

[Page Stephens]

White Castle hamburgers are known as both sliders and belly busters in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

I cannot vouch for this story but a friend of my father who once ran a White Castle told him that they used to make 40 white castles out of a pound of hamburger which explains the holes in the damned things. In addition he told dad that they had to put onions on the damned things lest they fell apart.

As I recall back in 1966 when I lived in Chicago their slogan was "Buy them by the bag" which meant that you could get a dozen of them for a buck. That means, of course, that if you bought 12 you would end up getting 3/10 of a pound of hamburger per bag.

Many people I know in Cleveland remember quite fondly not White Castle but Royal Castle hamburgers which had similar stores.

One of the more fascinating stories I can give you from Cleveland is about a bar which I think has recently closed which was locally known for selling original recipe Burger Chef hamburgers though having eaten a few of the originals I still don't know why since those of us who knew that chain before it went under used to call it Burger Death with good reason.

Page Stephens