Talk:White Castle (restaurant)

message: Came across a different date for the introduction of the holes:
"1949: The use of a five-holed hamburger patty begins, speeding the cooking time and eliminating flipping." 
But then:
"As both labor and meat prices crept upward, the company scrambled to find a way to cut costs. In 1951, the home office leadership decided to take the unprecedented step of trimming the size of its hamburger patty from one to eight-tenths of an ounce, effectively getting two additional patties from each pound of ground beef. To achieve this reduction in size, White Castle made its square patty thinner and bored its distinctive five holes in the meat.
Originally proposed on an anonymous employee suggestion sheet in 1947 by Cincinnati operator Earl Howell, this five-hole concept was slow to catch the attention or interest of company officials. But when White Castle finally "downsized" its patty in 1951, it publicly touted the inclusion of the holes as a way to make the meat cook faster, in less than a minute, while also allowing more steam and juices into the bun on top. Billy Ingram praised this new innovation for its speed and efficiency.The publicized rationale was accurate, as the patty did cook faster, but the main purpose for the five holes was to use 10 percent less meat--while still charging the same price as before.
… Few customers either noticed or cared about the smaller size. … Within a few months, all the White Castle areas has adopted this new patty … Almost immediately after the introduction of the patties with holes, the government lifted its price ceilings on retail food"
(Hogan, Selling 'em by the Sack, pp.117-118)
But then "In 1949, an employee named Earl Howell calculated the amount of time that it took to break hamburgers apart in a presentable fashion, eventually leading him to create the perforated burger." from the History of the hamburger article. Looks like the source is Ingram's All this from a 5-cent hamburger (which I haven't read). Hogan's source is a copy of the original suggestion sheet on file at the Ohio State Historical Society.
Nateji77 (talk) 05:46, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  5 Holes 

message: Which Long Island White Castle? I'm not familiar with the show Impractical Jokers, so I can't correct this. But I live on Long Island, and there are at least 4 locations that I know of (and probably more) on Long Island: East Massapequa, Brentwood, Centereach, and Commack. 2001:470:1F07:383:104A:268B:AD61:6E59 (talk) 00:14, 12 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Long Island White Castle?" 

message: I updated this map: :File:Krystal-vs-whitecastle-locations-map.svg. It was removed from the article a few years ago and we seem to have moved away from mentioning locations in relation to Krystal. I'm interested in editors' opinion on whether this would be a useful illustration in the article. Jack N. Stock (talk) 00:48, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Krystal vs White Castle locations map 

message: About 15 to 25 years ago, a burger chain was started in the Los Angeles Area, called "West Castle". The burgers were similar to White Castle's, but had bone chips in the meat sometimes, which made them unappetizing. Within 2 years or so, all restaurants in the chain had closed.<LA Times>
We used to get a Frosty shake with our White Castles. My understanding is that Dave (founder of Wendys) bought the Frosty business from the owners of the  business (not White Castle). Therefore, when you get a shake now at White Castle, it is not nearly as good as a Frosty.Toopsla (talk) 22:11, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  More on White Castle