Spiffo’s

This page is about the restaurant chain, Spiffo's. If you wish to know about the Spiffo's and Betta-Bite Saga, click here.

A fast-food chain founded in 1957, it was bought out in 1982 by the Betta-Bite Conglomerate. Its products, specifically of the Betta-Bite variety, have widely been attributed to the CHD outbreak of April, 1993.

## Founding

It’s 1957. The post-war consumerism movement is in full swing.

Fresh-faced in the new world of mega-uber capitalism, 21-year old Ray D. Laurens and Finley Richards worked in a stadium food stand in Louisville, Kentucky. Seeing how popular burgers were, both decided to start a new restaurant – namely Spiffo’s, named after Laurens’ childhood toy.

It was a huge success. Fast food was produced quickly, sold quickly, and made money quickly. Laurens worked hard to create beloved recipes and name-brand flavours, while Richards preferred the business side of the restaurant. In 1963, they launched a second location in Louisville, and from there, another ten between 1964-65. Laurens was happy to keep it to these, as a fond Kentucky restaurant; Richards had other ideas. Over a massive argument regarding the direction of Spiffo’s, Richards left the company in early 1966 and turned to the other money-maker: food production. This proved to be a mistake at first.

Bitter to prove himself, Laurens decided to grow the company. Following the construction of Louisville’s new highway that June, he opened a total of 40 restaurants between in and out-of-state. Spiffo’s was beginning to hold a monopoly on the fast-food world; his money could only be made in little mom-and-pop stores and restaurants.

By 1970 there were around 200 Spiffo’s restaurants across the US. Environmentalist groups fighting against the Vietnam War also fought against deforestation for the production of beef, and squandered efforts for the distribution of land for cattle grazing.

## The Betta-Bite Buyout

Laurens managed to hold onto Spiffo's until 1982, when it was unanimously advised by his directors that the company should take Betta-Bite’s offer of merging for $0.5 million USD (around $3 million today, adjusted for inflation).

Laurens and Richards were once again business partners again after nearly two decades; last having seen each other in their 20’s, now both in their 40’s, with their own families and private lives, but still the latter held his vengeful vendetta. New recipes were pumped out daily, with the most popular becoming the Prime XL, which used Prime (Plus) Beef™, used from cows fed cut feed. Quantity quickly overtook quality under Richards – something Laurens resented. They’d argue multiple times and try to stay out of each other’s way for the better part of five years, until a mass scandal in ‘87.

## The Prion Scandal of 1987

In spite of repeated concerns Richards had swept under the rug regarding misfolded proteins, a farm’s feed cut to almost 60% formed an aggressive strain of prion disease, the product of which gave its hundreds of diners vCJD (a human variant of mad cow disease). Cows were culled and products were rolled back with the promise to look into and change the recipe of the feed. However, testing only checked for BSE, and an unchecked prion disease was allowed to develop further. As a result of the scandal, Ray D. Laurens resigned as CEO of Spiffo's and moved to the east coast with his family, leaving only Finley Richards of the Betta-Bite Conglomerate.

Multiple NGOs publicly protested the treatment of animals, and called attention to the method of making Betta-Bite feed. The restaurant fell into a slump and declined in popularity over the next few years, having to close many locations, while another misfolded protein went unchecked. The more cows were raised, the more rapidly it mutated, but as people were avoiding Prime Plus it had little to no effect for now.

## Release of the Prime XL

1993 brought flooding to Kentucky such as the state had never seen. Food production in the Midwest ground to a halt and people began to starve. Hungry, with no other choice but the widely available Betta-Bite meat products, people turned to Spiffo’s as a saving grace and granted the failing restaurant a short-lived renaissance.

Overlooked since 1987, the prion disorder hiding within the beef was able to spread at a never-before-seen pace due to the newfound and widespread consumption of Betta-Bite products. Rampantly spreading over the course of a few weeks, the CDC declared Louisville – ground zero and the worst affected area of the outbreak – a quarantined exclusion zone. With the state of Louisville and Kentucky as a whole, Spiffo's ceased operations in the area.