S2 Ep2: MR. HANSoN Podcast — "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest"

MR. HANSoN Podcast — "Butter, Beef, and Belief: The Rise of Craig Culver and the Taste That Took Over the Midwest" In a small Wisconsin river town in nineteen-eighty-four, a thirty-four-year-old man stood at a flat-top grill holding a stainless steel frozen custard scoop. He dipped it into a tub of fresh ground beef, pulled back a perfect ball, and dropped it onto the heat. The same scoop, a few hours later, would portion vanilla custard for the day's first dessert. One tool. One hand. Two products. Beef and butterfat. Burger and custard. Hot and cold. The whole future of an American restaurant empire was hidden inside that one piece of stainless steel. This is the cinematic true story of Craig Culver — born June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin, to a Wisconsin Dairies field representative father named George and a Wisconsin farm-girl mother named Ruth. The boy who was eleven years old when his parents bought a small A&W Root Beer stand on Water Street in Sauk City. The teenager who worked summers at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort at Devil's Lake State Park, where he met a girl named Lea who would become his wife and his co-founder. The biology graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who took a job managing a McDonald's after college and spent four years inside the corporate machine, learning the script, the system, and the quiet cost of efficiency. In 1984, the same A&W property his parents had once owned came back on the market. Craig and Lea Culver, along with George and Ruth, bought it. They painted the roof blue. They put the family name over the door. On July 18, 1984, the first Culver's opened — Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers, the only one in the world. A restaurant trying to do the impossible — combine the system of fast food with the soul of a Wisconsin supper club. The first year, they almost lost everything. Sauk City did not know what frozen custard was. Sauk City did not know what a ButterBurger was. The lines were short. The drawers were light. They lost money. The second year, they broke even. The third year, they finally turned a profit. Years later, Craig would describe that period in one short sentence: "That's when I became my father." The ButterBurger was Ruth's idea — born from a memory, a habit she had as a young mother of buttering the top of a bun before lightly grilling it. The frozen custard was Craig's love affair with a vanilla cone he'd ordered at a stand in Oshkosh during college. The first ButterBurgers were portioned with an actual frozen custard scoop — the same kind of scoop the family used for custard, on the same grill, in the same kitchen, by the same hands. That scoop became the secret architecture of the brand: dairy and beef joined on a single tray. The first attempt at franchising — a 1987 location in Richland Center, Wisconsin — failed within a year. Craig Culver could have stopped there. He didn't. He waited three more years, drafted a different model that required owner-operators to actually work in their stores, and opened a second franchise in Baraboo, Wisconsin in December 1990. That one worked. For an entire generation growing up in the Midwest, Culver's became something more than a restaurant. It became an event. A family ritual. The sign you spotted from a quarter mile down the road that ended the back-seat arguing the moment somebody yelled, There it is. Culver's was the place after the game. The place after church. The place where high school kids met up on Friday nights. The place where two retired farmers split a custard the size of a softball on a Tuesday morning. The blue roof on Main Street wasn't just a burger joint. It was a sense of pride. Our town has one. The teenagers who work there are our teenagers. A meeting place engineered into a building. From that single Sauk City restaurant, the chain spread across Wisconsin in the nineties, then nationally in the early two-thousands, growing to over five hundred restaurants and a billion dollars in revenue by the time Craig retired as CEO in 2015 — on his sixty-fifth birthday. Ruth Culver — the Queen of Hospitality, the woman whose habit of buttering buns gave the menu its signature item — passed away in 2008. George Culver, the father whose unwavering line was "Don't mess with the quality," followed her in 2011. The blue roofs across America are their long shadow. Today the Culver's chain operates more than nine hundred and fifty restaurants in twenty-six states, with a flagship support center in Prairie du Sac overlooking the Wisconsin River. The Culver's Foundation, run by Lea, has awarded over six million dollars in scholarships to more than four thousand employees. The Thank You Farmers Project has donated nearly a million dollars to the National FFA Organization through Scoops of Thanks Day, where for one dollar a scoop of custard goes to support agricultural education. This is the story of a buttered bun. A scoop of beef. A scoop of cream. A small Wisconsin family. A failed franchise. A blue roof. And the long, slow, deliberate work of building something where care could survive at scale. QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS Who is Craig Culver? Craig Culver is the American businessman and co-founder of the Culver's restaurant chain. He was born June 15, 1950 in Neenah, Wisconsin, raised in Sauk City, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1973 with a biology degree. After managing a McDonald's for four years, he opened the first Culver's restaurant in Sauk City on July 18, 1984 with his wife Lea and his parents George and Ruth. He served as CEO of Culver's until retiring on his sixty-fifth birthday in 2015. He remains the chairman of the board. When was the first Culver's opened? The first Culver's restaurant opened on July 18, 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in a building that had previously been an A&W Root Beer stand. Craig Culver's parents had originally owned that same A&W property from 1961 to 1968, and the Culver family bought it back in 1984 to launch the new restaurant. What is a ButterBurger? A ButterBurger is Culver's signature menu item — a fresh-beef burger with a lightly buttered, toasted top bun. The recipe came from Craig Culver's mother Ruth, who as a young mother had a habit of buttering and lightly grilling the top of a bun before serving sandwiches. The first ButterBurgers in 1984 were portioned by hand using a stainless steel frozen custard scoop. Why did the first Culver's almost fail? The first Culver's lost money throughout its initial year of operation. Sauk City customers in 1984 did not know what frozen custard was — it was primarily a Milwaukee phenomenon — and they were unfamiliar with the ButterBurger concept. The restaurant lost money the first year, broke even the second year, and finally turned a profit in the third year. What was the first failed Culver's franchise? In 1987, three years after opening the original Sauk City restaurant, the Culver family attempted to franchise to Richland Center, Wisconsin. That franchise closed within a year. The first successful Culver's franchise opened in December 1990 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where Craig Culver had worked at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort during college. Why did Culver's mean so much to Midwestern families? For an entire generation of kids growing up in the Midwest, going to Culver's was an event the whole family looked forward to. Spotting the blue roof from down the road meant the back-seat arguing stopped. It was the place after the game, after church, on the way home from a long Sunday at grandma's. The blue roof on Main Street became a source of small-town pride. Culver's was where high school friends met up on Friday nights, where families gathered for birthdays, and where local owner-operators were embedded in their communities. It was a meeting place engineered into a fast-food building. Who is Lea Culver? Lea Culver is the co-founder of Culver's and Craig Culver's wife. She met Craig in the late 1960s while working at his parents' Farm Kitchen resort at Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo. They have three daughters together. Lea serves as the executive director of the Culver's Foundation, which provides educational scholarships and supports nonprofit causes. Who were George and Ruth Culver? George and Ruth Culver were Craig Culver's parents and co-founders of the original Culver's restaurant. George Culver had been a field representative for Wisconsin Dairies before entering the restaurant business in 1961 with the purchase of the Sauk City A&W. His unwavering motto was "Don't mess with the quality." Ruth Culver had grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm and became known throughout the company as the Queen of Hospitality. Ruth passed away in 2008. George passed away in 2011. How big is Culver's today? As of 2025, Culver's operates more than nine hundred fifty restaurants across twenty-six states, with annual system-wide revenues of approximately eight billion dollars and tens of thousands of employees. The corporate headquarters is in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, just a few miles from the original Sauk City restaurant. When did Craig Culver retire? Craig Culver retired as CEO of Culver's on June 15, 2015 — his sixty-fifth birthday. He was succeeded by Phil Keiser. Craig remains chairman of the board and the public face of the brand. He continues to visit Culver's restaurants regularly and speaks at colleges and universities about his career. What is the Culver's Foundation? The Culver's Foundation, established in 2001, provides educational scholarships to Culver's team members and supports local nonprofit organizations. It has awarded more than six million dollars in scholarships to over four thousand employees. Lea Culver serves as the foundation's executive director. What is the Thank You Farmers Project? The Thank You Farmers Project is a Culver's initiative supporting agricultural education and the National FFA Organization. Through programs like Scoops of Tha