8 Culver's Ordering Hacks We're Tired Of Gatekeeping

There are fast food burgers and fast casual burgers, and then there's Culver's. This Midwest-based chain lives in a league of its own, in this writer's opinion, for its downhome, stick-to-your-ribs, familiar, and approachable menu of everything from chicken to burgers and pot roast to custards and curds. Started in 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, by Craig and Lea Culver, along with Craig's parents George and Ruth, the first Culver's focused on the prize hog — the ButterBurger and frozen custards. The menu expanded from there to include something anyone who visits can call their favorite.

All that considered, it's no wonder there is a compendium of ordering hacks out there for true Culver's devotees. It could be as simple as asking for three dishes that you can combine into one. But there are also some very eyebrow-raising hacks for your Culver's order that we're tired of gatekeeping. Instead, we're sharing them for diners everywhere to use.

If you've been to Canada — America's overly polite hat — you may have indulged in the luscious gut bomb that is poutine. Though the dish seems violently American, the combination of thick-cut french fries, rich brown gravy, and cheese curds actually hails from the Great North. But if you've got a Culver's nearby and the burning desire to try this dish, then you, too, can make a poor man's poutine. All you need is crinkle-cut fries, cheese curds, and beef gravy.

If you're looking to give your Culver's fries a Canadian twist, here's what you'll need to do. Order the three components: crinkle-cut fries, cheese curds, and brown beef gravy. Then, layer your curds on top of the fries and drown the whole thing in gravy. Done. As far as authenticity, obviously, the true Canadian stuff doesn't deal in deep-fried cheese curds. But Culver's curds, which utilize perfectly squeaky Wisconsin cheddar, are close enough to the real thing. You can experiment, too, with the doneness of the fries (see: crispiness) vs. the other components, too. Really, the world is your poutine plate.

On bread or in a bun is the most straightforward and, dare we say, boring option for your burger. Sure, you can slather it with any manner of sauces, toast it to perfection, and lay some of the best dang burgers known to man in between two slices of bread. But, if you're really trying to think outside the box, head on over to your friendly neighborhood Culver's and get that burger put straight on a grilled cheese.

So, this can be done in one of two ways. First, you can order one of Culver's grilled cheeses — made with American cheese and served up on thick slices of the chain's amazing sourdough bread — and ask to have a burger patty added. This option will arrive with the patty snuggly and warm, literally within the grilled cheese. The second option, the more hardcore option, if you will, is to use two grilled cheese sandwiches as the bun on your burger. Picture this: a sourdough grilled cheese (the full sandwich) topped with a burger patty (with or without accoutrements such as lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions), and then topped with an additional sourdough grilled cheese. Customers users seem to have done it both ways, but everyone agrees you can't go wrong.

Alongside a juicy, beefy, savory burger, we want a little something sweet to wash it down. Like the good ol' Midwestern spot it is, Culver's has plenty of soda options — including classic root beer. I mean, is there anything more iconic than a burger and a bubbly root beer, except maybe a root beer float? Yes, you can up the ante on that old-fashioned soda and turn it into a float by utilizing classic vanilla custard — or, really, any custard — just by asking, according to some customers.

The Culver's menu offers root beer floats, Fanta orange floats, and Coca-Cola floats with vanilla custard. But customers have gotten creative with their own go-to combinations that Culver's will create for you. One user waxed poetic about Culver's peach custard plopped into Sierra Mist. Another mentioned Sprite or Sierra Mist with lemon ice or blueberry custard. No matter what you choose, with the revolving options in custard flavors offered at Culver's, you can absolutely try your hand at all of them.

Culver's has a legendary lineup of sandwiches — burgers, chicken sandwiches, and even the fried pork loin sandwich. All of them, though, are served up on the chain's typical burger bun. The standard bun is a Kaiser roll, lightly toasted and buttered. It's certainly nothing to sneeze at, either. The bun is fluffy and delicious. But swapping it for the chain's sourdough bun may be the sleeper hit you've been ignoring.

Culver's sourdough bread is fluffy and tangy — the way sourdough should be. It's the default bread for Culver's grilled cheeses, but you can swap it in for any sandwich. Sourdough is actually already utilized on one of the burgers in the Culver's lineup: the Sourdough Melt. The sandwich features a grilled ButterBurger, topped with melted Wisconsin cheddar cheese and grilled onions, stacked on toasted and buttered sourdough bread. With the fan following that the Sourdough Melt already demands, it's no wonder fans often ask for the swap to sourdough for everything from the Spicy Crispy Chicken sandwiches to the Mushroom & Swiss burger.

Sweet and salty is a classic and revered flavor combination. Hot honey, candied bacon, chocolate-covered pretzels — you get the idea. Naturally, you should look for a way to incorporate this flavor combo into your next Culver's stop, and pretzels are the way to do it. If you weren't aware, Culver's serves up delicious little pretzel bites: a cylindrical soft pretzel accompanied by a warm cheese sauce, not unlike the stuff you'd get at a baseball game for your nachos. The cheese sauce is obviously great with the pretzel bites, but a sweet dip is even better.

Instead of that warm cheese sauce, you can ask for hot caramel or salted caramel for your pretzel bites, according to Redditors. If you're scratching your head thinking, "Wait a sec, I don't see caramel sauce in the sauces options on the menu," you're right. But the chain has caramel for its custard creations — like its famed Caramel Cashew Sundae and its deliciously rich Turtle Sundae. Another tip? You can ask for no salt on your pretzel bites, and, instead, let the sweetness do the talking.

A ButterBurger is great. A ButterBurger with cheese is even better. A ButterBurger featuring the chain's famous, crispy, crunchy, gooey-on-the-inside cheese curds? Next level, amazing, and delicious. Unfortunately for us, the CurderBurger — a very limited release from Culver's that features a ButterBurger crowned with a massive cheese curd — is hard to find. It does make appearances from time to time, according to Reddit. The chain even offered jalapeño cheese curds for a limited time, but we digress.

Because our love and devotion to burgers topped with curds cannot be contained to one month each year, there is a hack to recreate Culver's CurderBurger whenever you want. Basically, you just need to order curds on the side of your ButterBurger. Then, yes, it is this simple: lift the top bun and smash the curds flat on top of your burger. This move will keep them from falling off as you're eating. It's not exactly the same, but the deep-fried, gooey, cheesy bites on your burger do hit the mark.

Have you had a Culver's Concrete Mixer? Have you known true happiness? The Culver's Concrete Mixer is basically the chain's answer (superior answer, in our opinion) to the Dairy Queen Blizzard. Thick custard is blended with your choice of mix-ins: anything from fruit to candy to chocolate to caramel sauce. But — in a hack passed along from the fine folks at Culver's – you can actually make that Concrete Mixer even better by layering your toppings two times over.

Allow us to explain. When you order your Concrete Mixer, ask for half of the mix-in you've chosen to be blended, and half to be sprinkled or drizzled on the top. So, if you're ordering a vanilla custard base with strawberries and Heath bars, ask for the strawberries to be blended but the Heath bars to be sprinkled over the top. Why go through the trouble? Because this will eat more like a sundae than a mixer. It's delicious, rich, and an amazing way to finish out your Culver's meal.

At most fast food joints, be it McDonald's, Burger King, or Wendy's, fries are fries, and there's no real customizing them. Some days they may be a bit underdone, some days a bit overcooked, some days too much salt, and some days not enough salt. At Culver's, you can truly customize your fry experience. Maybe it's the Midwestern politeness, but the ability to ask for any fried item at Culver's to be well-done or extra crispy is available to you — the customer.

According to customers — and yours truly, a Culver's fan — this is a game-changer. Culver's will add about another minute to its fry cooking time for every level of extra crispy doneness you ask for. The post on Reddit among current and former workers discussed using the chain's curd timer to reach that crispy fry sweet spot. Some workers even mentioned leaving fries in the fryer until they're "basically chips." The point is — if you ask for it, the friendly folks at Culver's will likely oblige. I mean, can you imagine a shatteringly, extra crispy cheese curd that maintained that gooey cheesy interior? You don't have to wonder. You can go to Culver's and do it.