You'll Never Find Freezers Or Microwaves At This Upscale Burger Chain

In recent years, it feels like chain restaurants have made a marketing push around how fresh their food is. Wendy's, for example, notes in its commercials that it never uses frozen beef patties, while Chipotle built its marketing around not having any freezers. At an upscale Midwest burger chain called Ted's Montana Grill, you also can't find freezers — or microwaves.

The restaurant chain was founded by George W. McKerrow and cable television mogul Ted Turner in Ohio (not Montana, despite its name) back in 2002. Today, it has close to 40 locations in 16 states. Called "Ted's" for short, this steakhouse and burger chain notes right on its menu that it doesn't use freezers, microwaves, or shortcuts. The chain serves plenty of meat, from more than a dozen burger options to six different steaks, and even menu sections dedicated entirely to bison meat, a flavorful alternative to beef. "We make totally fresh food," McKerrow told FSR Magazine in 2025. "When you order french fries... It's a whole potato and we cut it, we wash it, we spin it, we cook it, we deliver it to you."

The chain has created a more elevated experience in recent years due to increased prices. While it's always relied on fresh food, it's made more of a point to upgrade the entire customer experience since 2023. "We found it necessary for us to raise prices," George W. McKerrow told FSR Magazine. "So we moved up the experience to go along with the increase in prices that we were forced to take." The restaurant aims to give customers a solid service experience. Plus, it never laid off workers during the pandemic, which it says helped build confidence among its employees.

Ted's burgers and fries are just two of many dishes made to order. It focuses on scratch-made food, and the customers seem to notice the food quality. "I've never had a bad dish there," one user said of the restaurant chain on an r/SWFL Reddit thread. "Bison burger was fantastic at [its] Tallahassee location," someone else wrote, with another person saying the food is good, but can be heavy. "It's homestyle, made from scratch... good comfort food," they added. If you're craving steak or burgers, but want that homemade feel, it's worth it to stop in.