This Fast Food Chain Is Still Family Owned Today (And Has Been Since 1921)

In 1921, E.W. "Billy" Ingram founded the very first fast food burger chain in the world: White Castle. It sold small square burgers called sliders with onions and pickles. The slogan at the time? "The crave heard round the world." But that changed when Ingram invented take-out with burgers packed in paper bags for customers to carry out. The slogan then changed to "Buy 'em by the sack" in 1927. Today, the slogan is "Because the crave is a powerful thing," a nod to the very first slogan.

The White Castle business has been family-owned since 1921, and it still serves the same little square burgers with onions and pickles, except they are now made with 100% USDA beef. Now, the descendants of Billy Ingram run White Castle, including at least 10 third, fourth, and fifth-generation family members who are proud to be part of the family-owned fast food chain. The great-granddaughter of Billy, Lisa Ingram, is now the president and CEO of the company.

Lisa told Fox Business that she thinks her great-grandfather would be very proud of White Castle today, and said while there is a lot of shop talk around holidays, they try to focus on family. And while it made history as the first fast food burger chain, White Castle has also led the way in several other industry firsts.

In 1930, a University of Minnesota medical student, Bernard Flesche, completed a 13-week project where he only ate those tasty little White Castle burger sliders and drank only water. This was, of course, a public relations study run by White Castle to show that its sliders were perfectly healthy. It's reported that he "checked out in top physical health" after the 13 weeks of eating only White Castle burgers, although it doesn't say who said this or if he was checked out before the "study."

There are a lot of firsts with White Castle, and the next one is with the debut of a newspaper coupon. In 1933, the advertisement of an astounding five sliders for just 10 cents. That's quite a deal considering the burgers started out in 1921 at 5 cents a pop. But that changed in a decade. In 1943, during World War II, beef was rationed, and White Castle pivoted to selling fried eggs and hot dogs. Just a few years later, a White Castle operator in Cincinnati, Earl Howell, decided to poke five holes into each little burger patty to help the meat cook faster and cut costs. White Castle loved the idea and filed a patent for it.

Today, there are over 400 locations scattered across the country. White Castle even sells frozen burgers at grocery stores, so you can take them home and make sliders yourself. But it's not just the classic burgers. You can also find chicken sliders, onion rings, cheese sliders, double cheese sliders, and jalapeño cheese sliders in the freezer section. There are even more options in restaurants, and we ranked the fresh sliders from worst to best so you know exactly where to start.