What It Was Like To Eat At The First Culver's Location In 1984

Today Culver's is a well-known fast casual restaurant chain, and its frozen custard and ButterBurgers can be found in more than 1,000 locations across 26 states. But in 1984, when it first opened, it was a single restaurant in Sauk City, Wisconsin. If you could turn back time and have a meal at the original Culver's more than 40 years ago, you'd find quite a lot of changes from today, but some familiar things as well.

The first thing you'd notice would be the building. When George and Ruth Culver, who gave the restaurant chain its name, opened their new restaurant in partnership with their son Craig Culver and his wife Lea, it was in an old A & W drive-up restaurant that they had originally bought in 1961 when they first got into the restaurant business. It looked different than today's Culver's and didn't even have a drive-through when it first opened.

Once inside, you may have given your order to Lea or Ruth Culver, known as the "Queen of Hospitality," at the counter. On the menu you'd recognize Culver's signature ButterBurger, likely made by Craig Culver manning the grill and using an ice cream scoop to form the beef balls for the grilled burgers with their signature buttered and toasted buns. And, of course, you would have been able to get the company's frozen custard. But there were some differences as well.

Culver's has had ButterBurgers and frozen custard since day one, along with items like its chili, crafted by George Culver. Fried fish was also on the menu. This Wisconsin tradition is rooted in the Catholic Lenten tradition of not eating meat on Fridays (just one of the unexpected facts about Culver's). The restaurant still uses fresh cod that's hand battered and fried up when you order it. If you would have eaten at the original Culver's in 1984, you'd get free refills on your coffee in-store and have your order brought to your table (table numbers were originally hand-written on Styrofoam cups), traditions which have remained to this day even as the restaurant has grown.

There are some newer items available today that you wouldn't have been able to get in 1984. For instance, you might think Culver's fried cheese curds would have been on the original menu — after all, this is a classic Wisconsin dish — but these delicious cheesy fried treats weren't officially introduced to Culver's menu until 1997. Today, you can still go to the first location of Culver's in Sauk City, but you won't be walking into the original 1960s-era building. It was torn down and a new Culver's restaurant built on the site in 2000. But you will find the same level of hospitality as when George, Ruth, Craig, and Lea first opened in 1984.