tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Burger Chef
Owner -- Trademark currently in dispute
Primary Operating Region -- Based in Indianapolis; Once was in 43 states
Number of Locations -- One had over 1,200...Now there are none

Schroeder's Drive-In in Danville, IL is a museum of sorts.  The main dining room is full of display cases with memorabilia devoted to military flight.  There's even a model of the Graf Zeppelin.  It's quite something to see.  But the museum takes a different turn as you head down the side corridor right of the counter, down towards the bathrooms.  That's where you'll find the memorabilia that tips to this building's origins.  That's where you learn that Schroeder's Drive-In used to be Burger Chef #57, one of the chain's most successful outlets.  If you didn't figure it out from the magnificent late era Burger Chef interior, or from the sandwich images on the menu board, you'll catch on now.

I never visited Burger Chef when they were around because I grew up on a remote island where McDonald's didn't even exist until 1985.  I first heard of Burger Chef when Hardee's had a commercial running in the St Louis market hyping the return of something called the "Big Shef" sandwich, a double-decker that looked similar to a Big Mac.  I'd been eating at Hardee's for fifteen years and had never heard of it.  So I got online and ran a search on the subject.  Out poured the history of Burger Chef by many devoted fans of the chain, defunct since Hardee's force-converted the franchisees (although one managed to stay in Chef-dom until 1996).

Since then, I've been fascinated by the chain.  I started doing my own research on old Chef locations and, after seeing the building designs, realized I've passed many a former Burger Chef over the years without even knowing its heritage.  I tried the Hardee's Big Shef for myself, and later, Schroeder's "double decker" (which these days actually uses a second bottom bun as the center), as well as Schroeder's equivalent of the Super Shef.   I officially jumped onto the "Bring Back Burger Chef" bandwagon.

In 1952, inventor George Read patented something he called the "Insta-Burger Broiler".  According to "Hamburger Heaven" by Jeffrey Tennyson, the rights to this device were purchased by Keith Cramer and his stepfather, and they started "Insta-Burger King".  After a couple of years of successful operation, problems with the Insta-broiler became apparent.  Burger King came up with a better animal, and the General Equipment Company of Indianapolis was brought on board to produce Burger King's new flame-broiler. General Equipment was started by Frank Thomas (brother Don also figured into this somehow) to produce some of the machines he invented, most notably the Sani-Serv soft-serve ice cream machine.  After becoming the producer of the flame broiler, Thomas continued to make improvements.  This led to a prototype fast food restaurant, and ultimately, Burger Chef.  Not only was it a new business venture, it was a way to showcase General Equipment's products.

Burger Chef surpassed Burger King's success and in the late sixties even rivaled McDonald's, coming within one hundred restaurants of catching them.  At its high point, Burger Chef had over 1,200 locations.

General Foods purchased Burger Chef (and General Equipment, which by then was known as Sani-Serv) in 1968.  After an initial expansion boom, things pretty much went downhill.  General Foods proved a poor manager of a fast food operation.  A natural shakeout of the weaker competitors in the industry was already ongoing, and Burger Chef found itself perpetually trying to find a standout identity.  Eventually, General Foods sold the company to Imasco, owner of Hardee's, who force-converted or closed the remaining 600-or-so locations, and Burger Chef faded into the history books with a very few stragglers holding on a few years thanks to settlements with certain franchisees.  The last Burger Chef in operation lost its rights to the name in 1996.

Burger Chef had everything the others had and more.  Burger Chef had mascots (the animated Burger Chef and Jeff...insert your own innuendos), a vast marketing campaign aimed at kids (kids meals featured characters like Burgerilla, Fangburger, and Burgerini to name a few), a stream of premiums (collector cups, glasses), and co-promotional tie-ins with sports teams and even Star Wars.  

Some claim Burger Chef was the first chain to offer a fish sandwich...others give that honor to Sandy's.  Burger Chef beat McDonald's to the double-decker sandwich with the Big Shef by a good couple of years (although both are just knockoffs of the original Big Boy...Burger Chef's was probably developed as a counter to Frisch's Big Boy's tartar sauce-based version).  Burger Chef also claimed to be the first to try salad bars and topping bars (where you top your own burger), but Roy Rogers may argue over the topping bar thing.  Burger Chef fans insist the Chef had a better product than any of the others too.  But the truth is, a lot of small town Burger Chefs closed when McDonald's hit the neighborhood.  They just couldn't match their marketing machine.

Hardee's has revived the Big Shef on their own menu twice now in limited markets, reviving the hopes of Burger Chef fanatics along with it.  But the latest revival appears is for very opposite reasons...keeping the brand dead.  River West, a company that specializes in reviving dead brands, filed a motion in 2007 to challenge CKE's hold on the Burger Chef trademark because they hadn't used it for at least three years. You heard right, kids.  Somebody with the capital and the wherewithal may have been planning a REAL BURGER CHEF REVIVAL. Suddenly, the Big Shef  was back...at least in name.  The actual sandwich they were selling (at least in St Louis) was really the Big Twin with mayo instead of Big Twin sauce.  No center bun, no Big Shef sauce.  It looked and tasted nothing like the Big Shef.  It was ridiculous...even an insult...to Burger Chef fans. Ironically, if I'm reading the US trademark website correctly, Hardee's HASN'T bothered to renew trademarks on the "Big Shef" name or any of Burger Chef's other trademarks ("Super Shef", "Funburger", etc) for that matter.  So until they catch on to that, feel free to grab them yourself.  It appears every trademark related to Sandy's is available too.

Frankly, if CKE DID revive Burger Chef, I imagine it wouldn't be the same anyway.  And who knows what River West was really planning.  Sure it's easy to envision a board room full of ex Burger Chef managers and SaniServ equipment designers plotting a new future, but imagination is the easy part.

If nothing else, I absolutely adore Schroeder's and visit every time I pass through Danville.  The Schroeder family sold the restaurant to a longtime employee recently, but nothing's changed.

I hope that continues.

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