When I say Burger Chef to most people, they might recognize the name from its appearance on Mad Men, but most people haven’t heard of. This, despite it being the second largest fast food chain in the United States by 1973. Its rise was dramatic, its fall, sad. On this episode of the show, I want to talk to you about this wonderful fast food restaurant.
I start the show talking about my childhood visits to the chain. They were all solo trips with my mom and I loved all of them. The place had character and tasty food, plus they had some great options for kids. All things I will talk about during the show. After my story I move on to the chain itself, I talk about its connection to Burger King, its growth, franchising, innovations, sale to General Foods and its decline.
My mom lamented the loss of this chain. She was convinced it was a higher quality offering than other chain. It just goes to show that a lot can go wrong when managing a fast food chain and that it can be difficult to recover when things go wrong.
Starting in the early eighties, they start converting Burger Chefs, mostly to Hardees. Bu the memory of BC lingered and Hardees has re-released the Big Shef a few times. Its been a decade since they release it last and I don’t see it happening again. I think that is a good indicator of people’s interest in the chain. My hope is that by talking about Burger Chef, I can inspire a few people to remember or seek out more info about it.
Listen and download Burger Chef Podcast
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Production Notes
This is the 333rd episode of the Retroist Podcast and episode 8 of the new season. This is the first episode of 2025.
I wanted to do this podcast a few years ago when it was mentioned on Mad Men, but I didn’t like what I attempted to record.
They had some great fun meals that would inspire other chains. Actually the more you look at Burger Chef, the more you realize how much other restaurants “borrowed” from the chain.
Look at the reviews of the Ghost Chefs I mention. People have snapped photos of the interiors and some great Burger Chef details have survived.
I really think Hardees could do more with this brand for special offerings.
Bonus Clipping should be up on Patreon tomorrow. I didn’t dive to deeply on this round and didn’t review them during the show. It just didn’t seem to go properly with the theme.
Music on the show is, as always, by Peachy.
Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.
8:19 - "Triple TREAT", actually... not "Threat".
As a kid growing up in Belleville, Illinois in the late 60s & throughout the 70s, Burger Chef was my favorite fast food restaurant.
We had several locations in the local area:
1) On Carlyle Ave. This was kind of on the outskirts of town where it became more developed in the late 70s. This was our go-to place for eating out in the mid 70's. I remember as a kid of about 4 in 1968, they had an offer where they sold St. Louis Blues drinking glasses to commemorate our then brand-new NHL hockey team. We bought 4. Wish I still had at least one. Later we got a couple King Kong promotional glasses for the 1976 Kong film. Of course, Burger Chef was first to jump on Star Wars licensing in 1977, and I loved the themed Funmeal trays
with punch-out models of R2-D2, spaceships, the landspeeder, etc., and also the set of 4 posters. I still have my original posters tucked safely away in my archives. Some of the first-ever, oldest Star Wars merchandise available. I also loved the commercials featuring Star Wars characters and movie scenes.
2) On 17th & West Main St. This was the first Burger Chef in the Belleville area. It was the classic, glass-fronted "Mad-Men" design with the big, beautiful kite-shaped sign with twinkling lights. Later when the owner, Don Kaffer, lost his franchise it became "Don Kaffer's Hamburgers. After that closed, the building has since been repurposed as a Mexican restaurant, and currently, a family-style diner/greasy spoon. Unfortunately, the current owners renovated the building so heavily that it is difficult if not impossible to see any of the original exterior Burger Chef design elements, and the sign has been gone for decades. This location was where I had my first Funburger when they came out in 1974. My aunt took me one Friday or Saturday evening, and I was so excited to get one after having been hyped up on it by Burger Chef (Paul 'Tigger' Winchell) & Jeff (Lionel Wilson) in their TV commercial. Just imagine... a burger in a box with a 'surprise prize' inside. I ate the burger but remember feeling really queasy afterward. A little food poisoning? Maybe, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Neither my love for Burger Chef, nor their revolutionary Funmeal (they beat McDonalds to the kid's meal punch) was deterred!
3) In St. Clair Square mall in nearby Fairview Heights. It was always a treat to go to Burger Chef in the Mall. Here, as I grew older, I liked getting their "Rancher" dinner when it came out in the later 70's ("A hearty 1/3 pound of chopped beefsteak... that's 3/4 sirloin!. Crispy golden fries, hot Texas toast, and all the cool, green salad you can eat" went the commercial). I felt like a grown-up eating it, though I still liked my Funmeals too.
4) On State Street in East St. Louis, Illinois. One of my older cousins worked there as a teenager in the 60s. I can remember being there only a couple times. Once was when they were doing their 1971 promotion of "Crazy Creatures Window Sticks" which were translucent decals with cartoon animals resembling food items. The decals were meant to go on windows where the sun would shine through like stained glass. My sister & I got a couple of these and stuck them on the side of a wooden cabinet we kept several of our board games in. The 6 stickers were: "Pickle-Potamus", "Apple Turtle-Over", "Mynah Burger", "Chimpan-Chee(se)", "Must-Ketcher", and "Tomater-Gator". It was here also that I was first acquainted with the term "loitering". There was a "No Loitering" sign hanging high on a wall. I asked my cousin what it meant & she said that it's like people coming in & playing cards, etc., basically hanging out & not ordering anything.
5) Downtown St. Louis. This was one of the unusual urban storefront restaurants with an unassuming, plain-looking entrance with a sign on the front spelling vertically:
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I remember going there once. This was one December when I was taken downtown to see Santa Claus at either the Styx, Baer, & Fuller (bought out by Dillard's) or Famous-Barr (bought out by Macy's department store.
Not only did Burger Chef score over McDonald's in being the first to offer food especially for kids, Burger Chef's innovations also included the all-you-can-eat Salad Bar, and the "Works Bar" where you could order a plain burger and dress it up with all the pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup, and mustard you wanted. I always ordered my burger plain and put lots of pickle slices on it.
While McDonald's had the McDonaldland characters in the 70s (I did love those commercials!), Burger Chef had cartoon monster characters such as Fangburger the vampire; Crankenburger, a Frankenstein's monster type character; Wolfburger the "Wherewolf" (as in "Where can I get great, fun food?"); and Cackleburger the witch.
One other thing that Burger Chef did in the 70's that I really loved was when they gave away the "Monster Fun Records". Each of the 6 colored, one sided flexi discs contained an audio adventure with Burger Chef & Jeff and their various monster friends. Each disc/story lasted about 3-4 minutes. I have been fortunate enough to find electronic copies of all 6 records. Listening to these recordings even today takes me back fondly to those childhood years.
Around 1975-ish, the Funburger boxes became part of a promotion called the "Burger Chef Fun Village". You got a base kit (I think it was via mail-order or even an in-store giveaway) with a large cardboard mat printed with roads, trees, flowers, water, etc., and blank spaces with numbers. These blank spaces were lots for punch-out buildings that were printed on the Funburger boxes. The buildings were things like shops, houses, a barn, Crankenburger's Castle, Fangburger's haunted house, and of course, a Burger Chef. You'd punch them out of your Funburger box, fold, and assemble them, then place them on the appropriately numbered lot on your mat. The kit also came with cutout trees, cars, boats, and people (the "Fun Folk)". Happy times.
I also remember at one point that they gave away iron-on transfers of "Burger Chef Burger Builders"... cartoon images of various burger ingredients like "Chompin' Cheese Patty", "Bashful Buns", "Puckerin' Pickles", "Crying Onions", "Tempting Tomatoes", and "Mighty Mustard". I remember that I had gotten a "Welcome Back Kotter" shirt with 3/4-length sleeves and cartoon caricatures of the "Kotter" cast on the front. I needed a shirt to iron the transfers onto, so I chose the back of that shirt. What a childhood souvenir it would have been if I still had it. I do have a photo of me wearing the shirt, but you can only see the front and not the iron-ons.
It is a sad thing that Burger Chef which had been the source of memories of a happy childhood is no more.
This comment was AMAZING. So many memories and details. You made my day. Thanks for sharing.