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Darrin and Darrin Go to
White Castle
My car is going to smell
like White Castle sliders
for quite some time...
and I'm fine with that! It
had been almost seven years
since I had last sunk my
teeth into a White Castle
Hamburger. Lately, I've found myself having
insatiable cravings for
White Castle sliders. I knew
that the frozen White Castle
hamburgers located in the
supermarket freezer section would not
satisfy my carnivorous
fixation. No.. I
craved a made to order White
Castle slider, steam grilled
to perfection and tenderly
tucked inside of a soft,
fresh, delicate roll. Joking
around one day with my wife,
I suggested that I should go
on a road trip back East for
the sole purpose of
obtaining some White Castle
Burgers. As the
chuckles subsided, I asked
myself.. "Why not?" I
had recently kicked around
the idea of taking a road
trip with my teenage son to
help us reconnect, but all we lacked
was a destination. I went to
work the very next day,
cashed in some vacation
time, and commenced planning
our 1800 mile burger run...
The big day..
The alarm clock woke me
up right on time at 1:45
a.m., after a blissful 4
hours of sleep. I took
a quick shower to help me wake
up, ran downstairs, poured
myself and my co-pilot a cup
of coffee, kissed my bride
goodbye, and was out the
door and on the road by
2:15. Nine hours
later, after viewing an
infinite number of rolling
hills and wheat fields, the
landscape seemed to almost
instantaneously change as we
approached Kansas City
Kansas. As we crossed
into Missouri, my son and I
both felt a renewed vigor!
We were like
giddy school girls right
before a Sadie Hopkins dance.
Now.. only three hundred and
fifty
miles stood between us and
the nearest White Castle!
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After eight
hundred plus miles, and
thirteen and a half hours of
driving across three states,
we had finally arrived!
The White Castle
restaurant pictured above in Wentzville
Missouri, is the absolute
closest White Castle to
the Northern part of Colorado where we
live. It was a
newer store, and only
faintly resembled the
classic stores I had
visited in the past.
The architectural
similarities
were prevalent however, and
I spotted it from what
seemed to be a mile away.
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 Lunch...
After thirteen
hours of driving we were
hungry, but our
appetites weren't
exactly what you
could call
ravenous.
Therefore, we
took it easy on
our stomachs and ordered
up only fifteen White Castle
sliders and a couple orders
of fries. You can see
my son fishing out the
pickles from his
sliders, and
closely
inspecting the
buns to make
sure no chopped
onions were
lurking about.
Over the next
four days,
the pickles and
onions on my
sliders would
prove to be the
only vegetables
I would consume
during the
entire course of
our road
trip (unless you count the
coleslaw I ate with my BBQ
in Kansas City) |
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Anatomy of a Slider
There's nothing else quite
like the aroma of a freshly
steam grilled White Castle
slider. The patty of a
White Castle slider is only
2&1/2 inches by 2&1/2 inches
square. Each hamburger has
five holes in the patty
which allow them to fully
cook on a grill without
having to be flipped over.
The patties are steam cooked
on a bed of chopped onions.
During the cooking process,
the bottom buns of the
dinner roll are placed on
top of the patties, so as to
soak up a bit of the meat
flavor. The holes also
help to carry the onion
flavor throughout the meat. I
managed to keep
from devouring
the first slider I picked
up, long
enough to snap
this
picture. I
had to pull the camera back
so the plume of steam
ascending from the box
wouldn't fog the camera
lens. |
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We finished lunch and headed
twenty some odd miles East
to our sleep accommodations
in a suburb of St Louis.
We stayed at a very nice La Quinta
Inn with high speed internet
access, and numerous other
amenities. It was
also only 1.9 miles away
from yet another White
Castle! Nope, not a
coincidence.. I planned it
that way. My son
took a nap while I stretched
out on my bed to check my
e-mail and tinker with the
website. Four or
five hours had passed, and my
craving for White Castle
sliders once again started to resurface. I
woke my son up, and he agreed
that we needed to make another White
Castle run.
Dinner...
We were getting hungrier
by the minute but were
absolutely beat from the
drive, so we decided to get
some White Castle to go from
the store a couple of miles
down the road.
For lunch we kept it old
school and dined on basic
White Castle hamburgers with
fries, but for
dinner we decided to change
it up a bit. White
Castle's menu is pretty
simple and straight forward,
but they do have a couple
unique menu items that we
just had to try. For
instance.. Those aren't
Onion rings you see here..
they're Chicken Rings!
As I held up a ring to
snap this photo, I
wasn't convinced that I was going to be a big
fan, but these actually
tasted great! I also
ordered a box of Buffalo
Bites which won me over as
well. Think Chicken Mc
Nugget.. only with good
tasting chicken, and a heck
of a kick that grabs your
tongue and won't let go.
We also ordered five or six
cheeseburgers, and of
course.. some classic
sliders. |
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As we relaxed in
the confines of
our hotel room,
my son and I
talked about how
great it would
be to have White
Castle's out
West. We
also pondered on what
made the food we
were eating so great.
In the end we concluded
that it was the simplicity
and uniqueness
of the food, that makes
people lifelong customers
and fans of the chain. I'm
not sure why there aren't
any White Castle restaurants
father West, but I firmly
believe that they would
surely prosper.
At this point, I'd be happy
to see some stores built in
the state of
Kansas (there
original
birthplace).
It sounds crazy,
but I would
definitely do a 6
to 8 hour road trip a
few times a year
to dine on White
Castle sliders!
I've heard that
all stores are
company owned
which could
explain why new
stores aren't
popping up all
over the U.S.
Maybe the
company is
simply taking
its time and
expanding slowly
which succinctly
isn't such a bad
idea. Just look at what happened
to Krispy Kreme after their
massive
expansion across
the U.S.
They are the
perfect example
of what can
happen to a
business
when you grow
too fast.
They suffered
from a slew of
financial
problems,
causing their
stock to drop
from over $40.00
a share down to
$7.00.
They're still
struggling, and
are considering
restructuring
and closing
stores across
the U.S.
Being a former Krispy Kreme
stockholder as
well as
enthusiast, and can't help but
wonder if the rapid
expansion caused the product
to lose some of it's
novelty, further putting a
dent in the company's bottom
line. |
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 Breakfast..
The next
morning, we
gathered our
thoughts and
belongings, and
wandered
downstairs to
the hotel lobby
to checkout.
Nothing on the continental
breakfast buffet looked very
appetizing, so we decided to
go elsewhere.
Hmmm, where to
go... where to
go...? Ah
what the heck,
why not White
Castle?!?
We went to the
same restaurant
we visited for
dinner.
It's an older
store located in
Maryland Heights
with a beautiful
porcelain coated
exterior.
I enjoyed a coffee, a donut, and
a couple of White Castle
Cheeseburgers. Talk
about your breakfast of
champions! Well...
competitive eating champions
maybe. We then headed
20 miles East to
see some
sights in
downtown St.
Louis.
What do you mean I lost?
I ate two White Castle
Cheeseburgers for breakfast...
I'd say that's a win!! |
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The last supper...
After a few
hours at the Gateway Arch,
and Mississippi riverfront,
it was time to start heading
back West. Our time in
Missouri was heading towards
a close. We had
one more chance to dine at
White Castle before heading
to Kansas City to visit my
Aunt and Uncle, and we
weren't going to pass up the
opportunity.
We went back to the White
Castle restaurant that we
had first visited in
Wentzville the day before.
The cheeseburgers I ate for
breakfast really hit the
spot, so I decided to order
some Double Bacon
Cheeseburgers. After
eating one, I felt like
slapping myself silly for
not ordering these before. The Double's
in my opinion have a better
meat to bread ratio than a
classic slider, and the
bacon and cheese really push
this sandwich over the top!
The Double Bacon
Cheeseburger, is now my
favorite menu item at The
Castle!
With full stomach's and a
bit of pensiveness, we
exited the restaurant and
headed towards our car.
Before driving away, we
rolled down the windows to
catch one last whiff of the
steam grilled aroma that
permeated the air across the
parking lot. This leg
of our trip and
consequentially, the
inspiration for our entire
journey.. was now over.
It's funny, I went for
nearly seven years without
eating a single solitary
White Castle slider. Now after the road trip, I
find myself craving them
more than ever! Many
people don't understand the
infatuation folks like
myself have with these tiny
little morsels of steam
grilled goodness. Maybe
it's a regional thing.
It wasn't until I lived
back East, that I became such a
big White Castle enthusiast.
In fact, I'm not the only
White Castle
fanatic in my family.
My bride who hasn't eaten a
hamburger for close to ten
years, says that she would
gladly dine at White Castle if the
opportunity arose.
In the end we drove nearly
1900 miles, covered ground
in six states, reconnected
as "buddies" rather than
just father and son, and ate
our weight in White Castle
hamburgers, all in the
course of just four short
days. We created for
ourselves,
memories and stories that
we'll talk about for years
to come, and really.. we
have White Castle to thank
for that. Our passion
for White Castle sliders
drove us to venture across three states
to the nearest restaurant.
The good times and
experiences we had along the
way were
the icing on the cake!
Visit White Castle Online |
