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Home of the Whopper
- Black Forest Ham
- Sizzling Sausage
- Crispy Bacon
- Fluffy Eggs
- Melted American Cheese
- Toasted Croissant
- Flame-Grilled Beef Patties
- Smoked Bacon
- Melted American Cheese
- Crinkle Cut Pickles
- Yellow Mustard
- Ketchup
- Toasted Sesame Seed Bun
The Long Chicken Sandwich - Looong time favorite since 1979
- Crispy Chicken Fillet
- Shredded Lettuce
- Creamy Mayo
- Sesame Seed Bun
- Crispy Chicken Fillet
- Fresh Lettuce
- Creamy Mayo
- Soft Bun
- White Alaskan Pollock
- Crispy Panko Breading
- Sweet Tartar Sauce
- Tangy Pickles
- Toasted Brioche-Style Bun
- Breaded Fry-Shaped Mozzarella Sticks
- Fried Until Crispy
- Marinara Dip Cup
- Two Quarter Pound Flame-Grilled Beef Patties
- Melty American Cheese
- Juicy Tomatoes
- Crisp Lettuce
- Creamy Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Crunchy Pickles
- Sliced White Onions
- Toasted Sesame Seed Bun
- Golden Brown
- Hot
- Crispy
- Three Quarter Pound Flame-Grilled Beef Patties
- Melty American Cheese
- Juicy Tomatoes
- Crisp Lettuce
- Creamy Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Crunchy Pickles
- Sliced White Onions
- Toasted Sesame Seed Bun
- Shoe String Fries
- Two Flame-Grilled Whopper Jr. Patties
- Crispy Bacon
- Melted American Cheese
- Fire-Roasted Onions
- Stacker Sauce
- Toasted Bread
- Two Flame-Grilled Whopper Jr. Patties
- Flame-Grilled Peppers and Onions
- Melty Swiss Cheese
- Savory Royal Sauce
- Toasted Bread
- Flame-Grilled Beef Patty
- Sweet and Smoky BBQ Sauce
- Crispy Golden Onion Rings
- Toasted Sesame Seed Bun
- Seasoned Beef
- Melted American Cheese
- Crisp Lettuce
- Zesty Taco Sauce
- Crunchy Tortilla Shell
- Bacon Double Cheeseburger combined with a Chicken Jr.
- Double Whopper combined with a Big Fish Sandwich
- 6 Piece Chicken Nuggets
- Small Fry
- Apple Juice
- Toy
- Hamburger
- Value Fry
- Orange Juice
- Toy
- Baked to Perfection Every Day
- Chocolate Crust
- Rich Chocolate Cream
- Hershey’s Chocolate Chips
Flame-Grilled Since 1954BkSince 1954
We're the second largest fast food hamburger restaurant franchise in the world, and we've done it by serving high-quality, great-tasting, and affordable food in a family-friendly atmosphere.At Burger King, we've been serving up mouthwatering burgers since 1954. Each day, over 11 million guests visit a Burger King restaurant somewhere in the world. With locations in more than 100 countries and US territories, the original Home of the Whopper has a global reach that other burger franchise opportunities can't match.
Locations in 100+ countries & US territories
For more than 50 successful years, we've grown our brand through a commitment to premium ingredients, signature recipes, and a cherished guest experience. Burger King is one of the world's most recognizable and best loved burger franchise brands, with approximately 19,000 restaurants around the world.Our Commitment to Food
For over 60 years, our restaurants have been serving high quality, great tasting and affordable food around the world. Our commitment to the food we serve is what defines us as a company. Our brand promise empowers our guests to make educated choices in customizing their meals to fit their individual lifestyles.We provide detailed nutrition information to our guests so they can make informed meal choices. We recognize that there will always be additional steps we can take to enhance our menu options and satisfy our guests. Our product innovation teams are constantly working to develop new options that provide a variety of great tasting food while meeting our guests' evolving lifestyle needs.
The Whopper
The Whopper is America's favourite burger. First off a hot broiler in 1957, the Whopper, boasting a quarter pound of flame-grilled beef, ripe tomatoes, crisp lettuce, creamy mayo, ketchup, onions and crunchy pickles on a toasted sesame seed bun, has become an iconic burger for the ages and boasts generations of fans worldwide. There are 221,184 possible ways for a guest to order an original Whopper.For those who like the taste of the Whopper but find it too filling, we also have the smaller version of this all time classic, the Whopper Jr.
Burger King
WIKIPEDIABK
Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton and James McLamore purchased the company in 1959 and renamed it "Burger King". Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership of TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, took it public in 2002.In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company. The new owners promptly initiated a restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with partner Berkshire Hathaway, eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based doughnut chain Tim Hortons, under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International.
When it first opened in Jacksonville in 1953, its menu consisted predominantly of basic hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida, franchisees and renamed to Burger King in 1954, BK began expanding the breadth of its menu by adding the Whopper sandwich in 1957. This quarter-pound hamburger was created by Burger King's new owners James McLamore and David Edgerton as a way to differentiate BK from other burger outlets at the time. Since its inception, the Whopper has become synonymous with Burger King.
Like its menu, the equipment the company cooks its hamburgers with has also evolved as the company expanded. The burgers have always been broiled mechanically; the original unit, called an Insta-Broiler, was one of two pieces of equipment the founders of Insta-Burger King purchased before opening their new restaurant. The Insta-Broiler worked by cooking 12 burger patties in a wire basket, allowing the patties to be cooked from both sides simultaneously. When McLamore and Edgerton took over the company, besides dropping the "Insta-" prefix, they switched to an improved unit called a "Flame Broiler." Designed by the two and featuring stationary burners that cooked the meat on a moving chain, the unit broke down less often while maintaining a similar cooking rate. The company would stay with that format for the next 40 years until Burger King began developing a variable speed broiler that could handle multiple items with different cooking rates and times. These new units began testing in 1999 and eventually evolved into the two models the company deployed system-wide in 2008–2009. Accompanying these new broilers was new food-holding equipment, accompanied with a computer-based product monitoring system for its cooked products. The monitoring system allows for more concise tracking of product quality while giving the company and its franchisees a method to streamline costs by more precisely projecting sales and product usage.
- Since its founding in 1954, Burger King has employed varied advertising programs, both successful and unsuccessful. During the 1970s, output included its "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce..." jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King, and several well known and parodied slogans such as "Have it your way" and "It takes two hands to handle a Whopper".
- As of December 31, 2018, Burger King reported that it had 17,796 outlets in 100 countries. Of these, nearly half are located in the United States, and 99.7% are privately owned and operated, with its new owners moving to an almost entirely franchised model in 2013.
In October 2023, Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. & Canada, announced a new store design at its annual franchisee convention in Canada, branded "The Sizzle." It would remodel existing Burger King locations with a new look inside and outside, to tackle slowing business after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The overhaul would add more kiosks, dedicated pickup areas for mobile app orders, food-ordering platforms like Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, and would improve drive-thru service. As of October 10, 2023, there are already two Burger King locations in the United States with the "Sizzle" concept in effect, one in New Jersey, and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Grilled Hot Dogs
TimelineThe Burder King BookOver the years I had developed a deep sense of commitment towards our franchisees, and I didn't want to weaken or tarnish that important relationship. Up to this point our management style had produced superior results and a corporate morale that was at an all-time high. During recent years we had averaged an annual return in excess of 75 percent on equity. We were one of the leading companies in our field. In Burger King's case, by the early 1970s we had opened over eight hundred restaurants and had never experienced a failure.
BURGER KING: TIMELINE 1926 On May 30th, James Whitman McLamore was born in New York 1943 Jim started to attend Cornell's School of Hotel Management 1947 Jim married Nancy Nichol from Miami Jim started running the YMCA Cafeteria in Wilmington, DE 1949 Jim started his own fast service, 24/7 restaurant, The Colonial Inn, in Wilmington, DE. 1952 Jim opened the Brickell Bridge Restaurant in Miami 1954 Jim and Dave Edgerton joined forces in March to co-found Burger King Corporation of Miami 1957 Dave invents the Flame Broiler 1957 Jim invents the Whopper sandwich 1958 First advertising of “Burger King: Home of the Whopper” on television 1961 Jim and Dave acquire the rights to national and international franchising 1962 Jim and Dave create Distron for all food distribution to their stores Jim and Dave create Davmor Industries for building the kitchen parts 1964 'Whopper College' is founded to train new franchisees 1967 Burger King is acquired by the Pillsbury Company for $18 million with 274 stores 1972 Jim retires as CEO of Burger King 1974 The 'Have It Your Way' campaign is created by Batten, Burton, Dustin, and Osborne. 1979 Jim and 4 other businessmen buy into the Miami Dolphins from Joe Robbie. 1980 Jim announces a five-year, $400 million capital campaign to raise money for the University of Miami which was the largest fundraiser in the country to date. He finished raising $517.5 million, the 3rd largest philanthropic raise in America at that time. 1988 Pillsbury Company with Burger King is acquired by Grand Metropolitan PLC for $5.79 billion. 1993 Burger King hires Jim Adamson as CEO, and he brings Jim back for advice and consulting with speeches at the National Restaurant Association for his candid insights. Burger King launches the Value Meal 1996 August 8th, Jim McLamore passes away 2002 Burger King is sold to TPG Capital for $1.5 billion 2010 Burger King is sold to 3G Capital for $3.26 billion under CEO Daniel Schwartz. 2014 Burger King merged with Tim Hortons under Restaurant Brands International . 2018 David R. Edgerton passes away
Short History of Burger King
LiveAboutInsta-Burger King
In 1953, a Jacksonville, Florida, man named Keith Kramer, along with his wife's uncle Matthew Burns, looked to create a restaurant idea of their own after being inspired by the original McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California. As part of their new restaurant, they bought the rights to a special grill machine called the Insta-Broiler, and named their restaurant "Insta-Burger King."Several years later, the idea had grown into several restaurant locations and was picked up by a pair of Cornell University classmates, James McLamore and David Edgerton.
- McLamore and Edgerton started by purchasing one Insta-Burger King franchise in Miami in 1954. The growth of the Miami metropolitan area made it an excellent location for starting a new chain, but an adjustment had to be made to further improve on the Insta-Broiler machine. McLamore and Edgerton came up with a gas grill that they called a "flame broiler," and it eliminated the problems of the Insta-Broiler.
- By 1959 the Insta-Burger chain had grown, but the Kramer-Burns operation had run into financial trouble, and McLamore and Edgerton bought out the entire company to restructure and revitalize its operations.
- By 1961, the rechristened Burger King and its signature burger, the Whopper, had begun to spread across the United States.
- In 1967, the Pillsbury Company bought Burger King Corporation, and with the baking company's capital behind it, by the late 1970s Burger King was able to grow to become America's second-largest burger chain, just behind McDonald's.
- In 1978, Burger King poached executive Donald N. Smith from McDonald's. He restructured the company's franchise agreements so that owners could not own franchises in other chains, thus encouraging loyalty; and so that they could not operate stores more than an hour's drive from their homes, thus cutting down on absentee ownership. Many unprofitable franchise owners dropped out, trimming the company's fat.
- It was at this time that Burger King began to reach out to children, by countering McDonald's commercials featuring live-action versions of its characters Ronald McDonald and his friends with similarly themed characters: a Burger King who was also a magician, the Wizard of Fries, and Sir Shake-a-Lot. Smith took on not only his former employer and Long John Silver's by introducing Burger King's first fish sandwiches, but also Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy's by introducing their first chicken sandwiches.
- Company sales were up 15 percent by 1980, at which point Smith was poached once again, this time by PepsiCo. After he left, sales began to decline.
- Norman Brinker, who had been brought into Pillsbury when they bought his chain Steak & Ale, was charged with turning the company around. He started what became known as the Burger Wars, running commercials that said Burger King's burgers were bigger and better than McDonald's; these may be the first political-style "attack ads" in the food industry. As with Smith's efforts, Brinker's worked for a brief time before he left the company, and he went on to build the Chili's restaurant chain.
- Without Smith or Brinker, Burger King declined again, and this was one of the reasons why Pillsbury was unable to fight off a takeover bid by British company Grand Metropolitan PLC. Already having a worldwide focus, Grand Met changed Burger King's distribution methods, switching their soft-drink contract from Pepsi to Coca-Cola, partnering with the Walt Disney Company to tie in with Disney films, and expanding BK around the globe, partially by buying the company that ran British-based burger chain Wimpy.
- The company's headquarters building in Miami was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, but a proactive response by Grand Met led to a quick rebound.
- In 1997, Grand Met merged with brewing giant Guinness to form Diageo plc, which seemed to ignore Burger King in comparison to its alcoholic beverage properties, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, and Moet & Chandon.
- BK declined again until TPG Capital, with assistance from Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital, bought Burger King. An IPO was launched in 2006, generating equity proceeds.
- Burger King once again revamped its menus and ad campaigns in 2011 and was doing well enough that 3G Capital took the company public again in 2012.
- In 2014, the Burger King chain merged with a Canadian chain, Tim Hortons, a Canadian chain of restaurants and coffee shops.
- With Burger King and Tim Hortons merged 2014, Restaurant Brands was created in December of that year.
- In 2018, Restaurant Brands purchased Popeyes for $1.8 billion. The acquisition which further expanded the company's menu offerings beyond burgers and donuts and included fried chicken. Over the last several years, Restaurant Brands' goal has been to expand into multiple stable fast-food chains.
- As of 2018, Burger King has reclaimed the second spot in the burger wars with $9.6 billion in U.S. sales when compared to $9.3 billion in sales for Wendy's for the previous year. McDonald's is still the leader with $37.6 billion in U.S. sales.
How Burger King Started:
From Florida grill to McDonald's biggest rivalloveFOODBurger King
The second biggest burger chain in the world, Burger King and its cardboard crowns are the stuff of legend. Having started from scratch back in 1953, Burger King was already the world's third biggest fast food chain by the 1970s, and today has around 20,000 locations globally.
- Burger King began as the project of Matthew Burns and his son-in-law Keith Cramer, who were keen to get in on the action of fast food franchising. In 1952, Burns invited Cramer to California to look at successful business operations (like McDonald's, founded in the 1940s). Taking what they had learned back to Cramer's hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, the pair founded their own restaurant, Insta-Burger King, in 1953.
- From the beginning, Insta-Burger King's menu focused on chargrilled, rather than fried, burger patties, resulting in a smoky flavour. Things were a bit simpler in the early 1950s, though, with the menu consisting just of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, coffee and fruit pies – and nothing was priced higher than 18 cents. Around 70 years on, Burger King's flame-grilled patties remain its USP, even if the prices have changed a little.
- Looking to franchise, Burns and Cramer were joined by partners David Edgerton and James McLamore, who opened the second Insta-Burger King branch in Miami in 1954. Armed with existing restaurant experience, Edgerton and McLamore would go down in history as the real entrepreneurs of the company. They sharpened the business model, introduced the Whopper in 1957, and went on to purchase the company from Burns and Cramer in 1959.
- The original Insta-Burger King was so named because, in 1953, Burns and Cramer had purchased rights to the Insta-Broiler: a device that could chargrill burger patties very quickly without any loss of quality. However, the Insta-Broiler machines were prone to developing faults, easily jamming and slowing down service. Seeing the issue, McLamore created his own flame grill instead, and the 'Insta' was dropped from the brand name.
- The Burger King character was created in 1955, beginning life as part of the first restaurant's sign. Early iterations of the Burger King logo showed the jovial King character seated on a burger throne, clutching a large drink - first on its own above the restaurant, and later above the company's new name.
- Burger King's most iconic menu item is the Whopper, which was first introduced in 1957 (more than 10 years before McDonald's launched the Big Mac). Though it may get a seasonal update every now and then, the base design of the Whopper has remained unchanged since the 1950s: it consists of a 110g beef patty, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and sliced onion, all sandwiched into a bun. It originally sold for just 37 cents.
- In 1958, Burger King released its first-ever TV advert on a local Miami station, marking the start of a long history of influential commercials and expensive campaigns. During the early 1970s, the company used a cartoon version of its King character, voiced by Allen Swift, to appeal to children. These adverts made use of the slogan, 'Burger King, where kids are king!'.
- Despite its federal trademark, Burger King encountered a local 'Burger King' with an existing state trademark when expanding into Illinois in 1961. The restaurants sued one another. It was ultimately ruled that the Illinois Burger King had the right to use its name within its original location, and that no Burger King chain restaurant could open within a 20-mile radius. Said Burger King is still there today.
- In 1963, Burger King opened its first location outside the US, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. It was here that the Whopper Jr. was invented, completely by accident, when staff were forced to use small buns because the Whopper-sized ones hadn't arrived yet. International expansion continued, with openings in Canada in 1969, Australia in 1971 and the first European restaurant, opened in Madrid in 1975.
- Burger King has changed hands many times over the years. After its 1959 sale, it was purchased in 1967 by the Pillsbury Company, which itself was bought by British company Grand Metropolitan in 1989. Passing through more corporate hands into the early 2000s, Burger King ultimately merged with Canadian chain Tim Hortons in 2014. The two chains continue to operate separately, but leverage each other's profits.
- When looking to expand down under, Burger King came across further copyright complications: its name was already trademarked in Australia. Because of that, Burger King's Australian restaurants are instead named Hungry Jack's, after its franchise founder Jack Cowin. Still proudly serving Whoppers, the first store opened in Perth in 1971. Today, Hungry Jack's is the second-largest Burger King franchise in the world, with 400 Australian locations.
- In 1974, Burger King launched its iconic slogan: 'Have it your way.' The highly successful campaign was designed to emphasize that, unlike McDonald's, Burger King would adjust its menu items to suit its customer preferences: extra ketchup, no gherkin – you name it. There was even a jaunty jingle to go with it: 'Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us.' The slogan was revived in the early 2000s, to commercial success.
- To compete with McDonald's range of breakfast items, Burger King launched its own morning menu in 1978. The two were almost identical until 1983, when Burger King introduced the Croissan'wich: a croissant stuffed with either a sausage patty, bacon or ham, plus eggs and American-style cheese. Later adverts featured the slogan: 'Croissan'wich beats the stuffin' out of Egg McMuffin.'
- In 1979, Burger King made one of the first attempts by a major fast food chain to specifically target a certain population demographic (adults aged 18-34), and introduced a line of speciality non-burger sandwiches. Its new chicken, steak and fish offerings increased sales by a hefty 15%. The most popular, and most enduring, of the non-burger sandwiches is the Original Chicken Sandwich, marketed as the Chicken Royale in the UK.
- In the 80s, Burger King jumped on healthy eating trends to offer salad bars and lighter meals – and in the early 2000s there came the Low-Carb Whopper, which saw the classic burger's bun removed and its contents speared onto a stick. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't last long.
- The first Burger King logo was a simple half sun. This changed to the sitting King drawing in 1955, and in 1969 became the company name sandwiched between two bun halves. This logo remained roughly the same until 1999, when it was redesigned: the bun halves were set on an angle and surrounded by a blue circle. In 2021, Burger King returned to its 1969-99 design.
- Back in the 1960s and 70s, Burger King uniforms were orange and yellow with poofy hats, while in the 1980s they changed to red stripes and baseball caps. The 1990s saw the uniform turn blue, while the current uniform (since 2015) sets the colours of the Whopper against a grey background.
Burger King Logo
1000logosBurger King
The visual identity of the world's famous fast-food chain had five redesigns during the company's history. It took the brand 16 years to find its signature style and three various logos were created from 1953 until 1969. However, after the success of 1969, the chain only refined and modified the iconic emblem, keeping the color palette and compositions almost untouched.
1953 – 1954
The company, known as Insta Burger King for the first year of its existence, got its first logo in 1953. It was a bold all-caps wordmark with half of the sun, rising from it. A bright and friendly emblem, which stayed with the brand for only one year1954 – 1957
The name was changed to Burger King in 1954, after the acquisition of the restaurants by David Edgerton and James McLamore. The logo was changed to a minimalist bold inscription in a custom sans-serif typeface, with uneven edges of the letters. It was a simple logotype, without any additional details, which was the symbol of the brand for three years.1957 – 1969
The typeface and color palette of the logo was changed in 1957. Now the red lettering was placed on a light ochre background, looking bright and memorable. The font was changed to a bolder and neater one, it was something close to the TILT font, a modern sans-serif with playful letters.1969 – 1994
The prototype of the iconic Bun logo was created in 1969. The red bold lettering was placed in two levels between two halves of the bun, colored in ochre. The color palette was taken from the previous logo version, yet the style, composition, and shape were completely different. The inscription was now executed in a bold rounded sans-serif with sleek smooth lines. The “King” part was enlarged, in order to create a better balance between the layers.1994 – 1999
The company refined the logo in 1994. The typeface is now more traditional and solid, while the ochre of the buns was changed to bright orange, making the logo more energetic and strong. The red and orange color palette symbolizes passion and young free spirit, showing the main audience of the company. The wordmark in all capitals is executed in a bold rounded sans-serif, which is close to VAG Rounded ExtraBold font, but with the letter “G” and tails of both “R”s flattened, which makes the inscription look more solid and confident. This logo is still in use by the restaurant chain in some of the countries and is as recognizable as the new one.1999 – 2021
In 1999 the Burger King logo was redesigned by Sterling Brands agency. The wordmark between the bun-halves was now placed diagonally, with buns colored yellow with some white strokes. The red lettering is now enlarged and executed in a new modern sans-serif typeface with sleek lines and sharp angles. Today's version of the logo has a rounded shape, unlike the previous ones. The emblem has a blue C-shape line, framing in on the left, an accent, making the logo brighter and more professional, adding confidence and a sense of expertise. The Burger King logo is one of the most iconic visual identity designs in history, it is perfectly balanced in terms of color and shapes, and evokes a friendly and welcoming feeling. The Burger King logo uses three colors: red, yellow, and blue, which create an extremely attractive and tempting mix.2021 – Today
In 2021 the Burger King visual identity gets a new design from Jones Knowles Ritchie. The new logo is composed of a bold red lettering placed between two orange buns. The light cream background of the image also makes a framing for the emblem, making it look warmer and friendlier. Blue color is completely removed from the brand's palette.Font and Color
The bold rounded lettering from the bright Burger King logo is set in the uppercase of a heavy sans-serif typeface, which is pretty close to such fonts as Corkboard JNL and Frankfurter Std Normal, but with some contour modifications.
The color palette of the Burger King visual identity is composed of red and orange; with the background in the light shade of cream-beige. This palette is eye-catching and bright, making the badge of the chain stand out in the list of competitors, and evoking a sense of energy and dynamics.
11 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Burger King's Whopper
- It predates the Big Mac
By more than ten years, as a matter of fact. While McDonald's and Burger King have both been around since the 1950s, Mickey D's didn't introduce the Big Mac until 1968. The Whopper, meanwhile, debuted in 1957, when co-founder Jim McLamore noticed that a rival burger joint was having success with an extra-large burger. He chose the name “Whopper” to automatically conjure thoughts of something big.- Its original price was 37 cents
- Whopper or Big Mac?
The Whopper, with its quarter-pound patty, is actually much more similar to a McDonald's Big N' Tasty, a 1997 addition. Burger King had introduced a Big Mac equivalent with two patties called “the Big King,” also in 1997. Despite each brand's not-so-veiled attempts to recreate the competitor's signature sandwich, the primary rivalry between the Whopper and the Mac continues to this day.- There was an “Angry” version at one point
In 2009, Burger King released a limited-edition burger called the "Angry Whopper." In addition to all of the usual Whopper components, this burger also had spicy crispy onions, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, and a spicy "angry sauce." Some consumers thought that it wasn't spicy enough to merit the “angry” descriptor, but that didn't stop BK from releasing a follow-up: The “Angriest Burger,” with a red-tinged, hot sauce-infused bun, was introduced in 2016.- The Whopper Jr. was a happy accident
In 1963, Luis Arenas-Perez was opening up a Burger King restaurant in the Puerto Rico municipality of Carolina. Perez discovered that the shipment of molds for the Whopper buns from the United States hadn't arrived in time for the grand opening. So he decided to improvise, using the regular-size buns and calling the creation the “Whopper Jr.” The name and the product stuck, and Perez's quick thinking and lasting impact on the company earned him a spot in the Burger King Hall of Fame.- It temporarily couldn't call itself a "Whopper" in one U.S. city
The Burger King franchise ran into a little trouble when it first tried to expand into the San Antonio, Texas, area. A totally separate, unaffiliated chain called "Whopper Burger" held all rights to the name "Whopper" in that area. And this copyright snag actually successfully kept the King out of San Antonio for several years-for the most part. My San Antonio reports that there was, temporarily, a BK open in San Antonio, but it couldn't drop the W-bomb in any of its advertising. It had to call its famous burger the “Deluxe,” and it didn't last very long. The dispute was resolved in 1983, when the widow of Whopper Burger's owner sold the franchise to Pillsbury, who also owned Burger King at the time, per The Daily Meal.- There was once a Halloween version with a black bun
If you're saying, “Wait, wasn't it green?” you're recalling Burger King's bizarre introduction of a green-tinted “Nightmare King” burger for Halloween 2018. But that wasn't the chain's first strangely colored Halloween special, nor was it actually a Whopper. The first oddly colored burger that Burger King introduced, at least to its American customers, came in 2015 with the announcement of the "A1 Halloween Whopper"-a special edition that used A1 Steak Sauce to spook-ify the bun.- It encouraged “unfriending” sprees
In a marketing scheme rivaling the strangeness of multicolored burger buns, Burger King once promised Facebook users free burgers, at the cost of a few friends. This promotion advertised a new Facebook app with the eyebrow-raising name “Whopper Sacrifice.” The app would provide you with a coupon for a free Whopper for every ten Facebook friends you deleted. However, Burger King pulled the program after Facebook demanded a tweak to the most controversial aspect-a notification sent to the unfriended users, telling them that their online friendship had been traded for a burger. (Or, more accurately, a tenth of a burger!) Before the end of the campaign, though, the New York Times estimates that nearly 234,000 people had been “unfriended.”- It helped Ellen DeGeneres break into comedy
Stars, they're just like us! But a 20-something Ellen DeGeneres wasn't actually a star yet when she took the stage for her first-ever comedy performance at a fundraiser with friends. Her buddies had been urging her to take the stage, and so she nervously obliged, bringing a Whopper, shake, and fries she'd just purchased onstage with her. Per HuffPost DeGeneres told “Oprah's Master Class” that her first performance wasn't much of a routine. "People enjoyed me eating onstage and not talking," she recalled. Someone sitting in that audience invited her to perform at a nearby university campus. After that, she continued to get bigger and bigger gigs, ultimately making a name for herself as a comedian.- Say cheese!
If you're a Cheesehead living near Green Bay, Wisconsin, you're one of the lucky few who may have had the chance to try out the latest variation on the Whopper. Last fall, six different Wisconsin locations sold an extra-cheesy Green Bay Whopper with a *whopping* eight slices of American cheese. The Green Bay Whopper was available until December 2.- Whopper, hold the meat, please
As of April 2019, Burger King announced that it would be introducing a... meatless Whopper. No, we're not kidding-the meatless Whopper will be made with a vegetarian patty supplied by start-up Impossible Foods. The Impossible Whopper, as it will be called, will first be rolled out to 59 Burger Kings in the St. Louis area, according to the New York Times. If consumers like those meatless burgers, we can expect to see the Impossible Whopper expand into every Burger King in the nation.
20 Mouth-Watering Facts about Burger King
- Burger King was founded in the 1950s by businessmen James McLamore and David R. Edgerton and was sold to Pillsbury in 1967.
- Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar's attack on McDonald's through Burger King's 1981 ad campaign caused McDonald's to sue the franchise.
- On December 11, 1999, a toddler suffocated whilst playing with a Burger King Pokemon toy. This was the first Burger King toy-related death.
- Burger King is often held as the first fast food outlet to make deals with big-budget films to promote its products. In 1977, Burger King teamed up with Star Wars to sell character glasses.
- In Mattoon, U.S., a Burger King exists that has no affiliation to the franchise. The Mattoon Burger King existed before the franchise tried to move into the town.
- In Australia, Burger King is known as Hungry Jacks due to a copyright infringement of an existing company.
- The "Suicide Burger" is an off-menu 800-calorie artery clogger consisting of four burger patties and cheese slices, bacon, and a special sauce.
- Burger King has a deluxe hidden system known as the “Gold Card.” Held by celebs like Hugh Laurie and Jay Leno, the card gives them free meals.
- Burger King branched out into Hot Dogs in recent years, promoting it on Twitter in 2016, offering a range of toppings, including 'whopper'.
- Burger King offers delivery in over 13 US states, including Alabama, Virginia, Utah, and Ohio.
- In Japan and possibly America, Black Buns exist as an alternative to the plain and apparently unappealing brown bun.
- Burger King took its variety to new heights in 2016, creating the “Whopperito,” a Whopper burger in a flour tortilla.
- In May 2016, Burger King opened a spa in one of its restaurants in Helsinki, Finland!
- Worldwide, over 11 million customers visit Burger King Restaurants for their burger fix.
- Even with their success, Burger King still lives in the shadow of McDonald's, advertising itself as the "second-largest fast-food hamburger chain."
- Burger King offers something known as the "CROISSAN'WICH," and in my opinion, it decimates the McDonald's McMuffin contender.
- Burger King was born after its owners visited a McDonald's and were inspired to open their own version with a newly copyrighted broiler that cooked 12 burgers at once.
- In 1955 Burger King's logo was a King atop a burger holding an oversized drink; this soon lost fashion and developed in 1969 into a bun sandwiching the words “Burger King.”
- The new logo was born in 1998 and is now a world-renowned fast-food icon.
- In 2010, Brazilian-based 3G Capital purchased Burger King for a staggering $3.3 billion.
15 Things You Need to Know Before You Eat at Burger King
- It all started in 1954.
Keith G Cramer, who owned Keith's Drive-In Restaurant in Daytona Beach, FL, partnered with his father-in-law to start the company.- It was originally called Insta-Burger King.
Although McDonald's technically started the trend of super-speedy burger flipping, the original Burger King put the "Insta-" theme front and center.- The Whopper has been around since 1957.
- In Australia it's called Hungry Jack's.
- There's a totally insane, 800-calorie secret-menu burger.
It's called the Suicide Burger and it's completely over-the-top. Including four burger patties, four slices of cheese, bacon, and special sauce, it contains 800 calories, 175mg of cholesterol and 2,430mg of sodium.- A Burger King Crown Card = endless supply of burger and fries.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar promoted Burger King as a kid.
Was in a 1981 Burger King commercial.
21 things you didn't know about Burger King
- The first one opened in 1953
- Its headquarters is on the East Coast
- The "Home of the Whopper" since 1957
- They invented the Flame-Broiler
The Insta-Broilers worked well for a while, but eventually, the meat drippings would damage the heating element. After taking a hatchet to one machine in frustration, David Edgerton vowed to find a better way to cook a burger. In 1959 - the same year the chain dropped “Insta” from its name (but not 1954, like the signs claim) - he invented a device that used a conveyor belt to cook patties over an open gas flame, giving the burgers a distinctive taste as well as their signature grill marks.- The Whopper Jr. was a happy accident
In 1963, Luis Arenas-Perez was preparing to open the first Burger King location in Carolina, Puerto Rico, but the Whopper buns didn't arrive in time for the Grand Opening. Instead, he used the smaller buns available locally. The scaled-down version became a hit and was eventually added to menus worldwide as a "Whopper Jr."- It has a different name in Australia
When Burger King first expanded into Australia in 1971, it faced a unique problem: The name had already been trademarked in the country. Instead, BK HQ gave the first franchisee, Jack Cowin, a list of names to choose from, and he selected “Hungry Jack.” The pancake mix brand of the same name had no problem with this, as both Hungry Jack and Burger King were owned by Pillsbury at the time, but the restaurant's name was still slightly altered to “Hungry Jack's.” Hungry Jack's now has about 450 locations in Australia!- BK serves 11 million customers every day
- There are 19,247 locations worldwide
As of 2021, Burger King operates 19,247 locations worldwide in more than 100 countries. We should note, however, that saying Burger King runs these stores isn't totally accurate, as almost 100% of BK locations are owned and operated by independent franchisees.- Burger King is forbidden from one place in the U.S.
When BK expanded into Illinois in the 1960s, they discovered the name “Burger King” was already trademarked by a small mom-and-pop operation run by the Hoots family in the town of Mattoon. The family sued, and BK responded with their suit, Burger King of Florida, Inc. v. Hoots. The result? Burger King could operate anywhere in the state outside of Mattoon, with the Hoots keeping the exclusive rights within a 20-mile radius around the town. The closest BK now sits 25 miles away from Mattoon.- A Finland location includes a spa
In 2016, Burger King made headlines for a location they opened in Helsinki, Finland. It wasn't the first BK to open in the country, but it was the first one in the world to include a spa! In addition to a 15-person sauna, the restaurant features timber and stone decor, two huge flatscreen TVs, a PlayStation, and a fridge stocked with beer! The rental cost? About $300, not including the burgers.- Its parent company owns other famous chains
Burger King is synonymous with America, but it's actually owned by a Canada-based parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI). This holding company was formed in 2014 when BK merged with the Canadian donut chain Tim Horton's. RBI acquired Popeye's in 2017 and Firehouse Subs in 2021, making them the fifth-largest fast-food conglomerate in the world behind McDonald's, Subway, Starbucks, and YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC).- They once had a weird spokesman named Herb
- Sarah Michelle Gellar was part of a lawsuit against BK
Back in the '80s, Burger King launched a campaign criticizing the burgers at McDonald's and Wendy's, claiming the competition offered smaller patties that were fried and didn't fare as well in taste tests. McDonald's sued as a result, and the lawsuit even included the young actress who appeared in the commercials: a newcomer named Sarah Michelle Gellar. As a result, Gellar had to testify in court and subsequently avoided eating at McDonald's for fear of getting recognized (although she wasn't actually banned, as some sources claim). "It was tough because, when you're a little kid, McDonald's is where all your friends have their birthday parties," Gellar recalled. "So I missed out on a lot of apple pies."- Burger King was the first fast food chain to promote a movie
Most of us can't remember a time before fast food chains teamed with movie studios to promote new films - because it first happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, thanks to Burger King. In 1977, BK launched a campaign that centered around the new hit movie “Star Wars” and included promotional posters, stickers, and drinking glasses. Of course, this was just the beginning of the partnership between these two powerhouses!- A card exists that grants the holder free BK for life
McDonald's has a Gold Card, and Burger King has a Crown Card - different names, but each allows the holder to get free food for life at the respective restaurant chain. You can't buy a Crown Card, which has to be gifted by the corporate headquarters to particular celebrity recipients. George Lucas has one dating back to BK's co-branding days with the Star Wars franchise, Jennifer Hudson has one because she used to work there as a teen, and Hugh Laurie, Robert Downey Jr., and Jay Leno are among the other known holders.- They once offered a “left-handed” Whopper
In an appeal to left-handed folks worldwide, Burger King once advertised a Whopper with the condiment orientation rotated 180 degrees to appeal to left-handed patrons. The commercials worked, and people headed to their local restaurant requesting this “new burger.” However, these folks didn't realize that you could just rotate the burger yourself...or that the phony offer began on April 1, 1998 - April Fool's Day.- BK wanted fans to choose food over friends
Back in the early days of social media, Burger King began a Facebook campaign that promised a free Whopper to anyone willing to unfriend 10 people on the platform. Even worse, those who got unfriended received a notification that their former friend sacked them in favor of a sandwich. The 2009 campaign, dubbed “The Whopper Sacrifice,” was nevertheless successful, as 234,000 users were unfriended during the promotion.- They produced a perfume
If you think the best smell in the world is a freshly flame-broiled Whopper, you'll be pleased to know a perfume once existed with this exact fragrance. Introduced in 2015 in Japan, the perfume was initially thought to be an April Fool's Day prank. Still, the limited edition perfume was actually a real item that could be purchased for $42 - and included a free Whopper, of course.- You can buy black-bunned burgers in Japan
Burger King restaurants in the U.S. experimented with black buns as part of a 2018 Halloween promotion, but that's old news for BK patrons in the land of the rising sun. Locations in Japan first started selling Whoppers with buns dyed black (using bamboo charcoal) back in 2015!- You can also buy pink-bunned burgers in Thailand
If a black burger isn't for you, how about a pink one? Burger King locations in Thailand temporarily sold both colors in 2021 in honor of Valentine's Day and also to capitalize on the success of the K-pop supergroup BLACKPINK. The black was a double-grilled onion burger, the pink featured a fried and breaded salmon filet, and both used natural ingredients to color the buns.- They once advertised a moldy Whopper
A moldy Whopper seems like an odd image for an advertising campaign, but that's exactly what Burger King used in 2020 - and the idea isn't all that crazy. There have been plenty of viral videos featuring McDonald's burgers that are 6, 10, and even 24 years old but don't have any mold, so Burger King used an extremely moldy burger that was only a month old to showcase their commitment to not using any artificial preservatives. The relatively inexpensive “Moldy Whopper” campaign achieved a level of awareness 50% greater than their 2019 Super Bowl commercial - which cost at least $5 million!
The First Locations
Burger King
Before there was Burger King, there was Insta-Burger King. The fast food joint in Miami flipped burgers and poured milkshakes for just 18 cents apiece in 1954, in hopes of replicating the success of McDonald's. That same year, Insta-Burger King brought on a new business partner and shortened its name to Burger King. The chain might not have reached McDonald's status, but it certainly locked itself down as a competitor.
There are 221,184 possible ways to order a Whopper
