Whataburger has grilled the same quarter-pound patty since 1950, and Texas has never let go of it. The A-frame roof now stands in seventeen states. Roughly two-thirds of those restaurants sit inside Texas, and the rest cluster across the South and Southwest. Most of them trade around the clock.
Whataburger History below covers the Corpus Christi opening, the family that ran the company for seventy years and the sale that ended it. The priced menu, the off-menu builds and the allergen list each sit on a page of their own.
Whataburger History
Harmon Dobson opened the first Whataburger on Ayers Street in Corpus Christi on August 8, 1950. Paul Burton co-founded it with him. Dobson had worked in shipbuilding, oil drilling and diamond trading before that. He wanted a burger big enough to need two hands, and the name came from what he hoped a customer would say.
The A-frame arrived in 1961 at restaurant twenty-four in Odessa, striped orange and white and tall enough to read from a highway. Dobson flew his own aircraft, and airport colors are where that scheme came from. He died in a plane crash in 1967, seventeen years after the first restaurant opened.
Grace Dobson took the company on and doubled it through the 1970s, past two hundred restaurants. Franchising and a move into new states followed. BDT Capital Partners bought a majority stake in 2019. The Dobson family kept a minority holding, and Whataburger still runs from San Antonio.
Whataburger Menus and Details
Whataburger splits its detail across three pages: the priced menu, the off-menu builds and the allergen list. Each figure comes from one published source rather than a blend. A number on one page will not disagree with a number on another.
Whataburger Menu Prices
Burgers, chicken, breakfast, sides, shakes and group boxes, each row carrying its calorie figure beside the item. Read the full Whataburger Menu Prices.
Whataburger Secret Menu
Off-menu builds that regulars order by name at the counter, with the wording that gets them made. Read the Whataburger Secret Menu.
Whataburger Allergen Menu
Which burgers, chicken builds, breakfast items and shakes declare wheat, milk, egg, soy or sesame, item by item. Read the Whataburger Allergen Menu.