Culver’s

Culver’s butters the crown of its ButterBurger bun and toasts it before the beef goes on. Fresh frozen custard runs in small batches all day. Wisconsin Cheese Curds, crinkle cut fries and North Atlantic cod fill out a menu that reads Midwestern from end to end.

Culver’s History below covers the family who opened the first restaurant in Sauk City and the owners behind it now. Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin holds the home office. The chain trades from around a thousand restaurants, most of them across the upper Midwest, and the family still owns the majority of it.

Culver’s History

George and Ruth Culver ran A&W franchises and a supper club in Wisconsin from the early sixties. Their son Craig and his wife Lea joined them to take back a Sauk City drive-in the family had owned a decade earlier. The four of them opened Culver’s Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers on that corner in 1984. Craig Culver buttered the crown of the bun and toasted it, and that one decision gave the chain its signature.

Frozen custard, not ice cream, sets the sweet half of the menu apart from an ordinary burger counter. Culver’s churns it in small batches with egg yolk and more butterfat than soft serve, so the texture lands denser and colder. A Flavor of the Day calendar gives each restaurant its own daily rotation of custard. Vanilla and chocolate stay on hand throughout, and franchising opened up in 1988 to spread the format across the upper Midwest.

Culver Franchising System steers the business today from Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, a few miles upriver from the original Sauk City site. Craig Culver ran the company until 2015. Roark Capital Group bought a minority stake in 2017, leaving the family in majority ownership and Craig Culver as its public face. Culver’s trades from roughly a thousand restaurants across twenty six states, and Wisconsin holds more of them than anywhere else.

Culver’s Menus & Details

Culver’s Menus below split three ways, one page each for the priced menu, the off-menu builds and the allergen list.

ButterBurgers by patty count, cheese curds, tenders, frozen custard and sides, with a price and a calorie figure beside every item.

The CurderBurger, secret menu poutine and the rest, with the words to use at the counter.

The Contains line for every item, naming corn, dairy, egg, fish, gluten, peanut, shellfish, soy, tree nut and wheat.