Below is an article I wrote, which got my son and I inducted into the illustrious White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame. Fans and enthusiasts of White Castle Sliders are known as 'Cravers'. Every year, the company picks around ten people from a pool of thousands, to be inducted into their 'Cravers Hall of Fame'. The inductees are chosen due to their loyalty, dedication to the brand, and willingness to do nearly anything to satisfy their Crave.
The thing that cinched our induction, was an 1800 mile father and son road trip we took, for the express purpose of dining on White Castle sliders. Some of our fellow inductees we share this honor with, are Stan Lee, Alice Cooper, and even John Cho & Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar). Below is the original article detailing our trip..
Darrin & Darrin go to White Castle
It had been seven years since I had last sunk my teeth into a White Castle hamburger when I 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 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 1,800-mile, round-trip burger run.
The Big Day
The alarm clock woke me up right on time, at 1:45 a.m., after a blissful four 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 Hawkins dance. Now, only 350 miles stood between us and the nearest White Castle. After 800+ miles, and 13.5 hours of driving across three states, we had finally arrived!
The White Castle restaurant 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 miles away.
Lunch
After 13 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 only 15 White Castle Sliders and a couple of orders of fries. Over the next four days, french fries, pickles and onions 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 some BBQ in Kansas City). We finished lunch and headed 20-some odd miles east to our sleep accommodations in a suburb of St Louis. It was strategically picked, as it was only 1.9 miles away from yet another White Castle. My son took a nap while I stretched out on my bed to check my email. Four or five hours 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 straightforward, but they do have a couple of unique menu items that we just had to try, like Chicken Rings and Buffalo Bites. We also ordered five or six cheeseburgers and of course, a few classic Sliders for good measure. 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 where we lived. 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 farther 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 (their original birthplace). It sounds crazy, but I would definitely do a six to eight-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.
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!
The last supper
After spending the day at the Gateway Arch and Mississippi River front, 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 on the way back to Colorado, 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 doubles, 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 stomachs 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 consequently, 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. Then, after the road trip, I found 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 over ten years, says that she would gladly dine at White Castle if the opportunity arose.
In the end, we drove nearly 1,900 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 a few short days. We created memories and stories for ourselves 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 through six states to the nearest restaurant. The good times and experiences we had along the way were the icing on the cake!
White Castle actually flew us out to Columbus Ohio for the induction ceremony, at their corporate headquarters! You can read about it here.