Krystal (restaurant)
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Headquarters | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
Key people | Rody Davenport, Jr., J. Glenn Sherrill, Founders |
| Products | Fast food, including hamburgers, french fries, dairy desserts, and signature breakfast offerings. |
| Website | www.krystal.com |
Krystal is a hamburger restaurant chain in the Southeastern United States. It is known for fresh, small, square sandwiches, and unique breakfast food like the "Scrambler", a mixture of eggs, sausage and other items such as pancakes or grits.
Krystal restaurants, both company-owned and franchised, operate in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. There is also a single Krystal in Bristol, Virginia. Krystal is often compared to the similar restaurant White Castle. The two chains overlap in market area only in the greater Nashville, Tennessee, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Frankfort, Kentucky areas.
Founded October 24, 1932 in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the first years of the Great Depression, entrepreneur Rody Davenport Jr. and partner J. Glenn Sherrill theorized that even in a severe economic upheaval, "People would patronize a restaurant that was kept spotlessly clean, where they could get a good meal with courteous service at the lowest possible price." Krystal is the second-oldest hamburger chain in the United States and the oldest in the South.
Davenport and Sherrill set up the first Krystal at the corner of Seventh and Cherry streets in Chattanooga. While the building still stands, the original Krystal restaurant is no longer in operation. The oldest Krystal still in operation is located on Cherokee Boulevard in Chattanooga's Northshore District.
Krystal still maintains corporate headquarters in Chattanooga, and has been owned by Port Royal Holdings, Inc. since 1997. In the late-1990s, Krystal emerged from a bankruptcy petition and sale of assets that placed majority ownership outside the heirs of the founding families. Krystal's period of structural change and uncertainty in the late-1990s has led to a successfully re-born restaurant chain with high levels of reported customer satisfaction and an evolving menu.
Krystal's product line centers on a small, square hamburger called, simply enough, a "Krystal." Small hot dogs, named "pups" also anchor the menu. The restaurant has since expanded its menu to include the "B.A. Burger," a full-size hamburger made of 100% black angus meat. Krystal is known for a diverse breakfast menu, and now offers a limited but popular selection of chicken and salad items. Krystal continues to focus on its core menu products, and continues to progress in a redesign of its stores.
Krystal is one of the growing number of fast food restaurant chains offering free (but filtered) wireless Internet access to customers with Wi-Fi compatible devices (laptops, PDA's, etc). Known as "The Krystal HotSpot", the service is nearly universally available at Krystal locations offering inside seating.
Krystals remain enormously popular in the South, especially in East Tennessee, where it is based. Fans are often known to drive great distances to "get a Krystal" or "gutbombs". Long time fans can show newbies how to combine the boxes the Krystals come in to make Krystal houses. Krystal is a perennial favorite with college students, due to most (but not all) Krystal restaurants being open 24/7, making them a popular stop off point during late-night study sessions or while returning home from a party.
Frozen Krystal hamburgers are also available in supermarkets, although Krystal purists insist that the store-bought ones are simply not as good as the real thing.
As of July 2006, Krystal has confirmed that they are expanding the franchise into other Southern states such as West Virginia and Missouri. The company also said they are expanding further into Virginia and Kentucky. [1] [2]
See also
- White Castle — similarly sized and shaped hamburgers; common in the Midwestern part of the United States (as well as the New York metropolitan area).
- White Tower Hamburgers [3]
- Little Tavern - in the Baltimore - Washington area.