Biff Burger (Best In Fast Food) was a burger

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

that originated in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a populat ...

. Early success in the late 1950s and early 1960s led the franchise to spread to many parts of the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

. However, financial woes in the 1970s sent the chain on a decline and most of its restaurants out of business by the 1980s.

Founding

The first Biff Burger restaurant was started by co-owners Bruce and Earl Brane in 1956. It was operated under the National Biff-Burger System, their manufacturing company that oversaw the production of materials to be used within the Biff Burger franchise.

Roto-Red Broiler

As a burger chain, Biff Burger was known for its “ flame-broiled” burger. Biff Burgers were produced using the Roto-red broiler designed by the Branes. The broiler was set up in two parts: An upper

rotisserie Rotisserie, also known as spit-roasting, is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This metho ...

rack broiled the beef and a second lower rack toasted the buns, which collected the juices dropped from the beef. This method gave the burger its much advertised "flame broiled" taste.

Expansion

Early success prompted for the National Biff Burger System to begin expanding Biff Burger. It franchised its restaurants under favorable conditions. Most notably included in its policy are *exclusive area protection *no

franchise fee A franchise fee is a fee or charge that one party, known as the franchisee, pays another party, known as the franchisor, for the right to enter in a franchise agreement. Generally by paying the franchise fee a franchisee receives the rights to sel ...

requirement *unique Port-A-Unit drive-in building *free advertising material The restaurants were marketed at roughly $13,000 and more than 800 restaurants were sold. The number of restaurants in Florida grew, with smaller concentrations of restaurants stretching from Georgia to Tennessee to North Carolina. Each of the Biff Burger drive-ins were independently owned as part of the National Biff Burger franchise.

Port-A-Units

A Port-A-Unit is a uniquely designed transportable building implemented by the National Biff-Burger System. Port-a-units serve as the Biff Burger drive-ins that are preassembled and shipped with hundreds of restaurant tools that included *Roto-red broilers *heavy duty fryers *10' x 30' storage room *built-in refrigerator-freezer *built in restrooms *large road sign This feature of the Biff Burger franchise was designed to maximize profits due its short assembly time (as quick as one week) and easy transportation. This is as opposed to typical construction times of buildings that take more than six months.

Financial issues

Success of the Biff Burger franchise did not last though due to monetary problems in the 1970s. In 1962, the

Mary Carter Paint Company Resorts International was a hotel and casino company. From its origins as a paint company, it moved into the resort business in the 1960s with the development of Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and then expanded to Atlantic City, New Jersey with t ...

bought the National Biff-Burger System. It provided the financial support to the Biff Burger restaurants in the form of supplying food materials and restaurant equipment. However, business ventures in the direction of casinos resulted in finance imbalances and the Mary Carter Paint company relieved its support of the National Biff-Burger system in 1976. Without its main means of attaining supplies, the Biff Burger franchise struggled to sustain itself. Many of the drive-in stands were sold and forced to close down. By the mid-1980s, virtually all existing locations of Biff Burger restaurants went out of business.

Final closure

On December 7,2021, the last remaining original Biff Burger, located in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

closed. The contents of the building were auctioned off, officially ending the burger chain. The original building is set to be demolished. Another location in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

had closed on May 17, 2021, due to ill health and eventual death of its owner, Ralph Havis. The Greensboro location name had been changed to "Beef Burger" in the 1980s. The culture of Biff Burger remained unchanged since the 1950s. Until the St. Pete location closed, it was a popular gathering spot for motorcycle and classic car shows. Friday nights could potentially draw up to 2000 customers to events that involve showcasing

hotrod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...

s and classic cars.Paradise for the Poodle-skirt
" ''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

''. (Accessed February 4, 2010)

References

External links

Sites of previous Biff Burger drive-ins

Kenney's Drive-In Former Biff-Burger franchise
Fast-food chains of the United States 1956 establishments in Florida Companies based in Clearwater, Florida Restaurants established in 1956