Druther's is a restaurant, formerly a chain of

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 ...

restaurants that began as Burger Queen restaurants started in

Winter Haven, Florida Winter Haven is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is fifty-one miles east of Tampa. The population was 49,219 at the 2020 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 estimates, this city had a population of 44,955, making i ...

in 1956, and then based in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

from 1963 until 1981. The name was a play on the word " druthers", and the mascot was a giant female

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

named Queenie Bee. In 1981, Burger Queen changed to Druther's restaurants, although the changes were mostly cosmetic. One reason given for the name change was to eliminate the perception that they specialized in only hamburgers when they also had

fried chicken Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or ...

and a serve-yourself

salad bar A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates. Most salad bars provide lettuce, chopped tomatoes, assorted raw, sliced vegeta ...

. Druther's featured a character named "Andy Dandytale" on its kids meal items (and a live-action version in early TV advertising). The chain's slogan was "I'd Ruther Go to Druther's Restaurant."

History

Druther's traces its history back to 1956, when Harold and Helen Kite opened the first Burger Queen restaurant in Winter Haven, Florida. In 1961, business partners George Clark and Jim Gannon bought franchise rights and permission to expand the chain to Kentucky. The Louisville partners James Gannon and brothers George and John Clark eventually bought the Florida-based company. George Clark eventually became CEO while his other partners left the company. The company opened its 50th location in December 1973 in Danville and had locations in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee at the time of the opening. The store in Tell City, Indiana was the 125th store opened. In June 1981, Burger Queen Enterprises Inc. announced that it was changing its name to Druther's International Inc. and changing the names of it restaurants from Burger Queen to Druther's Restaurant. Despite the change in names, management and the menu remained the same. At the time of the announcement, the company operated 171 company-owned and franchised locations in seven states within the United States and also had international franchised in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. In September 1990, privately owned Druther's International Inc. agreed to become a Territory Operator for Dairy Queen and converted most of its restaurants to the Dairy Queen brand by the end of the first quarter of 1991. At the time of the conversion, Druther's had operated 145 restaurants in Kentucky and surrounding states. Druther's International later renamed itself Druther's Systems Inc. to better fit its new role as a Dairy Queen franchise operator. In 1996, International Dairy Queen Inc. bought 31 Dairy Queen/Brazier outlets in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana from Druther's Systems Inc. for an undisclosed price. Former Druther's locations in

currently house other businesses such as a

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

and a local liquor store called Our Place Liquors. The last operating Druther's, a former franchise, is in Campbellsville, Kentucky.

References

External links

Druther's Systems website
(Former Druther's chain parent and current Dairy Queen franchisee)
Druther's radio commercial with vintage pictures

Druther's TV commercial
beginning at 1:10 {{Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food hamburger restaurants Defunct fast-food chains in the United States Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Defunct restaurants in the United States Restaurants in Kentucky Defunct companies based in Kentucky Restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky Restaurants established in 1963

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links