Winstead's is a

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

chain based in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

. The chain opened in 1940 and has two locations in

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

.The Midwest's Burger King
Sarah Bryan Miller, ''The Wall Street Journal'', April 15, 1998. Apart from its burgers, Winstead's is known for the

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

style of its original restaurant, and "skyscraper" sodas and milkshakes built to serve five or six. The chain is owned by Haddad Restaurant Group. The Haddad group filed for bankruptcy on March 10, 2020. ''Food Network Magazine'' rated Winstead's the Best Hamburger in the state of Kansas. Food critic

Calvin Trillin Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts an ...

considers Winstead's to have the world's best cheeseburgers.

History

Winstead's Drive-In was founded in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

by Kathryn Winstead in 1936. Winstead's was one of the first drive-in restaurants in the United States. Customers would back into a stall, flash their lights, and a car hop would come out to take the order and deliver food. Around 1938, Kathryn's brother Jack opened a second Winstead's in their hometown of

Jacksonville, Illinois Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,446 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County. It is home to Illinois College, Illinois School for the Deaf, and the ...

. A sister of Jack and Kathryn opened another location in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

. In 1932, Fannie Winstead Garst moved from

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had ...

to Springfield, Illinois, after her husband, Jesse D. Garst, died. Fannie moved to Illinois to live with her sisters Kathryn and Nellie Winstead. In exchange for room and board, Fannie helped her sisters run the Winstead's Drive-In in Springfield. The Winstead family was originally from

Smithton, Missouri Smithton is a city in Pettis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 570 at the 2010 census. History Smithton was platted in 1859. It was named for Gen. George R. Smith, a railroad promoter, or for General Thomas A. Smith. Geogra ...

, and they wanted to return to their Missouri roots. The Winstead sisters returned to Missouri and opened Garst's Drive-In in July 1937. The new drive-in in Sedalia was the first drive-in restaurant west of the Mississippi River. Nellie and her husband, Gordon Montgomery, began discussing with Kathryn the possibility of opening a Winstead's in Kansas City, Missouri, in the area of the

Country Club Plaza The Country Club Plaza (often called The Plaza) is a privately-owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it was the first planned suburban shopping center and the first regional shoppi ...

. The Winstead sisters found a location just to the east of the Country Club Plaza, near 47th and Main streets; however, they were hesitant to open at the location because Kansas City was run by political machine boss

Tom Pendergast Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1872 – January 26, 1945), also known as T. J. Pendergast, was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939. Pendergast only briefly held elected ...

, and all new development in and around the Plaza area was run through the powerful real estate developer J.C. Nichols. Nellie and Kathryn Winstead decided to move forward with the Kansas City store, and it opened in 1940. Fannie Winstead Garst remained in Sedalia, where she continued to operate Garst's Drive-In. Instead of offering only car hop service, the new location in Kansas City, built in a

style, accommodated customers both inside and outside the restaurant. The sisters struggled to keep the restaurant open during World War II as a result of beef rationing; however, the restaurant flourished following the end of the war. They eventually bought the property that they were initially leasing from J.C. Nichols. A second Kansas City area Winstead's was opened in

Lee's Summit, Missouri Lee's Summit is a city located within the counties of Jackson (primarily) and Cass in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As of the 2020 census its population was 101,108, making it the sixth-largest city in both ...

. Johnny Ray's Drive-In is now located in the former Winstead's building in Lee's Summit. One was opened in Independence, Mo. in 1946 on south Main St.(east side, south of the Firestone Tire Service). It remained until the retirement of the owner(s) in 1952. Kathryn Winstead retired from the restaurant business in 1952, and she turned over control of the business to Nellie and Gordon Montgomery. They added french fries and milkshakes to the limited menu in 1957. Kathryn Winstead died in 1967, and the Montgomerys sold Winstead's restaurant two years later to Morris and Victor Lerner, brothers who owned King Louie International, a Kansas City-based corporation that ran bowling alleys and made bowling attire. The Lerners expanded by opening two new Winstead's locations - one in Kansas City North and the other in

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As o ...

.Road Tips: Winstead's - Kansas City
/ref> In 1982, the Lerner family sold King Louie International to an investment group that considered closing or divesting themselves of the small chain. A local restaurateur, Nabil Haddad, a franchisee and a major stockholder in the McDonald's corporation, today oversees seven Winstead's locations in the greater Kansas City area. Each of the Winstead's locations has a distinctive tower on the front of an art deco-style building. Winstead's closed its location at 10313 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park in August 2015. Officials representing the Metcalf 103 shopping center where the restaurant was located indicated that the restaurant's lease was set to expire at the end of August. On April 15, 2019 Winstead's closed its location at 12056 W 95th St. in Lenexa, KS.https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/cityscape/article227142564.html

References

External links

* {{Fast-food chains of the United States 1936 establishments in Illinois Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri Hamburger restaurants in the United States Regional restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1936 Restaurants in Missouri Streamline Moderne architecture in Missouri

History

See also

References

External links