White Castle restaurants — where diners and late night revelers have satiated their hunger for a century — now has a craving of its own.
The fast food chain wants to remake its 340 restaurants, and it rolled out a new restaurant design called the Castle of Tomorrow.
The new slider joint is a functioning prototype that was unveiled in Columbus, Ohio, this month.
“We think it’ll be really attractive to a lot of customers,” White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson said.
The Castle of Tomorrow looks less castlelike than the current restaurants, and that might be a bit of a bummer around these parts.
That’s because the original 1921 restaurant design — and the variations that have followed — was inspired by architect William W. Boyington’s old Chicago Water Tower, the crenellated North Michigan Avenue landmark that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
More cafe and less cartoony
As a whole, the design of fast food restaurant chains matters.
National burger places, sandwich shops and chicken spots have prominent places in nearly every neighborhood, Main Street and highway.
And as an architectural type, the restaurants are undergoing a change as of late, moving away from eye-catching design and tacking toward a less showy middle ground.
More cafe and not as cartoony, perhaps. They’re more functional, though maybe a little less fun.
“What we’re seeing now — and I’ve noticed it noticed it in Taco Bell designs and designs [for] Jack in the Box and Chick-fil-A — is a trying to reach a middle ground closer to a modern restaurant,” West Coast architect and historian Alan Hess, author of “Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture,” said.
“They’re trying to bring in colors, materials and different elements to make it more sophisticated, like a mid-range restaurant. So they’re trying to go upmarket.”
It’s true. For instance, McDonald’s in recent years has replaced its mansard-roofed playland look in favor of flat, boxy designs with subdued colors — and not a trace of Ronald McDonald.
And remember when Wendy’s restaurants had sunrooms? The chain started getting rid of them in 2012.
The changes aren’t just for the sake of style. The revamped places are designed to accommodate more customers, or provide more efficient space for food delivery service pickups.
The Castle of Tomorrow prototype was created to help the company figure out what works — and what doesn’t.
Richardson said the new White Castles could have things like a special window for mobile delivery pickups, double drive-thrus — one for ordering through an AI-powered assistant — and a “hospitality door.”
“People will order, like, 100 White Castles, but if the car behind [them] just wanted a combo meal number one, [with the hospitality door] the team member can easily walk out of a big sliding door and hand it to that customer who’s next in line.”
But Hess said the new restaurants should borrow from their eye-catching designs of the past. Hear hear: I wouldn’t mind seeing a new version of the old school Mickey D’s with arches acting as structural supports running through each end of the building.
“I’m disappointed they aren’t picking up from some of the great tradition of American roadside architecture which was so innovative, using neon and bright shiny materials, bright shiny colors,” Hess said, speaking of the fast food industry overall.
‘Architecture as a brand image’
The Castle of Tomorrow is still recognizable as a White Castle restaurant. The sign is unchanged and its famous battlements are abstracted in black metal above the restaurant entrance.
“It was architecture as a brand image,” Hess said of the restaurant’s historic designs. “And it was very effective at that.”
The restaurant looking exactly like it’s name was indeed a marketing plus — one the chain has enjoyed since it started.
The original White Castle #16, built in 1930, still exists at 43 E. Cermak Road. It hasn’t been owned by the company in decades. Yet with its white glazed brick and a castle-like corner tower, the building is easily identifiable as a White Castle like it’s neighbor across the street on Cermak — an actual White Castle restaurant.
Richardson said he doesn’t know how soon the new restaurants will pop up in Chicago. There are about 20 White Castles in the city.
White Castle founder Bill Ingram cribbed the restaurant’s design from the old Chicago Water Tower, a building he saw during his visits when he worked for business analysts Dun & Bradstreet, Richardson said.
“[Chicagoans] are wonderful people that never charged us for any royalty” Richardson said. “So I hope that doesn’t kick in now.”
