You Know About Burger King, But Did You Ever Eat at a Burger Queen?

Before Burger King became royalty among burger restaurants, another burger royal made its bid to take over the throne: Burger Queen.

In 1956, 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, Canada, the Republic of China, and the United Arab Emirates.

Around 1990 most of the outposts turned into Dairy Queens and the chain phased out shortly thereafter.