YouSaid · the spoken record

Craig Culver

lines on the record: 99
first: 2022-10-17
most recent: 2022-10-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And by the way, at the beginning, when you opened up, and we're going to, I mean, the menu today is very extensive, but then was it just burgers and custard and fries, or did you have other things in the menu from the beginning?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We didn't have any marketing funds. So where that came across, what was if they visited our place and had a burger or had the custard? Because custard, again, I'll never say anything negative about any of my competitors, but frozen custard is not. Not Dairy Queen. Clearly, it's not Dairy Queen. And my dad and I, when it comes to quality, we may have to charge more. And we do at Culver's, but we're not going to cheapen something to get to a bottom line easier.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, did you think, all right, well, but we're different than Hardy's, or were you able to explain to people our burgers are different than Hardy's, or our custards are different than dairy queens? Or was it frustrating because you couldn't get that message across at the beginning?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no. Nobody knew what a butterburger was. Nobody knew what frozen custard was. So there was an extreme learning curve. Right across the road from us was Hardy's 1984, the fastest growing burger chain in America. Their parking lot is full. Also across the street from us was the Dairy Queen 1984 is the year the blizzard was invented. Their parking lot is full. And I like the joke that, you know, here we sat with two or three cars. And I drive a car. My dad drives a car. And so if you do the math, we maybe had one customer.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Today is considerably more. But yeah, we have to, we sold the Ritz Supper Club to the same people that had bought the farm kitchen from us years prior.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, because it's basically you get the patty really thin, you get it crispy Anyway, just out of curiosity, did you have to put a big amount of investment capital up to get the machine for the, you know, because I imagine a custard machine isn't cheap?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we buttered the bun. It's a tavern burger is what it is. Yeah. We grill the bun, we use all fresh meat, and we press the meat out on the grill. It's not pre-pressed like paddied meat. And we got the butter burger.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's denser. You're right. If you take a quart of vanilla custard and a quart of vanilla ice cream, the custard's going to weigh considerably more because you're right. It's denser. It doesn't have the air beat into it. I mean, I don't think Frozen Custer can be beat. I'll call it the best premium ice cream in the world.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It does have egg yolk added to it. You're right. There are ice creams as well. Premium ice creams that also have egg yolk added to it, but not too many. But yes, custard is served at about 18 degrees. Has very low air beat into it”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And here I got to tell a little backstory. One day while I was at the Ritz in the afternoon, not much going on, sitting down with a friend of mine, and he was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And he was telling me about when he was a kid, there was a little custard stand called the Milky Way. And they served the butter burger. And when he said that to me, man, a light bulb went on, and I attached the two together, custard and butter burgers. How can you possibly go wrong?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So nineteen eighty four you decide, this is not going to be an AW, this is going to be your own restaurant and it's going to be called Culvers. And the basis of this restaurant was going to be two things frozen custard and something called the butterburger.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd love to tell you we had a big vision. That would be a lie. No, it was we get to move back to our hometown of Sauk City and Prairie de Sac and get an opportunity to have the business, hopefully it's successful. And we never dreamt we could fail. That never entered our minds. We're entrepreneurs. We don't fail. Well, yeah, entrepreneurs do fail, by the way.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, this is interesting because on the one hand, of course, it worked out well, which we're going to get to. But starting a new brand, Craig, is really hard. That is the eternal theme on this show, right? And you already had a brand. A&W is a national brand. So, I mean, what was the idea at the time to start a big brand or were you thinking this is just going to be our next fun project, our next one-off business for the next few years? Or did you have a bigger vision at the time?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, we sure did. And we didn't think that we needed the ANW. We liked the idea of doing something different and being independent. And so that's what we did. I remember we got rid of all the oranges and browns of the ANW. Everything became blue and white.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So basically, what happened was they were paying you essentially a mortgage fee, right? You were the financer. And they said, we can't pay it anymore. We're done, and you guys can have it back. So it's almost like they rented the business from you for two years.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because the people that bought the ANW from us were failing, and remember this was bought in the land contract. It's our money in there. And eventually one day we got a phone call saying, please take this thing back. We don't want it. And honestly, I couldn't wait. I wanted it back.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's unbelievable. It was called the Rits. And like all the other businesses, even the NW, even the farm kitchen, we always attached our last name to the business. So it was Culver's Ritz supper club. In Wisconsin is famous for Supper Clubs, which basically are independently owned restaurants, not fine dining, but steak restaurants, prime ribbon Saturday night, fish fry on Friday night. It's like a religion here, salad bars, martinis Manhattans, and the state drink is a brandy old-fashioned suite. But yeah, we bought the little Rits for the first time and we ran it again as a family. It was Lee and I and mom and dad. And we did quite well there. But we only had it two years.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Got it. So, a nice tidy profit, $150 grand, you know. Six years on, and most of that money was going to your dad, but you had to find the next thing that wasn't going to be enough to sustain you for the rest of your life. And I guess, again, history kind of repeating itself was you guys with your parents, you use the profit to buy like a little supper club once again in Barabu, Wisconsin, is that right? Called the Ritz Supper Club.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm guessing maybe we bought it at maybe $200. When we sold it to these two gentlemen, I believe the number was 350,000. We sold it at.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“entrepreneurs we can buy low and sell high that that's honestly that was kind of our mindset and uh We can go find something else. And we decided to sell to these two gentlemen from Madison, and part of the deal was I had to stay on for two months training them in the business. And the other part was we sold it on what's called a land contract. And that's where we're the banker in the deal.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So this is what's so interesting about this history kind of repeats itself, right? Because it's a second time that your dad and you are involved with an A&W, the same one. And then like six years into running this thing, once again, you guys sell it. Your dad makes the decision. You guys make the decision to sell it to some investors. Why was it, I mean, it's going well, it's doing pretty well. Why did you guys sell? Was just the price was so good that you couldn't say no?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were successful, we cash flowed immediately, and as a matter of fact, the first year we closed for six weeks in the winter months to take a nice vacation of Florida, and that was the last time we did that. We didn't do that again.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mom and dad were both in there as well. Lee too. And I didn't put up any money and, you know, eventually dad gifted me a portion of it and just sweat equity type of thing. But yeah, Lee and I ran the place, but mom and dad were certainly there as well.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So you're now operating an ANW franchise. It's Burgers and Shakes and sodas and stuff. And your dad was essentially retired at that point. So, was he basically, did he help put up some of the financing and you kind of operated it? Or was he also in there running it with you?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the AMW, the original place had burned down that little shack and the new prototype was built in its place, was seating for seventy four inside, a canopy off the back with electronic ordering stations. So we bought something different than what we originally had, but we bought it back from the same gentleman Dad had sold the old place to.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we were both living in Madison at the time, and I went over to visit and the story goes, mom's on the couch reading the newspaper and watching TV and dad's at the kitchen table playing his favorite card game of solitaire. And mom's with an earshot of what our conversation is going to be. So I sit down with dad. I said, Dad, help me out here. Let's buy the ANW back in Sok City. Dad, the entrepreneur, he immediately said, let's do it. Mom, on the other hand, not a risk taker whatsoever. She was crying, holy hell. And I tell the joke that we took a vote and she lost two to one.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is 1976. You're, I think, 26, newly married. You and Lee are newly married at the time. Yeah, we are. And I mention Lee because she will factor prominently in. In the rest of the story of culvers, which we'll talk about later, but. You essentially go back to your dad and say, Hey, you remember that A&W that you sold in 1968? Why don't we buy it back and operate it? Is that essentially what you said to him?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I became a general manager with them within a year. And you think, okay, McDonald's, big deal. Well, it was a big deal. I mean, in 1973. They were the king. And I learned a great deal. And after almost four years with them, I decided I wanted my own place of business. I had all these years of training with my family and with the McDonald's people. I could do this. And, well, I kind of was becoming my father. I was becoming the entrepreneur that he was. And I knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to move back from Madison to my hometown of Saux City and Verdi Sac. And by that A&W back. Now for the second time.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Georgia, my sister is Georgia, and she knew I needed a job. Georgia said, why don't you go visit with Tom, see if you can get a job with a McDonald's. And that's what I probably did with Georgia. I just laughed. And I said, Georgia, you know, I don't want to work in the restaurant business. And I sure don't want to work for McDonald's. And she said, Craig, you need a job. Get over there and visit with Tom. See if you can get a job, you know, informally we did meet and eventually they offered me a job as a manager trainee.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I guess you decided to pursue your own path and you've graduated college and nothing's coming through for you. You're down in Madison, Wisconsin. I guess your sister, your older sister, George, says, hey, I want you to meet my friend Tom, who works at McDonald's because he might have a job for you. Why don't you meet him? Is that because you just had a job?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of course. I didn't know the future. I've got to say this about my parents. I didn't realize this until years later. You know, my dad barely got through high school, handicapped with loss of hearing in both ears, eventually goes blind. My mom sure she got through high school, but no college. And I look back at them. And I said, wow, mom and dad were smart people. And what they were so good at in the business world was they were so good with people, people that know how to say, please and thank you. And my pleasure. And it comes from the heart. That's who they surrounded themselves with. And that's what any great leader certainly wants to do. He wants us or she wants to surround themselves with people. Like that.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, Dad and I had arguments about many things, and I thought for sure he would blow up. By hedent, and he just said, son, you go find your dream then. He said, I'm going to sell the place. And I said, okay, Dad, you do what you got to do. I'll do what I have to do. And, you know. And it was a mistake on my part.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, here I am, a graduate from UW Oshkosh with a degree in biology that seemed to be going nowhere. You know, sending resumes out everywhere, not getting much of a response from anybody. And my dad sat me down. As you said, because he recognized something in me that I didn't know I had, a passion for people, a passion for the food service industry. So yeah, when dad asked me to take over the farm kitchen, be the general manager What an opportunity thrown right at me, and I told my dad no.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's when I talk about a great deal. It's one of the great regrets I have is saying no to my father. But, you know, I watch my parents and so many others in the industry. I mean, lots of ours, lots of hours I'll tell you what, seven days a week. I didn't want to be my parents. I didn't.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And so you were both college students at the time, I guess, working there. And you studied biology in college. So it seems like you were kind of exploring things a little outside of the restaurant business. But I guess around 1973, which is when you graduated, your dad was having some health issues. I guess he couldn't keep running the farm kitchen. And I guess the story is he kind of sat you down and said, hey, Would you take over, become the general manager of the resort? What do you remember about that conversation”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Whatever it took. We'd wait tables and my brother and I we were washing dishes. We'd take care of the lawns, the gardens. Sometimes we were cleaning the rooms out in the cottages. And I mean, there was a lot of work there. But you know what? I love the place. I did. And I'd usually stick around the place on my day off. Don't ask me why I guess I just did like the place.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so you would work there during your college breaks because I think this is when you were at college, you were at the University of Wisconsin. And you would go down there and do what during the wait tables, cook in the kitchen? What would you do during the summers at the resort?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's more than a restaurant. It's a resort. 24 cottages. Swimming pool, you know, the shuffle board thing, amusement barn. We had miniature golfing, horseback riding, which dad least. Yeah, dad leased out to other people. In between the two dining rooms sat basically our living room because we also lived there in the winter months. Again, a seasonal business. And then we had a big kitchen. And everything was made from scratch. It was a wonderful place to dine.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, you know, I really don't know why they sold it, but my dad was an entrepreneur and he saw something else that put a sparkle in his eye and that was the farm kitchen resort.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very much so. We were working when other families were off on vacations and those families were coming to our place of business as a matter of fact. We were serving them while they were They were enjoying their friends and stuff. You know, saying that, I mean, still, my parents, I don't want to make them sound like they were driving us crazy with work because they were good parents. What can I say? They were great parents.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, sounds like through most of your time in high school, you were working at the family business. Do you remember being in high school and just feeling like all my friends get to do this and I have to be here maybe even feeling resentful when you were a teenager working all summer at the restaurant?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're right. Dad was a tough guy. And yeah, he expected a lot of us. And we were, you know, we were just kids. One of the things about dad was, you know, he'd get mad at you. He'd react very, very quickly. But then it would be 10, 15 minutes later and he'd have his arm around you.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but it was a seasonal business. So basically, oh, April 1st or so, April 15th, we would open and then we'd close shortly after Labor Day. So after Labor Day, my parents then would have to get another job. Wow. To get through the winter months.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That is very true. And I compare it to farming. Everybody's expected to go to work. And that's, you know, because our parents own the place, it was okay for us to work there. But otherwise, it would have been illegal.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This was, I mean, this was like the heyday of the Karhop era. I mean, people think of the 50s, but really it's the 60s, the early 60s that they're thinking about, which is like the golden era of going to the hard car hop and having a waiter, waitress, or unroller skate sometimes coming surfing food. You were 11 years old. And from what I understand, it was you, you had a brother Kurt, a younger brother and a sister who was older, Georgia, and basically it was a family business. You were expected to work at the ANW from the time you were 11. Is that more or less true?”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, A&W drive in, exclusively a drive-in. The little shack of a building had the bathroom on the outside of the building, gravel parking lot, 5 and 10 cent roof beer, 15 cent hot dogs, hamburgers, and French fries. We sold cigarettes of all things. And car hop service. There was no insight seating. It was all car hop service when the cars would come onto our lot. They'd literally park around the building with no markings on where to park. They just parked wherever. And so the car hop would go out She'd put a number on the windshield and take their order. And I shouldn't say she because we had mails as car hops as well.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Navies in Sauk City, Wisconsin. At the time, it was one restaurant, and really that was the goal. In the early years, just keeping the lights on at Culver's was hard. It stood across the street from two huge competitors, a dairy queen and a Hardy's. But over time people discovered Craig Culver's now famous butter burger, and also his frozen custard, and slowly but surely Culver started to expand, first inside Wisconsin, then to neighboring states, and eventually to much of the United States. Craig Culver grew up in Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin in the nineteen fifties and sixties. His dad was a dairy inspector until nineteen sixty one when he came across an opportunity he couldn't pass up and bought an ANW burger restaurant.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's right. And, you know, I wanted to punch him in the nose. I never said anything, but I thought to myself, baloney with that”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was an event, a McDonald's event in Madison. And a friend of mine, a McDonald's guy, came up to me and said, Culver, you're as far as you're going to go.”
2022-10-17 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Culver's: Craig Culver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT