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Fuddruckers (sometimes abbreviated as Fudds) is an American
fast casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is a ...
, franchised
restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate many retail markets, dining markets, and service categories in many pa ...
that specializes in
hamburger A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...
s. As of 2019, Fuddruckers had 49 company-operated restaurants and 107 franchises across the United States and around the world. The company headquarters is in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, Texas. And on September 8, 2020, Fuddruckers owner
Luby's Luby’s Restaurant Corporation is a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants in Texas. In the past, Luby's Inc. also owned the Fuddruckers, Koo Koo Roo, and Cheeseburger in Paradise (restaurant), Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains. As of Apr ...
, Inc. announced that they planned to liquidate existing assets, including Fuddruckers' assets, distributing the proceeds to investors after the proposed sale of the chains. On June 21, 2021, Black Titan Franchise Systems announced a deal to acquire Fuddruckers for $18.5 million.


History


Founding and growth

Fuddruckers was founded as Freddie Fuddruckers in 1979 by Philip J. Romano in
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, Texas, at a location converted from an old bank to a restaurant. He started the chain because he thought that "the world needed a better hamburger". The name derived from "Fudpucker World Airways", a fictional airline using
steam-powered aircraft A steam-powered aircraft is an aircraft propelled by a steam engine. Steam power was used during the 19th century, but fell into disuse with the arrival of the more practical internal combustion engine at the beginning of the pioneer era. Steam ...
that was an
in-joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke with humour that is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest ...
among pilots and aviation enthusiasts. The Fuddruckers concept was to offer large hamburgers in which the meat was ground on site and buns were baked on the premises and hamburgers and other dishes were offered with "lots of fresh sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce and vats of cheese sauce". In California, Fuddruckers competed at the high end of the fast-food market against chains such as
Flakey Jake's Flakey the robot was a research robot created at SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center and was the successor to Shakey the robot. It is featured in a Scientific American Frontiers episode (Season 5, Episode 1). Software Most of Flake ...
, sometimes with head-to-head competitions in places such as
Northridge, California Northridge is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles. The community is home to California State University, Northridge, and the Northridge Fashion Center. Originally named List of minor biblica ...
. By 1988, there were 150 restaurants in the chain. Romano left the chain in 1988 to form
Romano's Macaroni Grill Romano's Macaroni Grill is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. As of April 2024, the company operates 31 locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Ohi ...
. In an interview, Romano stated: "I just felt I had done all I could for the concept." Fuddruckers was purchased in November 1998 by Michael Cannon, and later it was purchased by
Magic Brands Magic Brands, LLC was the owner of Fuddruckers and Koo Koo Roo and was based in Austin, Texas. The company acquired Fuddruckers in 1998. On April 22, 2010, Magic Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On June 18, 2010, Luby's Luby’ ...
. In August 2014, Fuddruckers opened the first of its new stores called Fuddruckers Deluxe in
Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...
, a full-service sit-down restaurant serving traditional and new menu items, with a wait staff, full bar and multiple TVs, although it did not offer different size burgers or a "produce and fixings bar" like its traditional restaurants. As of 2018, the restaurant has been closed.


Bankruptcy and ownership changes

The 2008 financial crisis hit the restaurant industry hard, including Fuddruckers. On April 22, 2010, the parent of Fuddruckers, Austin-based Magic Brands LLC, announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It originally planned to sell most of its assets, including Fuddruckers and the
Koo Koo Roo Koo Koo Roo was an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in charbroiled chicken founded in 1988 by Los Angeles-based restaurateurs Mike and Ray Badalian. The name "Koo Koo Roo" was an onomatopoeic reference to the crow of a roost ...
brand eateries, to the
Tavistock Group Tavistock Group is a Bahamas-based private equity fund, private investment organization founded in 1975. The company is headquartered in the offshore financial center of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas and has offices in 13 countries; Bahamas, ...
for $40 million. On the same day, the firm announced that 24 Fuddruckers restaurants would be closed, several of them in the metro Washington, D.C. area. On June 18, 2010, Tavistock was outbid by
Luby's Luby’s Restaurant Corporation is a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants in Texas. In the past, Luby's Inc. also owned the Fuddruckers, Koo Koo Roo, and Cheeseburger in Paradise (restaurant), Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains. As of Apr ...
for Fuddruckers' assets at auction, with a $61 million winning bid. A second estimate was that the sale amount was for $63.45 million. Luby's acquisition of Fuddruckers and Koo Koo Roo was finalized in 2010. During 2011, there were controversies with previous franchise owners regarding the use of the ''Fuddruckers'' brand name.


Luby's closure and dissolution

On June 3, 2020, Luby's Board of Directors announced plans to sell all its operating divisions and assets, including real estate assets. This decision was influenced in part by circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Net proceeds from transactions will benefit Luby's stockholders. The company did not have a definitive timeline for future transactions, but expected to eventually wind down remaining operations. On September 8, 2020, Luby's further announced it has adopted a plan to
liquidate Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...
all of its existing assets, as opposed to operating in the current form or merely selling off divisions. As of September 11, 2020, there were 80 Luby's and Fuddruckers still in operation. 99% of Luby's stockholders voted for dissolution in November 2020. Luby's planned to close all locations by August 2021.


Sale to affiliate of Nicholas Perkins

On June 17, 2021, Luby's announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell the Fuddruckers franchise business operations to Black Titan Franchise Systems LLC, an affiliate of Nicholas Perkins. As a result, the remaining Fuddruckers locations have remained open past the previously planned closure date of August 2021.


Menu

The chain offered the ''Original Fudds Burger'' in various sizes, of , , and 1
pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), various units of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile * A bas ...
(151, 277, 302, 454 grams). The primary focus is on hamburgers but other options are offered including chicken, fish and exotic burgers (
buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...
,
elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...
,
ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...
, and
wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...
). In 2006, Foxwood executive
sous chef A sous-chef is a chef who is second in command of a kitchen, ranking directly below the head chef in the Kitchen Brigade system developed by Auguste Escoffier. In large kitchens, sous-chefs are typically left in charge of managing members o ...
Scott Ferguson and Mark Collins made a burger weighing and costing US$250, for the Fuddruckers restaurant in the casino. The burger was wide and tall. At the time, this was the world's largest commercially available burger.


Business


Franchise model

While some Fuddruckers restaurants are company-owned, the majority are owned by individual franchisees. In 2010, there were 135 franchisee-owned Fuddruckers around the United States. In 2011, Fuddruckers had 200 restaurants throughout North America, of which two-thirds were owned by small business owners and 59 were company-operated locations. By the end of 2015, Fuddruckers had 188 locations, with 35 outside the US.


Headquarters

The firm has moved its headquarters location several times. Currently, the headquarters is near the northwest district of
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
. It has been there since the acquisition by Luby's in 2010. From 2005 to 2010, Fuddruckers was headquartered in southwest
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
; before that, in North Andover, Massachusetts, before that at Cherry Hill Park in Beverly, Massachusetts, before that in One Corporate Place in
Danvers, Massachusetts Danvers is a New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. The suburb is a fairly short ride from Boston and is also in close proximity to the beach ...
; before that, in Lakeside Office Park in
Wakefield, Massachusetts Wakefield is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston, greater Boston metropolitan area, municipal corporation, incorporated in 1812 in the United States, 1812 and located about north-nor ...
. When it shifted headquarters from the Boston area to Austin in 2005, it spent $1 million and laid off 30 employees to operate more efficiently, according to chief financial officer Matt Pannek.Outon, Chantal.
Fuddruckers shifts HQ to Austin
" ''
Austin Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...
''. Friday September 16, 2005. Retrieved on February 27, 2010.
Within six weeks of the move, the company hired 30 new employees for the Austin headquarters. By September 2005 the company employed 80 people in of space in two temporary offices in the Monterey Oaks Corporate Park in southwest Austin. By December 2005 the company planned to move into about 16,000-17,000 square feet (1,500-1,600 m2) of space in an adjacent building and turn one of the original Austin facilities into a training center and test kitchen. Pannek said that the central location of the headquarters allows the company to more easily communicate with its franchisees across the United States.


Locations

Fuddruckers expanded outside of the United States. There were locations in Canada in the mid-1980s, including Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan. Their first Australian store opening in Brisbane's Eagle Street Pier shopping centre in November 1993, followed by another store in the
Logan Hyperdome Logan Hyperdome Shopping Centre in Shailer Park, Queensland, is the largest shopping centre in Logan City and one of the largest single storey shopping centres in Australia. The Queensland Police Service operates a police beat shopfront in the ...
south of Brisbane in August 1994 (which closed in August 1995, having never made a profit), and a store opening at the Macquarie shopping centre at North Ryde in Sydney in September 1994, all operated under franchise by Butcher Baker Goodtimes Maker until late 1996 when the franchisee went bankrupt and Fuddruckers left the country. Fuddruckers opened their first Middle Eastern location opening in May 1994 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by Arabian Food Supplies. Fuddruckers opened restaurants in Argentina in 1988; later, however, sales fell and Fuddruckers left the country. In 2013, Fuddruckers opened its first restaurant in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, which later closed. They also opened restaurants in Santiago, Chile and Bogotá, Colombia, all of which have since been closed. In 2014, Fuddruckers partnered with Italian-based franchisee Vinum et Alia to open 10 restaurants across Italy, Poland, and Switzerland. Their first restaurant opened in Varese (Lombardy). They later added locations in Legnano and Casnate con Bernate, Italy, as well as Warsaw, Poland. However, as of 2019, this franchisee was no longer active and all European locations had been shut down. As of June 2019, Fuddruckers had 156 locations across the United States and a further 8 run by franchise partners with one each in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; two in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico; one in Caguas, Puerto Rico; and three in Panama City, Panama. An additional 33 locations are licensed in the Middle East, with restaurants in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.


See also

*
List of hamburger restaurants This is a list of notable hamburger restaurants. A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked patties of ground meat (usually beef) usually placed inside a sliced hamburger bun. Hamburgers are often served with lettuce, bacon, to ...


References


External links


Fuddrucker's (official website)

Black Titan Investments (corporate website)
{{Portal bar, Companies, Food Companies based in Austin, Texas Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 Fast casual restaurants Fast-food chains of the United States Hamburger restaurants in the United States 1998 mergers and acquisitions 2010 mergers and acquisitions Restaurants established in 1979 Restaurants in San Antonio Tavistock Group 1979 establishments in Texas Fast-food franchises