"white castle" news and stories

For five years, we've been reading about White Castle's most successful marketing campaign: Valentine's Day at White Castle. On this day, lovers walk into a transformed chain restaurant: red tablecloths, waiters, candles and roses. Well, enough reading; last night we went to see for ourselves.

Walking into a New Jersey-based location at around 7 p.m., we were greeted by a smiling manager who happily showed us to our seats. Sitting at our red-plastic-covered table, we couldn't help but laugh and smile. Our tea-candle was lit and the faux smell of roses filled the air as our waitress came over to hand us the menus. Yes, menus! She, too, had a huge smile on her face and was excited to tell us that this was her first Valentine's Day with the company. She explained the menu to us and even promoted the "Sweetheart Special," which consisted of 10 hamburgers, two fries and two regular drinks. Priced at just $12.49, it was a deal. However, I decided to go with three classic cheeseburgers and take a chance on the Surf & Turf burger with cheese, the fish sandwiched between two burger patties, served with tartar sauce.

After ordering, I took a moment to look around. Every seat was filled with happy people, enjoying their burgers and getting a kick out of the décor. More than half the room was dressed in their date-night best -- women in red sparkling sweaters and men in suits with Valentine's Day-themed ties. There was one group of eight that had been coming to the chain for five years during this special promotion and they were pros -- they even brought their own wine. Who knew White Castle was BYOB?

Food writer/author Robert Sietsema certainly knows food (fast and otherwise), so his article for the Village Voice on the 10 fast-food items that are actually enjoyable is right up his alley. To make the list, Sietsema and colleagues polled friends and spent two weeks (too long) actually tasting the stuff -- from Wendy's to White Castle to KFC to Taco Bell.

Since the Village Voice is New York based, you won't find favorites like an In-N-Out burger on the list, but you will find a chicken biscuit from Popeyes.

Head over to the Village Voice for the remaining nine items.

Ok, at first we thought this was a joke, but a newspaper columnist in Ohio has admitted to one of the most bizarre (or disgusting or ingenious -- take your pick) stuffing recipes ever: White Castle sliders.

In a recent blog post on the Columbus Dispatch's website, Jeffrey Sheban writes: "When I stuff a turkey, I eschew traditional bread cubes in favor of White Castle hamburgers," which, as he points out, are mostly bread and onions -- staples of most stuffing recipes.

Although it seems a little suspicious that the type of person who would resort to a fast-food drive thru for his holiday ingredients would also be able to use the word "eschew" correctly in a sentence, other aspects of his post corroborate his claim. For instance, he admits that he didn't actually debut his whacked-out stuffing recipe on Thanksgiving, but at a Super Bowl party. "No one in my family trusts me with real holidays," he writes. (Gee, wonder why.)

Garlic breath can be yours, sliders fans. White Castle is giving away coupons for a free Garlic Cheese Slider on Facebook (for a limited time). One of three new limited-edition sandwiches that will be available only through October 30; the others are Garlic Cheese & Mushroom and Garlic Cheese & Chicken Marinara.

To get the coupon, you must "Like" the White Castle page on Facebook. Print it out and use it at any of the nationwide locations. The coupon will be available on White Castle's Facebook page through October 22.

What exactly is a Garlic Cheese Slider? It's the traditional White Castle patty topped with a slice of garlic cheese. The Garlic Cheese & Mushroom Slider has its 'shrooms in a "savory sauce" (what that sauce is, we're not exactly sure); and the Chicken Marinara Slider takes a breaded chicken breast and tops it with garlic cheese and Italian marinara sauce. We're still waiting on the offer for complimentary breath mints.

Further solidifying itself a place to avoid on date night, White Castle is introducing two new garlic cheese sliders for a limited time. The first seems pretty uninspired: take one of the chain's original sliders and slap a slice of garlic cheese on it. The second adds a bit more pizzazz with mushrooms in a savory sauce.

White Castle is also premiering its Chicken Marinara Slider, topped with the aforementioned garlic cheese (see a theme here?) and the eponymous marinara.

Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A is set to start testing spicy chicken nuggets next month in Denver, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Augusta, Georgia. As Nation's Restaurant News points out, this follows the introduction of similar spicy nuggets at Wendy's, as well as spicy Wicked Chicken at Popeyes and the half-hearted superlative Spicier Spicy Chicken at Church's. (Perhaps Church's is holding back on unveiling its Spiciest Spicy Chicken until this apparent spicy skirmish among fast-food chicken places escalates further.)