Sauk City
restaurateurs and husband and wife team George and Ruth Culver started their fast food careers as the owners of an
A&W on Phillips Boulevard (
U.S. Highway 12) in 1961. In 1968, they purchased a resort-styled restaurant at
Devil's Lake called The Farm Kitchen. Their son,
Craig Culver, worked for a local
McDonald's right out of college in 1973. George, Ruth, their son Craig, and his wife Lea opened the first Culver's Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers in Sauk City, Wisconsin on July 18, 1984. Craig was
CEO of Culver's from its inception until mid-2015.
Wisconsin , featuring the traditional blue metal roof (customer on the left is then-
Vice President Mike Pence) The Culver family started franchising the restaurant in 1988. The family agreed, granting the franchisee a loose licensing agreement, charging no fees or royalties. Because the franchisee had invested very little of his own money, it was a simple matter for him to walk away a year later when he decided he no longer wanted to be in the restaurant business. As a result of this experience, the Culver family established a set of standard franchising procedures that form the basis for those currently used by Culver Franchising System, Inc. Three years later, they tried again in
Baraboo, and business quickly doubled. Soon after, the increased recognition that the second store earned this small-town chain prompted expansion into the
Middleton,
Madison and
Milwaukee areas.
Midwest at a Culver's restaurant in
Shakopee, Minnesota Culver's was still a small, local chain in 1993, with only 14 restaurants across southern Wisconsin. Their first restaurants outside Wisconsin opened in
Buffalo, Minnesota in September 1995,
Roscoe, Illinois in December 1995, and
Dubuque, Iowa in November 1997.
Beyond the Midwest in 2008. The first franchise in
Utah opened in
Midvale in 2011, when a couple from Wisconsin relocated there. They signed a development agreement for four locations in the southern half of
Salt Lake County. By the end of 2011, 445 Culver's restaurants were open in 19 states. They opened in
South Carolina in 2012;
Florida,
Georgia, and
Tennessee in 2014; and North Carolina in 2015. A location was announced for
Alabama in June 2018, and expansion continued into
Arkansas in January 2022. In February 2026, Culver's announced plans to enter the
Virginia market, starting with their first location in the
Richmond area.
Blue Spoon Creamery Cafe Culver's opened a new spinoff soup-sandwich-salad restaurant in
Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin in 2000, called Blue Spoon Creamery Cafe. The name came from the color of the spoons used at the Culver's fast food restaurants. A second store in
Middleton, Wisconsin, was open for two years, but closed in August 2010. The Prairie du Sac location closed in May 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
Recent developments According to a 2013 survey by Franchise Business Review, Culver's was rated the best in franchisee satisfaction by franchisees. The company celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024, and Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers officially declared July 18 "Culvers Day" in Wisconsin. ==Leadership==