Culver’s Restaurants Founder Inspires Troubled Youth

We invite many inspiring speakers to visit and share their stories with everyone at Rawhide. On October 8th, 2013, Craig Culver, chief executive and co-founder of Culver’s restaurants made an appearance in our Fine Arts Auditorium at Starr Academy to share his inspiring story of success with our students and staff.

Mr. Culver explained that things didn’t come easily to him and his family as they started the Culver’s franchise. In fact, he admits that he never wanted to work in the restaurant business, and he failed more than once during his journey. But it didn’t stop him from working hard for what he wanted. So what makes a ButterBurger® better? Craig Culver explains that his success was received through perseverance and hospitality.

Craig Culver grew up in the restaurant business. In 1961 at the age of 11, his parents bought a small A&W drive-in restaurant in Sauk City, Wisconsin. There, he helped his family at the drive- in. In 1968, his parents decided to sell the A&W when Craig went off to attend college at UW Oshkosh. There he studied and received a degree in Biology. Shortly after his family sold the A&W, his father bought a small resort near Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin. They named the resort Culver’s Farm Kitchen and Resort. One day, Craig’s father asked him if he would like to become the general manager of the resort. Craig was not interested, so he told his father no. His father then decided to sell the resort.

After a few years of trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, Craig Culver ended up in the restaurant business once again when he took a job as a trainee manager at a McDonald’s in Madison, Wisconsin. Even though he never really wanted to work in the restaurant business, he learned a lot about the business from the McDonald’s crew and grew to love it. He explained that he learned life lessons while in the business with his parents as well. His mother and father were always hospitable to their guests at the Culver’s Farm Kitchen and Resort, and Craig truly believes that great hospitality is what keeps people coming back.

After he worked for McDonald’s for three and a half years, Craig Culver finally found that he wanted to run a restaurant of his own. He decided that he wanted to buy back that very first A&W that his family ran when he was a kid, and start his own restaurant. In 1984, he convinced his father and together they purchased it and ran the small restaurant as a family once again. Before their business finally soared, they sold the A&W and bought it back once more, changed the concept and finally started selling the things Culver’s customers still love today, the ButterBurger® and frozen custard.

Culver restaurants didn’t take off right away, but finally after about a year, the word got out and people started to come to the little place in Sauk City that sold really good ButterBurgers® and custard. Baraboo, Wisconsin is the home of the very first successful Culver’s franchise, and remains one the biggest Culver’s in the state.

After his story, Craig Culver let our students interact with him by letting them ask him questions. Our students were very engaged, and asked several questions about Culver restaurants.

Craig Culver’s story of hard work, hospitality and perseverance was a great story for our students to hear. It showed them that if they work hard for something that they want, they can achieve their goals. He encouraged our students to “listen to the people in life telling them the right messages,” because those messages can be useful in their life. Rawhide greatly appreciates that Mr. Culver’s took the time to visit and share his interesting story with our students and staff.

Originally published at www.rawhide.org