The National Fast-Food Franchise You’ve Never Heard Of, But Probably Been In

There's a long-gone fast food restaurant chain that a lot of people have probably been in, but never knew it.

  We've all been in Burger King, but whatever happened to Burger Queen?

Burger King began in 1954 in Miami, Florida, and the rest is history. But two years later, in Winter Haven Florida, Burger Queen became a competitor.  Harold  and Helen Kite opened the restaurant that offered fries, burgers, shakes and fried chicken.  Eventually they expanded to 16 locations, then also expanded nationally.

At it's peak Burger Queen had 170 locations in 7 states. They included, besides Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Then in 1981, the chain changed its name to Druthers, and over that decade and the next, at least 70 locations closed, and the remainder were sold to Dairy Queen and became part of that franchise.

 Chances are, if you've been to a DQ in one of those states, you've been 'in' a former Burger Queen.

Currently there are no restaurants operating under  that name that are part of the original chain.  The history of the franchise was not without controversy, though. In the 1970's they were sued by Dairy Queen because of the name similarity.

While it was settled out of court, DQ was able to demand in the settlement that  Burger Queen be forbidden from selling ice cream.

This YouTube video, courtesy of Babble Top, "Iconic Fast Food Joints that No Longer Exist", shows a history of the franchise that at least for a while, competed with the "King."  Had Burger Queen ever directly 'confronted' Burger King, could she have demanded she "have it her way?"

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