Whataburger

About

Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers.

History

In 1950, Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton opening the first Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas. By 2011 Whataburger had 728 stores operating in ten states.

In 2018, as Texan Beto O'Rouke was running for senate he was sighted multiple times at Whataburger. On September 24th, 2018, The Hustle uploaded a video of Beto O'rourke skateboarding and air drumming at Whataburger (shown below). The video gained over 16,700 views in a year. Whataburger became a topic of discussion during the senate race as a Ted Cruz's spokeswoman called the Democrat a "Triple Meat Whataburger liberal who is out of touch with Texas values."^[8]

On June 14, 2019, the Dobson family sold its majority stake in the company to BDT Capital, a Chicago-based investment company due to expansion plans.^[9] Texans began responding negatively to the news due to Whataburger being a state treasure. On June 14th, the Whataburger^[3] Twitter account wrote a short open letter to their fans saying they would always represent Texans and make them proud (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 7,300 retweets and 35,200 likes in a week. That same day Houston Texans football player JJ Watts^[3]tweeted, "Ok, I say we all chip in and buy Whataburger back. Make honey butter chicken biscuits available all day, add kolaches to the menu and change nothing else. Especially not the ketchup" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated over 108,300 likes and 28,100 retweets in a week.

Fandom

The fast food chain has always been known as a Texas staple so much so that couples have been known to set up Whataburger photo shoots for their newborn babies (shown below).^[1][2]

Related Memes

Whataburger Sold to Chicago Investment Firm Reactions

On June 14th, Twitter^[10] users began reacting negatively to the news of Whataburger selling the majority of the company to a Chicago based firm. On June 16th MrJimmyHoffa posted an image to r/texas^[7] on the subject (shown below, left). the image gained over 246 points (94% upvoted) in five days. The subreddit became a hub for Whataburger memes. Redditor gummy1000 posted to r/texas^[5] about Whataburger lying which gained over 2,800 points (96% upvoted) in three days (shown below, center). That same day producer_sean post a King of the Hill meme to r/texas^[6] which received over 50 points (83% upvoted) in three days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References