The Culver’s Bloomington location opening has been a long time coming, and people were eager for it. At noon Nov. 5, the line inside was about 20 people long and the line of cars almost spilt onto the street from the drive thru.
Marketing Coordinator Ashton Bosstick said this was actually the slowest it had been so far. She said there were 400 customers just in the first 35 minutes. The first 400 customers each received a coupon book that gives them a free meal each month for a year starting in January 2019.
Owner John Laskowski said when he arrived at 8 a.m. there was already a line of 100 people, and one person told Laskowski he got there at 3 a.m. He brewed coffee for those waiting, and the restaurant opened at 9:45 a.m.,15 minutes earlier than scheduled.
Culver’s is a Wisconsin-based fast food chain with about 670 locations.
Laskowski first tried it in 1996 when he was in Wisconsin at an IU alumni camp.
“I drove over to Sheboygan to play golf and I drove by this restaurant that said ButterBurgers and frozen custard, and I’d never heard of such a thing and it was a Culver’s,” Laskowski said. “So I pulled in and man it was a great burger and the shakes were terrific.”
Culver’s calls their burgers ButterBurgers because the buns are lightly buttered with Wisconsin butter.
Along with ButterBurgers and fries, Culver’s serves various flavors of frozen custard and concrete mixers, which is custard with candy mixed it.
Jaydon Hoffman, an Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington student, brought his friend Carlie Bell for her first Culver’s experience.
Hoffman has visited another Culver’s before and liked it.
They knew about the opening because they saw the sign for it while driving by and decided to come because people were talking about it.
“I’ve always heard people talking about it, how everyone’s always wanted a Culver’s here, and we finally got one,” Hoffman said.
They both got the double ButterBurger.
Laskowski said the process to open a Culver’s here has been long and hard but worth it.
“I started looking for land in October of 2014, so it will be a four year endeavour to get open,” he said.
He said the difficulty was getting the necessary permits and zoning requirements to make the parking lot and drive-thru functional.
Laskowski was on the basketball team during his time at IU. Known as the Super Sub, he played for former coach Bob Knight from 1971 to 1975.
The Culver’s building, at 1918 W. Third St., uses the signature blue hues of all Culver’s locations but still bleeds cream and crimson. The IU logo stands in the landscaping outside and IU memorabilia hangs prominently on a wall inside.
Displayed is Laskowski’s Indiana No. 31 jersey, a copy of the Sports Illustrated cover he was on as well as other Sports Illustrated covers that feature IU basketball and a framed copy of the current basketball roster.
While walking around and welcoming people to the restaurant, many people asked Laskowski for autographs and photographs. He said he had a feeling this was going to be the case and got special cards made for the occasion to sign and hand out. One side is the Sports Illustrated cover he is on, and the other is information about his Culver’s.
“People can come in and talk about the old days of IU basketball,” he said. “I’ve been involved since 1971 and always like to talk about the current team and how we think they’re going to do.”
Even though he graduated from the Kelley School of Business, he never saw himself owning a business, but he loved Culver’s and decided he had to open one.
Laskowski had no idea how busy opening day was going to be but was really happy about the turnout so far.
He said for his Culver’s franchise training, he had to go to two other openings but neither of those was as busy as his location.
People were clearly hungry for a Culver’s, he said.
Laskowski said his career in sports plays a role in his job now because both require teamwork.
“I had a special job at IU, coming off the bench and trying to spark the team and the same is true here,” he said.
