It took a long time for me to try Whataburger, but I never looked back once I did. I plan all of my road food trips with a stop at one of the almost 40 Whataburger locations in Florida. There is a complete listing of all of them below after all the Whataburger food pictures.
The double patty with cheese is a great burger. I was surprised that I liked it this much because when I’m told how awesome something is, disappointment is usually on the horizon.
My biggest regret after every visit is not taking a burger for the road. But at least I still have the Fancy Ketchup, so I can dip my fingers if I get desperate.
I’ve become such a super fan after my first visit years ago that my friend Phillip surprised me with a Whataburger Pez Dispenser. Unfortunately or fortunately, it was not burger-flavored.
Whataburger in Florida plus History
Whataburger Fancy Ketchup Talk
I had also heard many great things about Whataburger‘s Fancy Ketchup. It was so popular that, at one point, Fancy Ketchup had a Facebook page with over 16,000 fans.
So, the ketchup comes in those little sauce tubs at the restaurants, perfect for the boneless chicken. The first thing I hit up was the fries, mostly because I wasn’t about to dip my fingers in the ketchup alone. The fries were crispy, but man, that ketchup!
In retrospect, just dipping my fingers in it might not have been so bad an idea.
Back in the day, I’d have to horde those little ketchup tubs for later usage. Please note that the nearest Whataburger in Florida is 5 hours from my house.
As of May 2013, the Fancy Ketchup and Spicy Ketchup can be bought online and at supermarkets. Not only are they available in a variety of packs, but the sauce line has been expanded to include Buffalo, Buttermilk Ranch, Creamy Pepper, Honey BBQ, Honey Mustard, Jalapeño Spicy Ranch, Mayo, and Mustard. There’s even a Whataburger Pancake Mix!
Food Talk
Truthfully, my first Whataburger experience was in Tallahassee, Florida, for breakfast. The jalapeño cheddar biscuit sandwich with hash brown sticks made me a fan instantly!
While the shoestring fries are good by fast food standards, it’s the Spicy Ketchup used for dipping them that’s the game changer.
I eat my burgers without veggies; well, that’s not true; onions make an appearance quite often. Whataburger‘s five-inch bun and American cheese are all I need with my burger patties.
When I see a limited-time burger that might catch my eye, like the sweet and spicy bacon cheeseburger, I’ll try it.
However, 99 out of 100 times, I’m all about the Jalapeño Double Cheeseburger with onions and yellow mustard. For me, it doesn’t get any better than this.
For Dessert? A fried pie, of course, preferably the apple.
Whataburger Florida Locations
702 N Tyndall Parkway Callaway, Florida (850) 250-1073 | 2300 S Highway 29 Cantonment, Florida (850) 968-2470 |
8340 N Century Boulevard Century, Florida (850) 256-4020 | 3850 S Ferdon Boulevard Crestview, Florida (850) 689-2800 |
2434 US Highway 331 S Defuniak Springs, Florida (850) 892-6107 | 101 Harbor Boulevard Destin, Florida (850) 650-7708 |
190 Eglin Pkwy NE Fort Walton Beach, Florida (850) 244-1951 | 23 Miracle Strip Pkwy SW Fort Walton Beach, Florida (850) 244-9167 |
399 Mary Esther Cut Off NW Fort Walton Beach, Florida (850) 864-1970 | 1135 Gulf Breeze Highway Gulf Breeze, Florida (850) 934-6180 |
10600 San Jose Blvd Jacksonville, Florida (904) 337-6340 | 11559 Atlantic Blvd Jacksonville, Florida (904) 425-9755 |
7165 Philips Highway Jacksonville, Florida (904) 281-7900 | 7755 Normandy Boulevard Jacksonville, Florida (904) 693-0181 |
8239 Old Middleburg Road S Jacksonville, Florida (904) 371-3347 | 8325 Southside Blvd Jacksonville, Florida (904) 900-5330 |
8840 Beach Boulevard Jacksonville, Florida (904) 642-7947 | 2401 S Highway 77 Lynn Haven, Florida (850) 265-2099 |
1778 Blanding Boulevard Middleburg, Florida (904) 406-7418 | 4983 Highway 90 Milton, Florida (850) 995-2580 |
5346 Stewart Street Milton, Florida (850) 626-4350 | 6920 Navarre Parkway Navarre, Florida (850) 515-1185 |
1201 Atlantic Boulevard Neptune Beach, Florida (904) 270-2840 | 4450 E Highway 20 Niceville, Florida (850) 897-0271 |
289 Blanding Boulevard Orange Park, Florida (904) 215-0999 | 5648 Woodbine Road Pace, Florida (850) 994-1033 |
11749 Panama City Beach Parkway Panama City Beach, Florida (850) 230-2508 | 1313 N New Warrington Road Pensacola, Florida (850) 453-3141 |
1790 W Fairfield Drive Pensacola, Florida (850) 444-9161 | 214 E Nine Mile Road Pensacola, Florida (850) 484-2776 |
417 E Gregory Street Pensacola, Florida (850) 438-4636 | 5070 N 9th Avenue Pensacola, Florida (850) 478-0563 |
5480 Pensacola Boulevard Pensacola, Florida (850) 477-4298 | 6129 Mobile Highway Pensacola, Florida (850) 944-7948 |
815 E Burgess Road Pensacola, Florida (850) 480-5265 | 10725 Emerald Coast Parkway Sandestin, Florida (850) 650-6607 |
2850 County Road 210 W St Johns, Florida (904) 342-3012 | 105 CBL Drive St. Augustine, Florida (904) 342-6028 |
179 Village Commons Drive St. Augustine, Florida (904) 429-1358 | 1101 Thomasville Rd Tallahassee, Florida (850) 681-9202 |
1701 W Tennessee St Tallahassee, Florida (850) 222-4484 | 2511 Apalachee Pkwy Tallahassee, Florida (850) 942-7886 |
2586 N Monroe St Tallahassee, Florida (850) 386-6191 | 815 Lake Bradford Rd Tallahassee, Florida (850) 575-8602 |
463773 State Rd 200 Yulee, Florida (904) 548-9715 |
Whataburger History
Paul Barton and Harmon Dobson founded Whataburger. They opened their first restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, on August 8, 1950, right across from Del Mar College. A couple of months earlier, Dobson had met Burton and decided to finance a small hamburger joint.
His goal was to create a better burger that was so large that it would take two hands to hold. The burger also had to taste so good that when you took the first bite, you would exclaim, “What a burger!”
The Texas Secretary of State’s office made the “Whataburger” trademark official on June 23, 1950.
A-Frame Buildings
The first Whataburger location was a modest building, but they later became known for their iconic giant A-frame buildings. The roofs were colored with orange and white stripes because Dobson, a pilot, wanted to spot his restaurants from the sky.
The first of these buildings opened in 1961 in Odessa, Texas. Some former A-frame buildings have been repurposed by other burger joints, like John’s Drive-in in Fort Meade, Florida.
Dobson was known to fly over Corpus Christi’s skies with a “Whataburger” banner in tow. His great advertising idea didn’t end there. He would also drop coupons for free Whataburgers.
Whataburger Creation
Dobson wanted something more massive than the standard two-ounce burger patties on a tiny bun. His Whataburger was a quarter-pound patty grilled to order with lettuce, three slices of tomato, four pickles, chopped onions, mustard, and ketchup.
The larger burger called for a more substantial bun, but a five-inch bun did not exist yet. After finding a company that could make the custom pans and molds, they were in business.
On opening day, the menu consisted of twenty-five-cent burgers, chips, and drinks. The first day’s take was fifty dollars, with ninety-one more trickling in over the next couple of days.
On the fourth day, Dobson wrote in his diary:
Big day―$141.80―Christ―What a workhorse. 551 burgers.
Yup, they were onto something, all right.
Dobson Takes Over
Burton and Dobson’s partnership ended in 1951 over a disagreement about raising the price of their burgers from twenty-five to thirty cents. Under their new agreement, Burton owned all franchises in the San Antonio, Texas, area. He was a loyal Whataburger operator until he died in 1970.
Dobson retained control of the rest of the Whataburger company. Dobson, who had a great sense of humor, posted a giant sign outside the restaurant with this message:
“Folks, we priced our burgers too low, and we lost our shirts. Sorry, but we gotta raise the price to thirty cents.”
Customers found the sign charming and were not about to give up their Whataburger over five cents. Funny enough, a few short months later, he raised the price again to thirty-five cents.
First Franchise and Expansion
The first Whataburger franchise was sold to Joe Andrews in 1953. In 1959, the first Whataburger restaurant outside of Texas opened in Pensacola, Florida.
Eight years later, they had almost forty locations and were in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.
On April 11, 1967, tragedy struck. Dobson took off in his Cessna Skymaster airplane, and something went wrong after takeoff. The aircraft crashed, killing him and his passenger instantly.
Dobson’s will stated his desire for Whataburger to continue after his death, and his wife Grace followed in his footsteps and led the company. Their son Tom Dobson was later elected president of Whataburger in December 1993.
Current Company Status
The eighties were not a good decade for Whataburger. They lost focus on their signature dish, the Whataburger.
Tom, along with his new management team, turned around the company’s fortunes. They revitalized their relationships with the franchisees, improved their marketing efforts, and made sure their locations received a facelift.
Whataburger was proclaimed a Texas Treasure during the Seventy-seventh Session of the Texas Legislature in 2001.
Today, Whataburger has more than 900 locations in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and, of course, their home state, Texas.
Now, over 50 years later, Whataburger has stood the test. It is now owned by a Chicago investment firm, with the Dobson family holding a minority interest. The new owners are working on continued expansion plans with the family’s blessing.
Burger King Whopper Connection
Burger King‘s founders, David Edgerton and Jim McLamore were driving from a Jacksonville Insta Burger King (what the company was initially known as) location to a new Insta Burger King in Gainesville. The building was a prefab, which meant it could be moved if it didn’t do well in its current spot.
After a few hours there, not one customer had walked in. However, customers were lined up at the Whataburger restaurant just down the block. The sign outside announced a giant hamburger, so McLamore got in line and ordered two burgers.
The unwrapped sandwich featured a quarter-pound hamburger patty on a five-inch wide bun topped with lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, pickles, onions, and ketchup. He took one bite and understood the hype.
On his walk back to Insta Burger King, he finished his burger and gave Edgerton the second one. Edgerton liked it, too. On their drive back to Miami, they talked about adding a more massive burger to their menu and then marketing it.
They chose the name “Whopper.”
*History is an excerpt from my book All About the Burger.
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Hello to whoever reads this , Can you have someone please build a restaurant in Minneola fla 34715 ……. Me and my wife and our friends drive all the way up to saint Augustine fl that’s the only one . We are located by the fla turnpike . Please can you guys build one in our area please
yup #561
We NEED Whataburger’s in South Florida.
Totally agree.