Whataburger ~ regional chain : Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Feb 2024 (Interquest)

First visit: 1977 (Dallas, TX - Walnut Hill Rd.)

HQ: San Antonio, TX

Locations: 17 states (incl DC) with 1,012 total (+75). Texas is up to 736 (+20). Colorado is now at 6 (+3), all here in Colorado Springs. Our old local in Keller is still open.

Back again for the RJG annual review. I could just cut and paste the below and serve my purpose here. This time I was the only one in the drive-thru at lunch on a Friday. The signs are all around us folks. Get ready for a bumpy landing. But at $11.50 for a double cheeseburger, and nothing else, it's only a matter of time when the business just dries up. Though, as the Locations above suggest, Whataburger is still in aggressive growth mode. Other than that, my double cheeseburger experience was exactly as below. Except this time I watched the last episode of The Winter King (S1) on my Friday lunch break from work. 

---2/5/23 notes

Time for a yearly checkup. I anticipate going here about 4 to 6 times a year. I think this is our 4th visit since they've opened, which is much more than our last days in Keller, though far short of my peak times of the late 80s (bigger appetite in those days!). Been using the drive-thru, and on this visit the order turnaround time was particularly slow. I arrived around 11:00 in the morning, and there weren't that many vehicles in the double lane drive through. I would say only one car moved in 10 minutes, which is egregious for a fast food place. Whatever the case, they managed to get my order right, and I always throw it into the air fryer when I get home anyway, just to crisp the bread and ensure everything is hot. I had what I always have - the double meat with cheese and no tomato. And it was great - perfect for watching Jack Ryan on a slow Sunday late morning. :-)

Whataburger has expanded 2 more locations here in Colorado Springs since our last update. These 3 are the only locales in Colorado total. Overall Whataburger are currently in 14 southern states and 937 total (up 49 from last year) with 716 of those in Texas (+8). Like with Jersey Mike's, these are impressive totals considering most chains are shedding locations at a rapid clip. Our old Keller location seems alive and well.

---4/21/22 notes

Well lookee here - we now have a Whataburger here in Colorado Springs! As I've said in a couple of other places, it's as if we never left Texas. Since moving here, Colorado Springs has added In-N-Out and Torchy's in addition to Whataburger. And when we arrived we were greeted by Fuzzy's. As well as national chains like Freddy's, Five Guys, Jersey Mike's, Dickey's, etc.. All within a stones throw of where we live here up in the far northern part of the city.

As with the case of In-N-Out, the lines were insane at first. However, Whataburger is open 24 hours, and there's no pandemic keeping everyone in their car with nothing better to do. As such those lines subsided in a couple of months instead of years. For this visit, I went inside to inspect. They've spiffed up their look. It's larger than the ones in Texas (or at least the last ones I've been to), with plenty of seating all around. I ordered by usual Double Whataburger with cheese (no tomato). Just as I remembered it! Well cool, I have yet another quick lunch place to visit - as long as I go early.

In doing personal research, I surprised myself that I didn't go to our local Texas Whataburger (Keller) for the last three years we lived in NE Tarrant. Huh. Not really sure why that happened actually... So that makes it seven years since I last had one. Way too long.

---original 11/30/11 review (Keller)

I know, I know. "Gee RJG, where do you find these obscure restaurants anyway?" To Texans, Whataburger is family. They're the little brother we pick on. We call them gross, stinky, dumb, and goober. But we don't mean it. Now that In-N-Out Burger is here, suddenly we become all protective, and yell back that Californians don't know what a good burger is. Hell, if they could only eat a Whataburger then they'd know!! But it's really two entirely different burger experiences. Whataburger's are Texan BIG. In-N-Out's are Californian fresh.

When I was kid in the 1970s, it was always a treat when my Mom would take me over to the closest one to our house, which was on Walnut Hill in NW Dallas (an old A-Frame building of course) near the UPS depot. They were also there in Lubbock when I attended Texas Tech in the mid 1980s. I loved them then, and I still do. Though they suffer from the same problems that most large franchises do - inconsistency. But if I'm looking for a quick burger at lunch while working, I tend to wander over to my local Whataburger (which is definitely one of their more consistent franchises) and get a double meat with cheese. It's quick, relatively cheap, and usually very good. We didn't have them in Colorado (ed: at the time), a good reminder for me at least that we take them for granted. They're far better than the publicly traded companies in this space like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jr/Hardees, etc...

When I first started going to Whataburger 35-40 years ago, they weren't much more than a small Texas chain from Corpus Christi. Today they are ubiquitous throughout the south region. 

Stop by your local branch if you haven't been in awhile!

1977; 1983; 1989; 5/2/05; 11/6/06; 12/14/09; 11/30/11 (new entry); 6/14/12; 2/13/15; 4/21/22; 2/5/23; 2/2/24

Dallas, Texas (2); Lubbock, Texas; Colleyville, Texas; Keller, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado