News

White Castle plants a flag in Super Craver Alice Cooper's home turf

A White Castle fan at Wednesday's groundbreaking. Photo provided.

April 11, 2019

The privately owned White Castle chain has planted a shovel in Arizona. The state's first White Castle will open on East Via de Ventura in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's Talking Stick Entertainment District near Scottsdale, a news release said. 

It should be up and running by this coming fall, but it may be tough to outdo the celebrity appearance at the groundbreaking Wednesday when shock rocker and White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame member, Alice Cooper, showed up.

The often outrageous, always heavily made-up rock star actually was known to choose tour locations based on a location's proximity to White Castle restaurants. He was inducted in the burger chain's Hall of Fame "Craver in Extremis" category about five years ago.

"Being inducted into the Cravers Hall of Fame will go down as one of my all-time favorite honors," Cooper said at the groundbreaking. "They promised me a Castle close by, but I never thought they would do it! This is going to be epic."

Columbus, Ohio-based White Castle considers this location part of its "venture west," according to the news release. 

"White Castle has so many fans in the Phoenix area who have been clamoring for us to come," White Castle President and CEO Lisa Ingram, said in the release. "Many years ago, we sent semi-trucks full of sliders across the nation to Fountain Hills to temporarily satisfy their Crave. Today, we're officially here for the long haul."