Carl's Jr. began in 1941 as a Los Angeles hot-dog cart run by Carl and Margaret Karcher.
The Karchers used savings to start a small hot-dog business in Los Angeles during the early 1940s. They later opened a drive-in restaurant, and the business expanded into a chain. The smaller-format restaurants that followed were called Carl's Jr., a name that distinguished them from the larger Carl's Drive-In Barbecue restaurants.
This origin story is easy to confuse with the later history of the Carl's Jr. brand, which became especially associated with hamburgers and West Coast expansion. The company's menu and visual identity changed substantially over time, but its roots remained in the Karchers' mobile hot-dog operation.
Carl's Jr. is part of the same broader corporate family as Hardee's in the United States. The two brands have sometimes shared menu items and advertising, although their names and regional identities have remained distinct in many markets.