White Castle was founded by restaurateur Billy Ingram in Wichita in 1921.
Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson established White Castle as a hamburger business designed around consistency, cleanliness, and efficient service. The first restaurant opened in Wichita, Kansas, on September 13, 1921. Its white architecture and castle-like styling helped create the chain’s distinctive identity.
White Castle’s small square hamburgers are widely known as sliders. The company did not originally use “slider” as the universal name for every small burger, but its sandwiches helped make the term famous in American food culture. The patties are commonly cooked with onions, which steam alongside the meat.
White Castle is separate from Krystal, a later Southern chain with a similar small square-burger format. White Castle’s founding city and year are Wichita and 1921, respectively.