Flameout: The Rise and Fall of Burger Chef

Flameout: The Rise and Fall of Burger Chef by: by John P. McDonald Read: November 2014 I sorta remember Burger Chef from my young childhood. I remember poking around on the Internet a few years ago reading about the chain, but the spot on Mad Men really rekindled by interest in it. Found this book on the history of the chain, and I bought a Amazon Fire in the fall, and this book was available to read for free! It follows the story from the founders, who were basically engineers who had made various equipment for the restaurant industry. The Burger Chef idea was originally a way for the company to sell more equipment by providing a turn key business that people could take advantage of the hamburger craze of the 50's and on. They grew to become the second largest chain behind McDonald's and were within a breath of becoming #1 but the size of the organization hit its limits. Due to the way they had structured the franchises the company was having problems getting access to capital. They sold to General Foods who spent years tinkering with the successful model, alienating the franchise owners and they eventually fell behind the other chains and died out.