Burger King: The Flame That Started Here
Near Miami, Florida
The world's second-largest hamburger chain was born in Miami, and its origin story is more complicated than the corporate mythology suggests. In nineteen fifty-three, two entrepreneurs named Keith Cramer and Matthew Burns launched a restaurant in Jacksonville called Insta-Burger King, built around a patented cooking machine called the Insta-Broiler. The concept was inspired by a visit to the original McDonald's in San Bernardino, California. The Insta-Broiler reportedly proved unreliable.
When the Jacksonville chain ran into financial trouble, two of its Miami franchisees stepped in and changed the course of fast food history. David Edgerton and James McLamore bought the company in nineteen fifty-nine and replaced the troublesome Insta-Broiler with a gas-flame broiler of their own design. They kept the word Burger King and dropped Insta. They simplified the menu and concentrated their expansion in South Florida.
In nineteen fifty-seven, before the acquisition, McLamore had introduced a new item that would define the brand: the Whopper. The name came to him while trying to convey the sense of a large, generous burger, something that felt like more than you expected. It originally sold for thirty-seven cents. It became the most iconic fast-food sandwich in American history.
The company grew through franchise deals across the South and then the country. By the nineteen eighties, Burger King had become a genuine competitor to McDonald's, and the Whopper had gone global. The corporate headquarters moved and the ownership changed hands repeatedly, passing through the hands of Pillsbury, British conglomerates, and investment firms. But the chain that now operates in more than one hundred countries started with a machine that proved unreliable, two men in Miami who fixed it, and a burger that felt like it was worth a little extra.
