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In 1952, Gene Hoots purchased the Frigid Queen, a soft serve ice cream stand from his uncle, Bill Paullin. |
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It was located at the south end of a lot at 1508 Charleston Avenue. |
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For the first couple of years, the Frigid Queen operated from early spring to late fall, closing for the winter months. The stand was covered by a canvas tarpaulin during the winter. Gene worked side jobs in the winter to pay bills. |
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In 1954, to accommodate requests from workers at the telephone building across the street, Gene added a small griddle and deep fryer and began serving hamburgers and French fries. Thus, the Burger King was born. |
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In 1957, Gene now married to Betty Breningmeyer, acquired the empty Schudels Dry Cleaning plant on the back of the lot, and set up the Burger King as a separate facility. He often joked that in the early days he would run between the buildings to take care of customers. Combined newspaper ads for both businesses proclaimed that the Burger King was: “Behind the Frigid Queen”. |
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In March of 1959, the Frigid Queen building was moved to the back of the lot, right alongside the Burger King. Newspaper ads began stating that the Burger King was: “Beside the Frigid Queen”. At that time, the Frigid Queen was still the more recognizable name. Determined to make the soft serve business year round, the couple enclosed both buildings with a frame structure and a walk-in lobby. During a short shutdown at the end of the year, a closed in area was added in front of the Frigid Queen walk up window. |
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In 1965, the first major remodeling was done, with a brick front and a larger dining room added to the building. |
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The building in its present shape took form in 1974 when the dining room size was doubled. The interior brick wall down the middle of the present dining area was the outside wall of the first addition. The shell of the original Frigid Queen stand is still the basic structure for the ice cream window today. At that same time, the Hoots acquired the closed Sunoco gas station on the corner and had it razed to add more parking. |
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During the 1960’s business was good and growing and then along came a challenge from a growing chain based in Tampa, Florida called Burger King. The chain was expanding nationally and set to open its first Illinois location in Skokie in 1961. They discovered that Gene and Betty had registered the name in Illinois and a protracted legal battle ensued. In 1968, a Federal judge made a “Good Faith” exception ruling to the chains National Trademark and awarded the Hoots exclusive use of the name within a 20 mile radius of Mattoon. |
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Through all these years Gene and Betty worked side by side to grow the business. Betty could be seen every noon shift “dressing” hamburgers as they came off the grill. They insisted on using fresh hamburger, ground every day and high butterfat content soft serve. |
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For many years there were plate glass windows above the two flat-top grills and customers could stand and watch hamburgers being grilled. Watching long time grill-man, Jack Dewald, keep 72 hamburgers going on the two grills was a sight to behold. |
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During those years, Friday was universally “payday” and the downtown stores were open on Friday night, so it was a bell weather day for business. Rarely did the Friday pass that 2000 hamburgers were not served. On those days that hamburger sales reached 2000, every employee who worked that day was awarded a movie pass to the Mattoon and Time Theatres. Many a worker attended the movies regularly and never paid for a ticket. |
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The Burger King gained national attention in August of 1998 when 140 newspapers nationwide picked up an Associated Press story about the Mattoon Burger King. As a result of the AP story, the NBC Today Show did a feature on the restaurant that aired on September 4, 1998. |
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In 2015, Gene and Betty Hoots, both well into their 80’s decided to retire and sold the Burger King to a group of local businessmen. |
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On March 3, 2017, longtime Burger King employee and manager, Ernie Drummond and his wife Jodi purchased the business and have maintained the original operating style, right down to the iconic manila “number tag” and the lined order card. Reminiscent of longtime manager, Bill Douglas’s distinctive style, the sacker still calls out the numbers in a protracted call: “Number Thirty-Niiiiiiine!” |
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To a legion of former Mattoon residents, the Burger King is still a Must Stop on any return visit to Mattoon. |
