Butterburger, Anyone?Find out why fast-food newcomer Culver's is overcoming consumers' initial reactions.

Elizabeth and Ashley, my 9-and 12-year-old daughters, wereadamant: "Butterburgers? That's gross, Daddy." Therewas no way they were going to ride with me for an hour, each way,to try a restaurant featuring frozen custard and Butterburgers. Iexpected this objection as I, too, had imagined a cold stick ofbutter sandwiched between two buns, but reviewing new concepts ispart of Daddy's career.

I explained to my daughters that we were going to a Culver'sFrozen Custard, a somewhat upscale fast-food restaurant, becauseit's part of a young franchise chain experiencing phenomenalgrowth in the upper Midwest. In fact, it's the No. 1 custardfranchise-- No. 175 overall--in狗万官方's 1999Franchise 500®. We were headed to one of only three locationsin Texas. Although Culver's has more than 55 locations inWisconsin, I couldn't see how the concept could survive inTexas with an unknown name and limited marketing impact. Then wetasted our first Butterburgers.