Whataburger’s opening in Fayetteville required law enforcement help

It was love as the first burger came off the grill at the new Whataburger, which opened nearly three weeks ago, according to the long lines still forming daily at the Fayetteville eatery. It’s crazy. And the police are now involved.

Traffic backs up daily along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as cars wait on the street and in the parking lot to place their order and circle around to the pick-up window to pull the familiar orange and white bag of burgers into their vehicles.

Off-duty Fayetteville police officers and Washington County Sheriff’s deputies have been positioned in the parking lot to direct burger seekers to the drive through lane or to the dine-in parking area. The police officers, often working four at a time, were paid by Whataburger in an arrangement with the City of Fayetteville. Sgt. Craig Stout, spokesman for the police department, didn’t have info on payment arrangements. But Stout did say he has never seen a restaurant opening causing so much excitement in Fayetteville.

The off-duty officers are expected to remain in place helping direct traffic through the next few weeks, especially as students come back to school, according to a corporate communications spokesman.

Once inside the restaurant, seating is at a premium at times during the day. Servers hustle back and forth from the kitchen to waiting, hungry diners.

“All this for a burger,” murmured one waiting customer for an order-to-go four days after the opening.

One manager, cleaning off tables and talking to customers, said he had never seen anything like the excitement Whataburger generated when it opened in Fayetteville — not even in Santa Monica, Calif., when he worked at a rival chain. A server said the opening day line of cars rolling through drive-through continued until the wee hours of the morning. The restaurant is open 24 hours.

Whataburger is a privately held company based in San Antonio whose sales figures aren’t publicized, according to the spokesman.

“I can tell you we were thrilled with the number of people who visited us on opening day and since then, and we’ve had record-breaking sales for our company at that location,” noted an e-mail from Whataburger corporate offices. “I can’t say enough how much we appreciate the warm welcome we’ve received in Northwest Arkansas.”

The store employs a staff of 90 and regional operations employees were in Fayetteville during the first few days to handle the crush of customers.

Meanwhile, another 60-to-90 workers will be hired for the Rogers store which is slated to open later this month. The new Whataburger is located in the Pleasant Grove shopping area off Interstate 49. The burger chain will be stone’s throw from the very busy Chick-fil-A restaurant that also draws long lines mid-day that circle the building and create traffic backlogs along Pleasant Grove Road. 

Two more Whataburger restaurants are planned in Fayetteville and Springdale. The second Fayetteville store will be located on the northeast corner of College Avenue and Joyce Boulevard. The Springdale location is on Elm Springs Road, about two blocks west of Interstate 49. Opening dates haven’t been announced. Both of these areas are also heavily traveled daily.

The burger chain will coordinate with city police if traffic requires officer presence like in the first Fayetteville location.

The first restaurant opened in 1950 in Corpus Christi, Texas and celebrated its 65th anniversary this month. Its annual sales approach $1 billion at nearly 800 restaurants in 10 states. The only other Arkansas location is in Texarkana. There are several locations in Tulsa, Okla. 

Harmon Dobson, co-founder of Whataburger, was born in Arkansas and was buried in his hometown of Batesville in 1967 when he was killed a plane crash. Dobson’s family has continued to run the burger chain since that time. The Dobson family has a net worth of $2.6 billion according to Forbes Riches Families in 2015, and their wealth grew more than $1 billion from 2014.