88-year-old White Castle serves last sliders to nostalgic crowd

By Joseph S. Pete

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    WHITING, Indiana (The Times) — For years, the “millionaire’s club” met every morning in the corner booth of the White Castle at Indianapolis Boulevard and 119th Street in downtown Whiting.

The men, far from millionaires but rich with a sense of humor, sidled into their favorite seats, where they could watch the cars in the drive-thru, nurse their drip coffee and solve the world’s problems over breakfast sliders.

Over the years, as members aged, the group dwindled from six to a few.

Millionaire’s club member Jesse Morando of Whiting visited the porcelain castle-shaped White Castle every day since returning from the Vietnam War. They knew his order: a cup of coffee with seven ice cubes and four sliders, one for him and three for his dog, a dachshund named Nestor.

He’s going to miss the place.

The landmark building, one of the oldest in the Chicago area with the original castle design, served its final slider Tuesday. Heaps of steaming onions, little square hamburger patties and puffy buns were piled on the grills while a crowd gathered to get one final taste of nostalgia in the vintage White Castle that resembles the diner in Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.”

A bigger restaurant next door is scheduled to open in May. The longtime White Castle, which has been the subject of exhibits at the Whiting-Roberstdale Historical Society Museum, had to be closed to make room for construction, said Jamie Richardson, White Castle’s vice president of marketing and public relations.

The iconic White Castle, 1879 Indianapolis Blvd., was a 24/7 fast-food restaurant that long catered at all hours to refinery workers getting off the late shift or bar-goers after a night of carousing on 119th Street’s many taverns. A staple of life in Whiting, it drew many out-of-towners after Northwest Indiana Oilman games, trips to the nearby Hammond Horseshoe Casino or even during Pierogi Fest.

Employees there, many of whom were Whiting High School or George Rogers Clark High School students working a first job, grilled more than 106 million sliders over the years.

Company representatives, city officials, past employees, regular customers and curious passersby gathered Tuesday to bid farewell to the old building.

“We’re here today to celebrate the past and the future,” Mayor Steven Spebar said. “We’re here to reminisce about the old White Castle and to celebrate this development that will serve Whiting for many years to come. On behalf of the city, I have come to complement White Castle for its investment and believing in the city of Whiting.”

White Castle plans to donate some items, such as kitchen equipment and pieces of porcelain, to the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society for display.

“There are many good memories,” Spebar said. “I’ve come here many times over the years. It’s had great patronage from the town over the years.”

The White Castle was built in 1935 and remodeled in 1956. It was 1,296 square feet, seating 18 to 21 diners in a row of booths along big windows that lit up at night, beckoning to anybody with a late-night craving for sliders. The new 2,997-square-foot restaurant will seat 50.

The 88-year-old building will be razed to make room for an outdoor picnic area with a few benches and a historic marker chronicling Columbus, Ohio-based White Castle’s long presence at the heavily trafficked intersection. The new will pay tribute to the old. White Castle commissioned Adan Ramirez, a multimedia artist from the Southeast Side of Chicago, to paint a mural showcasing the history.

“I hang over here often,” he said. “I go to Calumet College. I go kayaking in Wolf Lake. I got to the gym here. I wanted to represent the whole area.”

His photo-realistic collage features images of the vintage White Castle, the Welcome to Whiting sign, storefronts along 119th Street, the breakwall at Whiting Lakefront Park, a train and a great blue heron poking out of the reeds at nearby Wolf Lake in Hammond’s adjoining Robertsdale neighborhood.

“I used to come here often to get a late-night snack,” he said. “It is definitely going to be nostalgic and sad that it’s going to be gone, but at the same time White Castle is still here.”

The White Castle will go from 30 employees to 50. It will have a larger kitchen, with eight griddles instead of four to get orders out faster. It will have a display case with the spatula that served the final slider Tuesday along with the first when the new restaurant opens.

Linda Gajewski’s sister’s boyfriend worked at the original White Castle before the drive-thru was added. He took her to the back where he had hidden her engagement ring in an onion-rings box.

Tom and Susan Adam are still married.

“They’ve been married 50 years now coming up,” she said. “It was just a great story. It was just a great way for that to happen.”

Ron Vrabel, a lifelong resident of Whiting, has been going to the White Castle since he was a kid, when his father owned a business just down the street.

“I’ve been coming every morning for 40 years,” he said. “I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do until the new place opens. It’s like losing a friend. If I’m driving by and they see me at the stoplight, they have my coffee waiting on the counter when I come in. It’s like Norm at Cheers.”

Ethan Montenegro said the White Castle was a big supporter of schools and students in the community.

“Everyone at George Rogers Clark loved this place,” he said. “I hope it continues to stay open really late. I’ve been here at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.”

Kim Dollins worked her first job there as a teen in the 1970s and went on to become a manager who helped open many other White Castles around Chicago, including in Calumet City and Carol Stream.

“I became friends with lots of people,” she said. “I met some wonderful friends. We did get to know the regular coffee drinkers and have their coffee ready when they would pull into the lot.”

Samantha Fernandez, Morando’s daughter, said her dad has been coming there every day for as long as she can remember. She so closely associated him with the building that it’s her cellphone photo for him when he calls.

Nestor, a fan of human food, snatched a slider from him one day, and Morando’s been feeding him White Castle ever since.

“Every day, no matter what, even when he’s not feeling good, the dog gets White Castle,” his wife, Laura, said. “When he has that bag, that dog is patiently waiting. He knows what’s in that bag.”

It’s a family tradition. After cutting down a Christmas tree every year and after Whiting’s Christmas parade, they get White Castle and hot chocolate. He gives White Castle gift cards to his children, grandchildren and their significant others for Christmas.

“He was going to stop it one year,” Laura Morando said. “He said, ‘I think they just want money.’ So I told the kids and they said ‘No, we want White Castle’.”

It’s where they celebrated Valentine’s Day and graduations, buying sacks of sliders and bringing them home to eat them outside on the lawn.

“It’s a family thing,” she said. “We’ve been coming here since you could get a whole bag of White Castles for a dollar.”

Jesse Morando looks forward to going to the new restaurant and hopes the spirit of customer service carries over.

“They get to know you and your order. Some places try to get you out as fast as they can,” he said. “Here they let you sit down, talk and have a good time. They ask you if you want more coffee. They go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. It’s a new building, but I hope that never changes.”

For Laura Morando, White Castle has been a longtime institution in the community.

“It’s going to be sad it won’t be here,” she said. “But times, they change.”

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