News

Record 30,000 spend Valentine's Day at White Castle

Valentine's Day pop-up (Photo: White Castle)

February 17, 2020

Over the past nearly 30 years, White Castle has accrued quite a name for itself as a Valentine's Day destination, and that proved itself this past weekend when a record-breaking number of more than 30,000 people spent part of their Friday dining at "The Castle" at its 29th Annual Valentine's Day dinner, according to a press release. In fact, this year even included a surprise marriage proposal in San Antonio, Texas, where a first-time-ever pop-up Castle was launched for the event, a news release said. 

Hundreds of Castles in 14 states participated in the day-long event which featured a more formal dining experience with hostess seating, red and white tablecloths, tableside service and decorations.  

"Our Valentine's Day celebration has been such a big event for us and for lovers of White Castle," said Jamie Richardson, vice president of White Castle, in the release. "We decided to expand the Valentine's Day dinner to give more of our Cravers the chance to enjoy this one-of-a-kind dining experience, and the easiest way to do this was by hosting a pop-up restaurant in a city outside of our existing footprint."

The burger chain chose San Antonio, Texas, as the site of its first-ever Valentine's Day pop-up because of the number of White Castle fans (via social media and other channels) there, the mild weather and because one of the brand's longtime retail partners,  H-E-B, is based there. The pop-up store was on-site for three days. 

In a show of appreciation to San Antonio, White Castle pledged a $15,000 donation to the San Antonio Food Bank and will make a $10 contribution on behalf of each diner at the pop-up this weekend, along with a portion of event t-shirt sales. In addition, today, White Castle’s Crave Mobile food truck will be open to the public and handing out a sack of four sliders to each customer who donates $5 to the Food Bank.

White Castle is based in Columbus, Ohio and has approximately 365 restaurants in the U.S.