The owner of Culver’s in Mobile is eyeing the MS Gulf Coast for his next franchise
A Culver’s restaurant may be in the cards for the Mississippi Coast.
Entrepreneur Patrick Taylor opened his first Culver’s franchise in Mobile and his five-year plan includes expanding with a second restaurant in Mississippi.
Culver’s is known for butter burgers, cheese curds and frozen custards. The burgers earned the name because the buns are buttered and grilled. The menu also includes beef pot roast, pastrami sandwiches and hearty soups.
Taylor said he is in the “very early stages” of planning his second restaurant. He opened the Mobile location last January.
“Culver’s is fantastic,” wrote Emily Bacian in a Google review. “It was worth the wait to get one built here in Mobile. My family and I have been fans of this place since we tried them in Tampa, Florida.”
Taylor grew up with a Culver’s restaurant in his small hometown in Illinois.
“I took for granted everyone had a Culver’s,” he said.
Taylor recognized the opportunity to introduce the brand to the Gulf Coast while visiting cousins in the area and vacationing on the Coast for more than a decade.
“I moved to the region because it is an expanding area for Culver’s,” Taylor said. “They already have plenty of franchises in Florida, so any I would do would be west of Mobile.”
Taylor has already noted the Coast’s interest in having a local Culver’s. “I work in the restaurant just about every day and we get quite a few guests from Mississippi,” he said.
Franchise owners can open up to four restaurants. Any more than that would require involving partners. Taylor’s goal is to open 50 restaurants in the Southeast.
Taylor gave three reasons he was drawn to the brand: small town roots, family values and excellent frozen custard. He always compares the franchise to Chick-fil-A.
“We serve burgers. They serve chicken,” he said. “But what we really serve is our guests.”
