Take a moment and imagine the perfect restaurant. Maybe this place resides off the coast of Spain, or is hidden somewhere within the maze of New York skyscrapers. Do they serve calamari garnished with flakes of gold? Or Japanese snow-aged wagyu? If it’s the perfect restaurant, then certainly it must come with a price. Once you have this place in mind, I’ll let you in on a secret: the restaurant that you’re thinking of is anything but perfect.
Contrary to popular belief, the perfect restaurant doesn’t need to be anything where the cost forces your bank account into crippling debt, or include an exclusive dining experience where your reservation must be placed six months in advance, complimented by a menu piled with options you can’t even pronounce. This “perfect” restaurant should be less of a fantasy and more of a reality. Maybe, the perfect place could be as simple as a chain restaurant that exists solely in parts of the Midwest and Southwest states. A restaurant that a vast majority of the population have never even heard of, and therefore, are desperately in need of an education on.
But, it’s fine, because Braum’s doesn’t have a waiting list. There’s no dress code. A meal at Braum’s isn’t expensive in the slightest and their food makes your taste buds feel as if they’ve been coddled and massaged into a state of infinite bliss. As long as you’re in the right place, you wouldn’t have to travel far to find one. And these reasons merely skim the surface on exactly why Braum’s is the kind of restaurant dreams are made of.
What is Braum’s?
Those who know can rest assured that as a self-proclaimed Braum’s connoisseur, I will accurately convey why Braum’s is a perfect restaurant in our world and plays such an integral part of the culture throughout parts of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. While some may want to gatekeep Braum’s (for good reason, I’ll admit) it must also be understood exactly why Braum’s garners such interest from those who’ve had the luxury of enjoying the cuisine, and why sheltering the restaurant in those select states is for the betterment of everyone everywhere.
For the uncultured many who have no idea what Braum’s is and are seeing the beautiful navy and pink logo for the first time in their life, it’s fairly simple to comprehend.
On the outside, Braum’s meets the definition of a fast-food restaurant. Its menu depicts so, showcasing burgers and fries and chicken and the coveted bag of burgers, along with the variety of ice cream that rivals any other dessert option. But Braum’s menu is simply the tip of the iceberg, hiding what separates them from the calamity of other fast-food restaurants that can grill a burger or fry fries and sling them out with ease.
Braum’s is part restaurant and part grocery store. A beautiful and practical culmination of Midwestern ingenuity that produced an answer to the question, “How can we possibly take this heralded establishment and make it infinitely better and more sensible for our customers?” That’s right, by lining the walls with freezers and fridges and compacting a grocery store into one small section of their restaurants. Braum’s Fresh Market allows customers to stock up on the necessary items and does so by sourcing their own baked goods and dairy products from their own plant situated in Tuttle, Oklahoma.
Want more praise for Braum’s? Those who have never had the experience of visiting a Braum’s or driving past one as they speed through the least desirable states in the country—again, the five states where Braum’s exists—have been isolated from doing so for good reason. According to their official website, Braum’s strictly keeps their stores within a 330 mile radius of their Dairy & Farm Plant in Tuttle, Oklahoma that’s mentioned above. Restricting their reach ensures that the company can “deliver freshness” via their own personal fleet of refrigerated trucks. I can’t say I’d expect the same from any of the other major fast-food restaurants who undoubtedly prioritize the longevity and preservation of their products to maximize profit.
Would you believe the claim that Wendy’s buns are sourced from privately owned bakeries that use locally-grown, non-herbicidal, ingredients handpicked by farmers who are only named Vernon? Or, that Burger King’s patties come from cattle that have never been dosed with antibiotics or confined to tight spaces but instead have been given an acre to roam freely and were serenaded nightly by the entire discography of the Grammy Award winning artist Seal?
No. Nobody would ever believe any of that, even if the stipulations were less ridiculous. Plenty of restaurants and companies claim to have similar standards to that of Braum’s, but there doesn’t seem to be much follow through with the companies that claim to hold themselves to these standards. And this is not to say that those highly-touted restaurants, the ones that are continually ranked as the best in the world, don’t make some of the best food in the world. Of course these places do. But just as someone who praises Braum’s will most likely never walk through the doors of a restaurant that serves Brazilian style pichana or crab croquettes, those who emphasize the perfect restaurant to those standards will never know what Braum’s has to offer.
In Braum’s country, one wouldn’t be able to travel far without spotting the tall-standing halogen “B”, a beacon of comfort and practicality amidst a sea of fast-food chains and restaurant options that could never be half as independently sourced or take into account the quality of standards that every guest should be treated to. And what helps Braum’s maintain this status is the fact that they truly uphold the kinds of standards most of the population would want to have in their restaurants, elevating them to a cult-like obsession for those who frequent their stores and those who desperately await their opportunity to return in the future. Although they are regionally separated from the rest of the country, it comes as no surprise that Braum’s versatility enables them to become an embodiment of the Midwestern lifestyle that is often misinterpreted by those who have not spent significant time there. A kind of simplicity that makes a concept like a grocery store within a fast-food restaurant sustain success since its inception in 1968.
Explaining what Braum’s is to those who are unaware will often lead them to interpret it as just another fast-food restaurant, but with an odd grocery store inside of it and slightly better ice cream. A fair assumption, one that’s naive and full of bias, but fair. Again, what propels Braum’s into the category of the perfect restaurant goes beyond the high-quality food and groceries, revolving instead around the larger-than-life, somewhat mythical qualities Braum’s often seems to represent for the diverse cultures of a region of the United States that is an afterthought.
Braum’s is a restaurant where the employees have saved kidnapped children.
The death of Braum’s founder, Bill Braum, brought upon a period of mourning for many people and news outlets throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Couples have gotten engaged at Braum’s.
There’s been numerous instances where people love Braum’s so much that they have no other choice but to drive their car directly into the store.
Even fugitives seek solace inside of Braum’s, hiding in the ceiling tiles so that their last feelings of freedom were surrounded by the serendipitous scents of burgers and ice cream.
With stories such as these it comes as no surprise that those who have never been to Braum’s and have never traversed the flat, forgettable land that comprises the part of the country where Braum’s exists wouldn’t consider it a perfect restaurant. And ultimately, the word perfect is subjective.
For many, Braum’s would be the opposite of perfect.
But, it’s plausible that those who side against Braum’s are most likely unappreciative of the eclectic cultures within the Midwest and Southwest regions whose simplicity and practicality are represented by a place as simple as a fast-food restaurant. In their eyes, Braum’s is perfect, but it’s their interpretation of perfect.
There’s perfect within the imperfect. And while that statement may be better served stenciled onto the wall of a white woman’s kitchen, it also applies to Braum’s. Braum’s values are inherently flawed, but those same values are why they’re business has—and always will be—aligned with the lower to middle class ethics of their territory. However, the concept of the perfect restaurant is more than what’s inside the establishment; beyond the locally-sourced ingredients and commitment to remain close to home. One’s interpretation of the perfect place should not be upheld to the standards created by one singular culture, but by the influence of the diversified experience.
If you’ve never been to Braum’s, how do you know that it’s not perfect?
How can you be certain that it’s a place not worth driving your car into?
You can’t. Until you seek out the experience, a consensus on Braum’s perfection can’t be established. But it goes without saying that those who have had the pleasure of experiencing Braum’s at least once in their life undoubtedly yearn to step foot through their doors once again, and they aim to do so with the knowledge that exactly where they are as well as what they’re eating, directly reflects the land they stand upon.
Sources:
Eater – Braum’s Is The Best American Fast-Food Chain You’ve Never Heard Of – Amy McCarthy