Krystal

Rody Davenport Jr. and Glenn Sherrill opened the first Krystal in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in October 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression. The name came from Davenport’s wife, who saw a crystal ball lawn ornament and suggested the restaurant should be “clean as a crystal”, spelled with a K to stand out. It is the oldest burger chain in the South.

Krystal is inevitably compared with White Castle, and the family resemblance is real: small square burgers steamed with onions on soft buns, bought by the bag. The difference is mustard. A Krystal gets a squirt of yellow mustard and a pickle, which gives it a sharper, tangier bite that Southerners defend with surprising passion.

A few hundred restaurants across the American Southeast.