The Heartwarming Story Behind The Smallest Culver's

Culver's is an underappreciated chain in the fast food industry. On top of the chain's delicious ButterBurgers, Culver's is known for its tasty and unique root beer and custard rather than soft serve ice cream. Thanks to these unique menu times, the Midwestern chain is considered one of the best regional fast food chains in the United States by people lucky enough to find themselves in proximity to one.

On top of its menu that stands out from its competition, Culver's is one of the only fast food chains to have a miniature location. Known as "Little Culver's," this replica of a Culver's restaurant is located in Oregon, Wisconsin, and was erected to bring awareness to a new Culver's location that was being constructed a few blocks away. While this miniature restaurant was far too small to be a functioning location, it still wore the Culver's moniker with pride. The community was already excited for a new Culver's, but Little Culver's became a community hotspot in its own right. Although the Oregon, WI, Culver's location opened in March 2023 and has since been operational — thus making Little Culver's no longer necessary — many still fondly remember Little Culver's.

Little Culver's was created by Dana Terrian, a self-declared Culver's superfan. As he eagerly awaited for construction to start on the new location, he decided to take things into his own hands and open his own Culver's in-miniature. The completed replica had its own True Blue Crew employee and a drive-thru lane.

Word about the tiny Culver's started to spread; soon people were lining up to admire the tiny restaurant. However, Little Culver's really took off when visitors started adding toy cars to the drive-thru line. The total number of cars peaked at 1,641, including race cars, tractors, monster trucks, and more. At one point, Little Culver's even captured the attention of Craig Culver, the founder of Culver's, who happily paid a visit to the tiny restaurant. Once the construction on the new Culver's started, the miniature location's mission to spread the word became obsolete. The decision was made to take the replica down and donate all the toy cars to Goodwill. Still, Little Culver's isn't entirely lost to time; the tiny building is on display in the Oregon, Wisconsin, Culver's location for customers to admire.