Elvis' Favorite Fast Food Burger Didn't Come From McDonald's

Elvis was well known for having a sensational appetite, scarfing down favorites like home-cooked Southern cuisine with gusto. He had a particular affinity for rich and filling foods, reportedly consuming meatloaf and mashed potatoes at dinnertime for an entire six months at one point. Yet, between satiating fried foods and enjoying his favorite sweet and savory sandwich, fast food cheeseburgers were also calling his name. While McDonald's may be the destination of choice for many Americans today, when the King reigned over the airwaves, he preferred the unique taste of sliders from Krystal.

After introducing folks to Elvis for the first time on the radio, DJ "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips and The Memphis Flash ordered 100 burgers from a local Krystal restaurant. Not long after, a crowd gathered to see Elvis in person, where he and Phillips handed out every one of the tiny sandwiches to hungry fans. What was likely intended to be a one-off PR event ended up becoming something of a love affair between Presley and Krystal's sliders. 

At his Graceland mansion, Elvis frequently ordered Krystal sliders for anyone in attendance. Occasionally, he would get McDonald's fare as well, but Mr. Sideburns seemed to harbor a specific adoration for Krystal's square sliders made with steamed-in onions. Although not as well known as the Golden Arches, Krystal still serves sliders today to hungry customers in parts of the U.S.

Most people weren't quite bold enough to open a new restaurant during the Great Depression, but that is exactly what Rody Davenport Jr. and J. Glenn Sherrill did in 1932. The first Krystal debuted in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a modest 25-by-10-foot building purchased for $5,000. Back when it first opened, folks could get six sliders and a cup of coffee for only 35 cents. Elvis, who grew up in a working class family that was often strapped for cash, surely appreciated the budget-minded Krystal.

Today, Krystal has a wide variety of menu items, including breakfast choices such as biscuits and gravy and scrambler bowls with scrambled eggs, grits, American cheese, and sausage or bacon. For meals later in the day, the restaurant serves chicken sandwich sliders, wings, chili cheese pups (the restaurant's playful name for a mini-hot dog), and of course, the iconic sliders with onions cooked in that started it all. People can snag a milkshake and fries or tater tots with their burger or order the beloved sliders by the sackful.

When you travel across the country, you see McDonald's locations around every corner (there is even a rather exclusive McDonald's in the Pentagon), but Krystal is more elusive. It currently has just under 300 locations strewn mostly throughout the South including restaurants in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi. Elvis left the building long ago, but Krystal remains a Southern fast food gem some folks just can't get enough of.