There are many times at Culver's that we get busy.  'Busy' is a term that consists of doing more than $800 in sales in an hour.  That may not sound like a lot, however, when most meals average around $6/meal it definitely is a lot of food in an hour. 

Besides the normal Friday night rush that we get ever week, there are two other distinct times we can count on being very busy and having all hands on deck.  $1 butter burger days and after any Mukwonago musical performance or high school football game days.  Everyone is always hoping they are not the ones who get scheduled for that day.  Yes, that includes me. :-)

Let's first talk about $1 butter burger days.  This day is absolute insanity.  It's almost like people think we are actually giving the burgers away for free! On a normal busy night the drive-thru can be backed up about 8 or 9 cars deep.  On butter burger night 16 deep and waiting in the road to turn in the drive-thru.  We all have this perception that if we go through the drive-through that its going to be fast.  In fact, Culver's standard is to get all drive thru orders within 7 minutes of the order being placed.  (If you are on drive-thru and you are not meeting these times, you will most certainly be yelled at or taken off drive-thru.  Yep, it's that serious!)  On butter burger night that 7 minutes was absolutely not possible.  It was not possible for many reasons.  The lobby was backed up just as much as the drive-thru, the kitchen could not keep up with the demand and we ran out of buns.  Running out of buns on butter burger day is not good planning.  Thankfully Pick and Save is right down the road and as you may have already guessed, we send someone to go get more buns.  Trust me, you are always wishing you are the one chosen for that job just to get the heck out of the craziness.  Needless to say, we did not meet any of our timelines that night.  Most people waited for 45 minutes for their food in a 'fast food' restaurant. 

If the Mukwonago performances are on a week-night, we do a lot better meeting our timelines.  I would say we meet them in the drive-thru but definitely not the lobby.  Most of the time the kids come in after 8pm.  Many times we don't meet the deadlines is because the majority of kids that work at Culver's are minors, are let off their shift at 7pm.  The good thing about these crazy nights is that they only usually last an hour unlike butter burger night that lasts around 5 hours.

As I stated before, Friday nights are notoriously busy.  When the football games are over in Mukwonago, people usually start piling in at 9pm.  We are supposed to close at 10.  Not only does this create the busyness factor it also creates some key factors in deciding on when to close the grill or when/if to make more custard and probably most importantly on whether or not to kick people out at 10 so that the staff can start their closing duties and get out on time.  Those decisions are left up to the closing manager.  Thankfully, I have not been the one to have had to make those decisions. 

My advice:  DO NOT come in on butter burger nights unless you think that burger will taste extra good after waiting 45 minutes for it.  I think your time is worth far more than $1.