While other fast-casual restaurant chains have been slowing down, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & ... [+] Steakburgers added 40 new shops in 2024. Pictured is its Belleville, Ill. location.

Several restaurant chains have been reducing locations. But that’s not the case with Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. It has turned comfort food and franchising into a winning combination.

In 2024, it opened 40 new locations, enabling it to reach 550 outposts of which 514 are franchised and 36 company-owned. Of those 40 new locations, 37 were franchised and 3 were company-owned.

It has now entered 36 states, and Delaware will make 37 early in 2025. It also showing success in non-traditional spaces such as airports and stadiums.

Its CEO Chris Dull, who has been at the helm since May 2021 and previously served as CEO of Global Franchise Group for 14 years running chains including Round Table Pizza and Great American Cookies, attributed the success of its franchising to franchisees replicating the menu items such as its “made-to-order steakburgers and freshly churned frozen custard, via its kitchen equipment, designed by industrial engineers to ensure optimal efficiency.”

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers is owned by Thompson Street Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in St. Louis, Mo., which usually helps steer a restaurant chain on a path of steady growth. Its’ website lists a diverse portfolio consisting of biotech, software, and tech brands, though few restaurant chains were noted.

Dull adds that Freddy’s has been focused on growth by selecting “multi-unit franchise developers helped by our commitment to keeping their bottom-line healthy.”

Moreover, Freddy’s Frozen Custard has managed to keep its prices competitive at a time when many customers complain about rising fees. Its original double combo of burger, fries and a beverage costs $10.79, though Dull emphasizes that it’s not considered a “discount brand but it does come down to the value proposition.”

He says his customers are attracted to its reasonable prices but also its hospitality. But how can it be hospitable when people at the drive-thru want speed and quick entry and exit? Indeed drive-thru sales now constitute 48% of Freddy’s orders compared to 33% dining in, and third-party delivery numbers about 7% of its sales.

Dull replies that its staff is trained to get the order right (no one wants to drive home with the wrong order), and ask how’s your day going or do you have children, to create some rapport. Hence, it’s walking a fine line between being hospitable and maintaining a crisp pace to keep the line moving.

Most of its fast-casual eateries are not found in major metropolises but tend to be located on “the edge of suburban sprawl,” Dull says, so none are located, for example, in New York City, the country’s largest and most complex city.

And when he studies the demographics of who dines at Freddy’s Frozen Custard, millennial families outnumber others and that includes mom and dads, the kids, and grandma and grandpa. Fittingly, almost all of its locations accommodate 80 to 100 people dining-in, which is rare in fast-casual circles when drive-thrus prevail and seating inside is increasingly limited.

Besides its steakburgers, it specializes in chicken tenders, fried chicken sandwiches, grilled chicken sandwiches, cheese curds, tater tots, and their custard swirls with vanilla and chocolate with M&M and other candy toppings. It also offers its steakburgers and chicken sandwiches as lettuce wraps, decreasing the calorie intake, but no salads are available.

Freddy’s posts calories of each menu item. For example, the Original Double consisting of the 670-calorie burger, 400 calorie fries and 260 calorie medium Pepsi adds up to 1,330 calories.

Last year it introduced a limited time offer of prime steakburger with 2 ounces of prime rib that has proved so popular, it remains on the 2025 menu, as has its grilled cheese steakburger with 4 types of cheese.

On Yelp, customer responses to one Freddy’s Custard outlet in Wichita, Ks, was mostly positive with some reservations. Rob from Wichita liked the steakburger, fries and custards or the works. He also called the staff “friendly and always out to help.”

But Luisa from Dallas, Tx., ordered lunch to go, returned to her office, and the server got her order wrong, and it was too late for her to exchange it. She called them later and was asked to return, but found the manager brusque and rude, and hence was far from a satisfied customer. A business owner at Freddy’s Frozen Custard replied to her complaint and asked her to connect with a regional manager.

By the end of 2025, Dull expects to add 60 new restaurants, bringing them to over 600 locations. Is there a possibility of going public with this steady growth? Dull replies, “Yes, that’s a definite possibility for the future though we’re not focused on it today.”

Dull describes the 3 keys to its sustained success as: 1) Commitment to our guests and to great quality food, genuine hospitality and cleanliness, 2) Commitment to franchisee profitability, 3) Keeping Freddy’s as a place for everyone, where grandma and grandkids and the kids feel welcome.