Runza Restaurants

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Runza Restaurants is the name of a small regional restaurant chain specializing in ethnic cuisine once served by the Volga German immigrants to the United States. In 1949, Sarah "Sally" Everett and her brother, Alex Brening opened the first Runza Drive-Inn in Lincoln, Nebraska and began serving runza sandwiches, a type of pastry filled with ground beef, onion, and cabbage from a small building near Pioneer Park. They eventually opened more locations in the late 1950's and added hamburgers to the menu. Her son, Donald Everett, who took over operations in 1966, began franchising and established a company.

Today there are locations throughout Nebraska with additional locations in Colorado (2 locations), Iowa (1) and Kansas (1). In October 2007 the company's official website reported it was operating 75 locations. [1] They maintain that their ingredients are fresh and buy many products from local farmers. The menu offers several types of Runza sandwiches, 100% beef hamburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, onion rings, soups and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes. The regional chain began a children's menu featuring "Runza Rex and Friends" and participates in reading and literacy programs.

Although the chain has a relatively small number of restaurants confined to the Midwest, it is beginning to come to the attention of fast-food aficionados. Runza's Lincoln, NE, location was reviewed by posters at Roadfood.com, [2] a site dedicated to regional cuisine served in traditional "roadside" restaurants. The chain was also reported on in another well-known online guide to such cuisine, "tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption". [3] Recent reviews are also posted on Yelp.com, [4] another food review site popular with travelers.

Apparently the meat and cabbage sandwiches are popular with football fans, as the Western Illinois University's student newspaper, the Western Courier, reported that 10,000 Runza sandwiches were sold at vending stands in the stadium during the September 2004 football match between Western Illinois and the University of Nebraska. [5]