What-A-Burger is the trading name used by a small group of restaurants which were established by entrepreneur brothers Jack Branch and Paul E. Branch Jr. and members of the Branch family beginning in 1957 though the first What-A-Burger was opened in 1950. With the first location at a busy traffic circle near Newport News, Virginia, in the former Warwick County, they soon established additional locations in the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg, Virginia, each along busy through-traffic highway corridors. Another location was opened by a member of the Branch family in the 1950s in Greenville, South Carolina.
History
The first Virginia store opened in 1957 by entrepreneur Jack Branch near Newport News, Virginia. Branch's first location predated the first Texas Whataburger restaurant slightly.
Newport News Circle was a busy intersection located at Jefferson Avenue and U.S. Route 258 governed by a traffic circle (aka "rotary") in the former Warwick County. (Warwick County later became politically consolidated with the City of Newport News, assuming the latter's better-known name). U.S. Route 258, later known as Mercury Boulevard in honor of the astronauts of Project Mercury at NASA's center at nearby Langley Air Force Base, led from Fort Monroe to the James River Bridge and has been a major traffic artery in the area for many years. Jefferson Avenue at the time carried Virginia Route 168, which led from Anderson's Corner on U.S. Route 60 west of Colonial Williamsburg to the harbor near Newport News Point, where traffic long crossed Hampton Roads by means of an automobile-carrying ferry (later using the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel). It was a very busy location, especially in the era after World War II and before the U.S. Interstate Highway System was created.
Branch's original location on the traffic circle was operated by his brother, Paul E. Branch, Jr., and was moved some years later to another location slightly west of the former traffic circle after a highway modernization project took place. That store is continuing business as of April 2015.
Founder Branch later was involved in establishing additional stores in the independent cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, Virginia, as well as one in South Carolina. The other Virginia stores were located along U.S. Route 1 (Virginia), a major through traffic corridor in the years before Interstate 95 was built. In addition to the U.S. Route 1 locations another Richmond location was added on State Route 161 in Richmond. (Route 161 was touted as a western bypass of Richmond's Lee Bridge in its early pre-Interstate Highway years, using the privately owned Boulevard Bridge to cross the James River.
Locations
As noted above, the first What-a-Burger is still in operation at 6117 Jefferson Ave. in Newport News, Virginia, just west of its original location.
Other locations in the Richmond-Petersburg area have closed. The store located at 1018 Boulevard in Colonial Heights, Virginia, closed in 2015. A more modern location was opened off Puddledock Rd. just beyond the city limits of Colonial Heights in Prince George, Virginia, in 2013 and likely contributed to the closing of the older restaurant. One of the oldest locations, at 909 Jefferson Davis Hwy. in Richmond, VA, which in recent years operated under the names "BJ's Big Burger" and "BJ's What-a-Burger," is also closed; however, the locations at 9901 Jefferson Davis Hwy. in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and at 2350 W Washington St. in Petersburg, Virginia, remain open.
A sister restaurant, loosely affiliated with What-a-Burger and serving a similar, if not identical, menu, operates under the name Roy's Big Burger and is located at 5200 Lakeside Ave. in Richmond, Virginia. A Roy's Big Burger also formerly operated at 4108 Jefferson Davis Hwy. in Richmond, Virginia, but is now the location of a Mexican taqueria.
Other What-A-Burgers
What-A-Burger restaurants (as well with other variations of the name) were formed by other entrepreneurs than the Branch family during the post-World War II period. For example, a small chain now based in Concord, North Carolina, was founded by Eb Bost & C.W. Bost, Jr. and operates as What-A-Burger Drive-Ins, Inc. with several locations, are all still under the leadership of members of their families. It also visibly numbered their stores starting from #1 in Kannapolis, North Carolina, to #15 in Concord.