PULLMAN — Far South Side fans of Culver’s signature butter burgers and custard don’t have to wait much longer.
The outpost at 111th Street and Doty Avenue will open 10 a.m. Monday. Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly and community members will join franchise owner Baron Waller for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Waller, who has six Chicago-area locations, is Culver’s largest minority franchise owner.
The arrival of the new fast food restaurant in Pullman marks the next step in an economic revitalization in the Far South Side neighborhood. The Culver’s is billed as the first fast-casual sit down restaurant in Roseland or Pullman in 30 years.
Located on the former site of the Ryerson Steel company, which was abandoned in 2006, the restaurant joins several businesses that have made Pullman home in recent years. An Amazon fulfillment center, a Whole Foods Midwest distribution center, two Gotham Greens’ greenhouses, a Method Products plant and a SC Johnson’s distribution center all have set up shop in the area.
The opening comes just two months after the opening of another highly anticipated Pullman arrival, the Pullman National Monument site, which includes the visitor center and 12-acre factory grounds.
Also expected at the Culver’s opening are David Doig, president of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives; city Planning Commissioner Maurice Cox; representatives from the Chicago Community Loan Fund that administered the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grant to support the restaurant; and Powers and Sons Construction.
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.