Freddy’s Brand Guidelines: Wichita’s 2002 Steakburger and Frozen Custard Chain

Two brothers, a restaurateur and their father’s name.

Freddy’s is a fast-casual restaurant chain based in Wichita, Kansas, built around steakburgers and frozen custard. English Wikipedia says the company trades as Freddy’s LLC and used the longer name Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers until 2024. Trade reports kept the full name in their headlines: Nation’s Restaurant News still used it in September 2025.

The chain was founded in Wichita in 2002 by the brothers Randy and Bill Simon and the restaurateur Scott Redler, Restaurant Business reported in March 2021. English Wikipedia dates the opening of the first restaurant, near the corner of 21st Street and Tyler Road in Wichita, to 26 August 2002, and says that site is still trading.

The name came from the brothers’ father, Frederick “Freddy” Simon, who grew up in Colwich, near Wichita, and who lent his name to the business and was a partner in it, according to English Wikipedia. The same account says he had worked for one hospitality company for decades and knew many restaurateurs, and that the menu was based on the “All American” meals he had served his own family. The founders’ roles changed over time: Randy Simon was co-founder and chief executive when the company was sold in 2021, and Scott Redler handed the operations post to a new chief operating officer in August 2022, English Wikipedia says.

The company began franchising two years after it opened, Restaurant Business reported, and by early 2021 the chain had grown to nearly 400 mostly franchised units in more than 30 states. The magazine grouped it with a wave of higher-end burger chains of the period, and noted one difference from many of them: Freddy’s generally features drive-thrus.

Steakburgers on one side of the ampersand, custard on the other.

The menu has stayed close to its original form. English Wikipedia lists steakburgers, Vienna Beef hot dogs and chicken sandwiches alongside frozen custard and specialty sundaes, and says the core menu has remained consistent across its locations over the years. Custard and steakburgers were the two halves of the original company name, joined by an ampersand.

The look of the restaurants draws on an era rather than a cartoon character. English Wikipedia says the setting is based on fast-casual dining of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quotes the company’s own description of that period as “a post-war era of optimism, pride, and values focusing on unity and quality family time.” The family name over the door, the mid-century reference and the two-product name all point the same way, and the chain has kept the Freddy name through two changes of owner.

The people behind the brand describe its fans in their own terms. When Thompson Street Capital Partners bought the chain in 2021, its managing partner called the guest following “FredHeads” in a statement quoted by Restaurant Business; the same report described openings that drew long queues of cars at the drive-thru, including one new restaurant in Jackson, Tennessee, in April 2020.

The network now reaches beyond the roadside format. English Wikipedia lists non-traditional sites including Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City and Busch Stadium in St. Louis. On size, English Wikipedia gives 560 locations across 37 states as of 10 September 2025, while Nation’s Restaurant News reported in the same month that Freddy’s had more than 550 locations in the United States and Canada.

How the category presents itself.

Burger, custard and chicken chains usually present themselves through a small set of fixed things: the name over the door, the shape of the building, the colours on the sign and the packaging, and a short list of named menu items that travel from one restaurant to the next. In the United States many of these chains began as a single family stand. Freddy’s opened in Wichita, Kansas, in 2002 under its founders’ father’s name, and Runza began in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1949 with a sandwich that gave the company its name.

The menus are often the clearest part of the identity. A chain may be organised around one dish, as Runza is around its beef-and-cabbage bread pocket, or around a pairing, as Freddy’s was when its full name joined frozen custard and steakburgers with an ampersand. Smash burgers, biscuits, fried chicken and flame-grilled chicken play the same role for other chains in this group, in the United States, Singapore and South Africa, and each company publishes its own list of signature items.

Ownership varies widely. Some chains in this guide remain family businesses and say so on their corporate pages; others have passed to private-equity firms or to listed restaurant groups that run several brands at once. Where a chain has changed hands, the dates and buyers here come from trade press and company announcements, and any deal not completed is described as pending.

The restaurant networks are reported in the companies’ own terms: franchised or company-run, regional or international, counted on a stated date. Some chains say they keep close to home by choice, while others publish franchise maps that reach other countries. This guide gives those counts with their dates and sources, and treats colours and typefaces as an unofficial interpretation unless a source documents them.

From founder-run to private equity, twice.

For almost two decades Freddy’s was run by its founders. In March 2021 the St. Louis private-equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners bought the company, Restaurant Business reported on 3 March 2021, with terms not disclosed. The magazine described the purchase as a large entry into restaurants for a firm that had acquired more than 150 companies in fields such as healthcare, software and engineered products. English Wikipedia says Chris Dull became chief executive in May 2021, taking over from Randy Simon.

The second change came four years later. Investment funds affiliated with the private-equity firm Rhône acquired Freddy’s from Thompson Street, Nation’s Restaurant News reported on 4 September 2025; terms were not disclosed, and the executive team was to remain unchanged. The report said Thompson Street had supported operational, innovation and digital work at the chain during its ownership. English Wikipedia says the deal was agreed in August 2025 and completed in September 2025. The same trade report said Freddy’s had opened a new training centre in Wichita in September 2024, and listed Illy and Orkla Food Ingredients among the consumer businesses in Rhône’s portfolio. Freddy’s itself remains based in Wichita, English Wikipedia says.

For a design guide, Freddy’s shows how a franchise chain can build an identity on a family first name and a period setting rather than on a mascot, and keep both through changes of ownership. Compare Culver’s, another Midwestern chain that pairs burgers with frozen custard, and Five Guys, another American burger chain founded by a family. For this guide we use a diner red, custard cream and ink blue with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Freddy’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.