Whataburger

Harmon Dobson opened the first Whataburger at 2609 Ayers Street in Corpus Christi on August 8, 1950. His premise was unusually specific for the era: a five-inch burger large enough to require two hands and good enough to make a customer exclaim the phrase that became the company name.

The chain expanded first within Texas and then beyond the state. Its first franchise opened in Alice in 1953, the first out-of-state store opened in Pensacola in 1959, and the orange-and-white A-frame design debuted in Odessa in 1961. Those visual and regional cues helped turn Whataburger from a restaurant business into a durable Texas cultural reference point.

Whataburger became one of the most recognizable restaurant brands to originate in Texas, with a visual identity that remained distinctive even as the chain expanded geographically.

Its Texas significance is rooted in documented Corpus Christi origins and decades of statewide everyday use rather than a claim that the company never changed ownership, headquarters or market reach.