Prince’s
Fast-Food Royalty
By: Kim Hogstrom
It was, as they say, a simpler time. For those who grew up in Houston between about 1940 and the mid 1960s, Prince's Hamburger Drive-ins, the original drive-in fast food retailer in this city, plays a significant role in one youthful memory or another. There were no malls (the gathering spot of choice for today's youth), little or no air conditioning, television sets were rare and, with the increasing availability of automobiles, motoring became a serious form of recreation. Many of the dangerous or self-destructive behaviors seen in American youths today were simply not present. The roles of young men and women, albeit restrictive, were clearly defined and "crack" was still something in the sidewalk to be avoided in the interest of our mothers' vertebra.
Prince's Hamburger Drive-ins offered hamburgers for 10 cents and root beer for a nickel. Service was curb-side and provided by a group of the city's most celebrated women, the Prince's carhop. The mere mention of Prince's will send some Houstonians drifting into memories of the sound of music from car radios and the aroma of fried shrimp.
One friend tells us of his first kiss stolen in the back of a 1950 Chevy after placing an order. Another rather rotund friend remembers his childhood buddies wrapping him entirely in mortician's tape, "like a mummy," dropping him in a parking stall at a busy Prince's, and driving away. ("They claim I bounced when they slid me out of the back of the truck," he whines to this day.) Dominick Caravella, a gregarious personality and publisher of this magazine, remembers impressing a date (now his wife) by renting a limousine and taking her to Prince's.
It was indeed a simpler time.
Today, there are no Prince's Drive-ins to be found. The original location at 4509 South Main was the last of these relics to close, serving its farewell burger in 1992. During the final few weeks of operation a radio station broadcast from the parking lot while old carhops, now in their 60s and 70s, appeared in their original uniforms and reminisced for network news cameras. Kitchen equipment, serving trays and signage we auctioned off to an eager crowd of long-time devotees and Houston mourned the passing of hamburger royalty.
The Prince's Hamburger Drive-ins were the creation of Doug Prince. Prince first visited Houston in 1934 and was so enthralled with the activity on Main Street that he decided to move here from the one-horse-town of Dallas. In 1935, he opened the first Prince's Hamburger Drive-in and in a matter of 10 years there were seven busy Princes'. The thriving chain acquired the distinction of the biggest food operation in Houston.
Success was not accidental as Doug Prince was a master of promotion. Prince understood the value of publicity to the bottom line of business and pursued it with a vengeance. He and the hamburger stands were a constant presence in the society columns and newspapers. Absolutely nothing about the Prince’s hamburger was ordinary or low-key, including Prince himself. “He was a genuine entrepreneur,” says George “Buck” Prince, the eldest of the founder’s two sons. “And a real character,” smiles Charles Prince, the youngest.
A Genuine Entrepreneur
The Prince’s hamburger was created from a recipe Doug Prince acquired from a “burger master” at the State Fair in Dallas. It involved frying burgers on a grill in seasonings and their own juices. The cooking of French fries was turned into an art at the drive-ins. Fried Shrimp was one of the most popular items on the menu and, on Fridays, the Open Trout Sandwich, a breaded, fried fish filet served “open-faced” on a long bun with a side of fries, was ordered six and twelve at a time to feed entire families.
During the World War II gas rationing effort, Doug Prince created a promotional horse and buggy with a sign on the back reading “Prince’s Hamburgers Hayburner” which paraded up and down Main Street. “Eventually, the horse ran between two trees and tore that old buggy up,” chuckles Buck Prince.
In 1946, following the War, Prince had an airplane land on Main Street and taxi up to a drive-in to order burgers. “Very few people at that time had actually seen an airplane,” remembers Charles Prince. “It created quite a stir.”
Perhaps the greatest stunt of all occurred in the late ‘40s when the King of Hamburgers purchased a 100-foot yacht in the Gulf of Mexico and hauled it 25 miles inland to create a drive-in at the end of Main Street. No such thing had been done anywhere and, again, Prince’s was the topic of everyone’s conversation in Houston.
The food was fun, delicious and inexpensive, but not necessarily the only attraction. Twice a year the carhop uniforms changed at Prince’s and modifications were anxiously awaited as they set standards nation-wide. The little outfits were fashioned in the theme of majorettes with epaulettes, gold buttons down the front and satin pants in the winter and culottes or skirts (generally short by the standards of the day) in the summer. After a trip to Hawaii, Doug Prince returned to put all his carhops in grass skirts.
Every summer in Galveston, Prince’s participated in the National Carhop Competition which drew national attention to the drive-ins. As part of the competition each carhop was graded for beauty and poise. During the talent segment the contestants were required to take food orders and carry trays to waiting automobiles. When a Prince’s Drive-in carhop appeared on the cover of Life magazine in June of 1945, it was one of Doug Prince’s finest hours.
Heirs to the Throne
Buck and Charles Prince were the lucky heirs to the throne of fast food fame in Houston. Both started working in the hamburger stands in their early teens, slicing buns and cleaning trays. As the brothers got a little older they advanced to cook and finally, at the age of eighteen, were old enough to work up front at the fountain, “where the girls were,” smiles Buck. Many valuable business lessons were learned in this process. The brothers’ lineage may have defined them as Princes but their exposure to the business started on the very bottom rung of the company ladder.
However, the Prince Brothers had something other than a typical childhood. They grew up in a suite in the Shamrock Hotel and playmates, buddies and confidants took the form of house detectives, bartenders and valets. On one morning the brothers were walking down the hall to catch the school bus when the door to the suite of one of Doug Prince’s good friends (a Houston figure of national renown who shall remain nameless on request) flew open. The man was waving good-bye.
“I’m just going to get some coffee, ladies; I won’t be gone long. Don’t go anywhere,” he said to his guest while standing in the open doorway just long enough for the boys to catch a glimpse of who was inside. Both the Gabor sisters and their mother were waving back. (It must have made one helluva story in school that day.)
The Kingdom Turns Over
In the early 1960s a chain of little known fast food restaurants was quietly gaining momentum all across America. A cousin and fellow restaurateur of the Princes’ named George McDonald, unwittingly prevented the burgeoning competitor from crossing the Harris County line when some years prior, he had chosen to dba his little diner in his own name. This precluded any other food business from operating under the name of McDonald’s and staved off the inevitable for Prince’s Hamburgers.
Nonetheless, other competitors arrived in the form of root beer stands, fried chicken outlets, and drive-up diners. The introduction of air-conditioning made inside dining considerably more desirable than sitting in a car. Prince’s sons responded to the shift in the public’s tastes by introducing 12 indoor counter-type Prince’s Hamburger Shops to the Houston area. In 1967, Doug Prince died and not long after, the first McDonald’s appeared followed by other hamburger retailers, Tex-mex, seafood, pizza and hot dogs.
Following the death of their father, Buck and Charles Prince merged the seven drive-ins with the 12 hamburger shops, created Prince Food Systems, Inc., and continued to operate for a time. However, slowly leases ran out, sales diminished and drive-ins closed. Even the indoor units were suffering as their slice of the fast-food pie grew smaller and smaller.
In the meantime, the owners of the office building at 100 Milam in downtown Houston had become very displeased with the food in the cafeteria on the main floor of the building. Their solution was to approach the Princes.
“They asked us if we knew anything about running cafeterias,” Charles recalls. “We said, ‘Sure, we know everything about running cafeterias,’ but of course, we really didn’t. So we took the job and for three months straight we ate at Luby’s.”
The top floors of the 1100 Milam building are occupied by Aramco. At the time, Aramco had a management contract with one of the national food service contractors and was underwriting the cost so that the employees could eat for half price. “What Aramco discovered was that their employees were coming down to the first floor, paying full price and eating with us,” says Buck quietly. “Soon after, Aramco asked us to manage their cafeterias.” Unbeknownst to the Prince brothers, it was the birth of a new empire.
Bigger Than Ever
Today, the brothers have far exceeded their flamboyant father in all aspects of the food business due in large part to their ability to evolve. Prince Food Systems, Inc. serves about 25,000 people a day. Charles and Buck quietly own and operate a company employing 520 people and generating sales in excess of $26 million a year. Their food service management contracts are found in companies such as Fluor Daniel, Schlumberger, and Dow Chemical and entire office complexes such as American General. Their responsibilities include between 40 and 50 office buildings and manufacturing plant cafeterias, delis, lunch counters and, most recently, hospital kitchens in Houston and surrounding areas.
With mega-giant competitors such as ARA, Morrison and Marriot, what have the home-town boys done right? Simply serving better food at a better value than their competitors, they state. The vegetables are fresh, and the handling and recipes are superior to the instant, frozen or canned choices of the typical food service contractor. The introduction of Prince Food Systems may even represent a savings. “It was costing one company $83,000 a year to use a big name and have bad food,” says Buck smiling. “Oftentimes we are the last food management service a company will get around to trying because we are the smallest, but they are usually the happiest with us.”
In addition to the growing food service management efforts of Prince Food Systems, the company owns and operates an English pub-themed restaurant, called Harborow’s, downtown. The brothers also owned the recently closed Harry’s Kenya, a popular, expensive continental dining establishment decorated in a masculine African safari theme.
“We opened Harry’s in 1980 and for the first three years you needed a reservation two weeks in advance to get in. But then the downturn came to Houston and executive expense accounts were cut. Then banks started closing but we kept moving along. Then the second recession hit and took another 20 percent off the sales. We operated Harry’s for two more years out of pocket and then decided to close it,” Charles shrugs. “The years of conspicuous consumption are over.”
The Prince brothers have adjusted to the changing times in the past and are determined to do so again. Prince Food Systems is now moving successfully into the realm of hospital food service – institutions serving arguably the worst food on the planet. The dietary requirements of hospitals are sophisticated and complex but thanks to their vast experience, the brothers are responding and hundreds of patients are happier as a result.
Unlike the senior Prince, it is interesting to note that the unobtrusive, reserved Prince brothers have built this empire with virtually no public profile at all. “We just don’t have the personality he had,” laughs Buck.
We suspect that growing up in the shadow of Houston’s hamburger king was both an enviable position and a difficult one. Unlike their father, the
Price brothers choose privacy over publicity and restraint over flamboyance, but they most certainly share his entrepreneurial spirit. Their ability to quietly respond to the changing tastes and requirements of the public has produced growth and evolution. And as we all know, the inability to adjust has killed more than one business. The Prince brothers are second generation genuine entrepreneurs.
~DBA Magazine
