The Sweet Way White Castle Is Celebrating Its 100th Birthday

Iconic fast food hamburger chain White Castle turns 100 years old in 2021. That's right, the joint that coined the slider has been around for a century of temping our taste buds. By now, however, you may know the restaurant for more than its classic beef sliders (chicken and waffle sliders as well as crab cake sliders have even made their onto the menu, not to mention the now full range of breakfast options), but it's safe to say that the restaurant that first thought to square and shrink the beef patty deserves an equally as innovative 100th birthday party. And they want to include everyone in the celebrations.

White Castle held itself a livestreamed birthday party on May 15 (which also happened to be National Slider Day, per QSR) complete with celebrity appearances, a live band, and its own Hall of Fame inductions. The chain also dropped new uniforms in honor of its big day and held a $100K sweepstakes riddled with prizes. There's also been limited edition six-packs of Coca-Cola as an homage to the restaurant's simple, original menu: hamburgers, apple pie, coffee, and Coke. But the restaurant's best birthday treat is also its sweetest.

White Castle first started offering its Cake-On-A-Stick dessert theme in April, as a way to incentivize those that had received the COVID-19 vaccine. The special line of desserts includes Fudge-Dipped Brownies, Fudge-Dipped Cheesecakes, Gooey Buttercakes, and Birthday Cakes, all on a stick. In typical fashion, White Castle's Birthday Cake-On-A-Stick is a vanilla base with white frosting and sprinkles in the restaurant's signature colors (white, orange, and blue), that's then sliced and served on individual popsicle sticks.

But for a 100th birthday, a single piece simply isn't enough, so according to Brand Eating, White Castle is now offering up the entire cake for a limited time, sliced into eight pieces, each with its own popsicle stick for sharing. We guess the idea here is to celebrate White Castle's birthday with a group of friends — but hey, if you want to eat the whole thing yourself, no one is judging!

By now, White Castle has established itself as a true game-changer in the world of fast food (it was even the first to sell 1 billion hamburgers in 1961, per QSR). Give the restaurant a classic recipe, and they'll find a way to make it tastier and cuter. The world made a hamburger, and White Castle shrunk it. The world made birthday cake, and the burger joint stuck that cake on a popsicle stick. And now, the restaurant just wants us all to bask in its adorable glory. Happy birthday, White Castle, you've got our hearts (on a stick).