Milo's Hamburgers
Milo's Hamburgers, known colloquially simply as Milo's, is a Birmingham fast food chain founded by Milo Carlton as Milo's Hamburger Shop in 1946. The chain is best known for its secret-recipe hamburger sauce, and for its sweet iced tea.
History
Milo Carlton got his start in the restaurant business by working for one of his brothers at a restaurant called Dipsey Doodle in 1939. The following year, Carlton joined the National Guard and was mobilized in 1941. He was assigned to the Food Service Division and served through World War II, being discharged in 1945.
On April 16, 1946, Carlton, with his wife Bea, opened the original Milo's Hamburger Shop at 31st Street and 12th Avenue North in Norwood. The restaurant remained there until the construction of I-20/I-59 forced it to move to 2820 10th Avenue North in 1963.
The restaurant's famous hamburger sauce did not exist when the business started. Carlton experimented with it, taking his customers' advice to improve it. According to Carlton, "when they started telling me to put alot [sic] of that sauce on their burgers I knew I had it just right." [1] Another tradition is putting an extra "plug", or cut piece of beef patty on top of each burger. The practice dates to when the hand-shaped patties were prone to losing their edges during cooking, and has been preserved as a signature of a Milo's hamburger.
Milo Carlton's son, Ronnie Carlton, and his wife, Sheila eventually went to work for Milo. In 1983, Milo's began selling franchises under Ronnie's direction. The first was on Southside, which opened February 7, 1983. Franchisees originally had little leeway in operations as the parent company dictated many facets of the business, from what vendors were used to employee uniforms. Shortly after the Southside store's opening, the original store closed. (It is now The Pit B-B-Q.)
Ronnie Carlton sold the restaurant portion of the business, including the sauce recipe, to Dean Chitwood in January 2002. Ronnie continued to run Milo's Restaurant Services, which sold hamburger sauce and tea to Milo's locations. It is now known as Milo's Tea Company.
References
- Milo's History (March 9, 2005) - accessed 18 August 2006.
- Milazzo, Don (October 8, 1999) "Sauce is still boss, but Milo's tea takes off" Birmingham Business Journal
- Nicholson, Gilbert (February 1, 2002) "Milo's serves up a warehouse in Bessemer" Birmingham Business Journal
- Mackay, Steven (December 13, 2002) "It's teatime (Milo's style) in Bessemer" Birmingham Business Journal