HURON – Allen Schroder was literally born into the restaurant business his family has owned and operated since 1950.
His wife, Gayle, has worked there longer than anyone else – since she was in the eighth grade.
But there comes a time for everyone to step away from a life-long calling, and for the Schroders – owners of the A&W that later evolved into Burger Plus – that time is now.
“It’s truly a younger person’s game,” he said. “It’s a good business and somebody will do well at it.”
The restaurant is listed with a Huron real estate agency, and the Schroders have been told there have been quite a few inquiries since it went on the market.
Schroder’s parents, Gerald and Erma, opened the A&W franchise in town in 1950. As a young teen, Gayle helped out during the lunch hours. At the time, it was a seasonal business, opening when the circus came to town in early April and closing in late September.
Allen and Gayle graduated from high school in 1969, married a year later and in 1971 came back to work at A&W. In the winter months, they had other jobs.
That original building stood in what is now the parking lot north of where Burger Plus is today. The Schroder home was just behind the A&W.
“So I haven’t moved very far,” he said.
“In 1978, we bought the Studebaker garage (next door to the south) and remodeled it into an A&W, which we later turned into Burger Plus,” he said.
When they reopened in their new location, they became a year-round business.
By the early 1990s, they decided to end their relationship with A&W and start their own restaurant. Schroder said they had been paying 3 percent of their gross sales to the A&W corporate office for advertising.
“And all our advertising dollars that we were putting in were going into the Sioux Falls market, so we were paying for something we weren’t getting,” he said.

Renovating the interior and exterior of the building to go from A&W to Burger Plus was a major undertaking. A&W officials came to town to make sure it no longer resembled an A&W restaurant. Schroder, however, was able to keep the orange-colored booths.
“We were searching for what kind of name to go with, and ‘plus’ at that time was kind of a hot item,” he said.
It was his brother, Bruce, who suggested Burger Plus.
“There was Tires Plus and there were other ‘pluses’ as well,” Allen said. “We do so much more than burgers anyhow, so Burger Plus, it stuck and that’s what it is.”
And then there was the menu.
“We obviously had to rename things because at that time we had the Papa burger, Mama burger and Teen burger that was the A&W stuff,” he said.
“We didn’t vary far from the menu because we put a lot of money into our equipment which was designed to do burgers and fries,” Schroder said.
McDonald’s, which opened its Huron location in about the mid-1970s, was their main competitor.
“They came in when we were still a little restaurant, just seasonal, six months, but obviously they had it their way for a long time,” he said.
“When we became full time then we could compete, at least with the amount of time that we’re open, that we weren’t just seasonal.” Schroder said.
In the 1950s and 1960s, restaurants like A&W offered drive-in service, where customers could order their food from their cars and eat it there.
The Schroders employed young people to work as car hops. In the original A&W, customers pulled up and kept their lights on in the evening and a car hop would go out, take the order, come back and assemble it and then return to the car to deliver the tray and collect the money.
After remodeling the Studebaker building, there was a double carport with 12 speaker heads for customers to order their food, which was then brought out to them.
But it didn’t catch on, probably because of the growing popularity of drive-up windows.
“It just never, ever came together,” Schroder said. “I don’t know, it just didn’t work. We ended up taking the speakers out and knocking down that and putting in this drive-thru that you see today.”
A&W and Burger Plus once employed mostly teen-agers. But five or six years ago, that changed as kids became busier with sports and other activities.
“We’ve always had a few, but they aren’t our mainstay anymore,” he said.
Through the years, the Schroders have served many loyal customers. Some of their busiest times are when the college kids come home and order the most popular item on the menu. The double hamburger, large fries and large drink is the drive-thru special that one can only get at the drive-thru window.
Then there’s Erma’s dressing, with the secret recipe that Schroder’s mother created years ago.
“Obviously, it’s the only place in the world you can get it,” he said.
Burger Plus also has homemade chili and tacos. “There’s just a lot of home-style stuff that we do that not a lot of other places do, and so that keeps them coming back,” he said.
After about 47 years together in the business, the Schroders say it’s time to slow down. It has been easier the last few years, but for most of that time they worked 13 or 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We just want to try something different,” he said.
                  
Photos by Roger Larsen of the Plainsman
Allen and Gayle Schroder stand in front of the counter at Burger Plus in Huron. The restaurant, which has been a part of their life for more than 50 years, has been listed for sale as the Schroders have decided to retire.