Fudruckers returns to market, Shultz and Dooley's adds location

The "world's greatest hamburgers" will return to Springfield's restaurant scene by September. Charles Foss, owner of Schultz & Dooley's, is bringing Fudd-ruckers to the new Battlefield Towers, where he also is adding a third Schultz & Dooley's.

The new Fuddruckers is being built by Pearson Creek Construction Inc. at Battlefield and Lone Pine. It will be 5,700 square feet and will seat 175 people.

This is the second time Foss has brought the hamburger house to Springfield. In the early 1990s, he opened a Fuddruckers on Battlefield near Campbell. He said it lasted about six years, but it had difficulties because of its location.

"It was very, very hard to come out of the facility and go west" on Battlefield, Foss said. "At any given time, probably half of our traffic pattern wasn't there because you just couldn't turn in (or out)."

He said the new location, which sits on the corner with a traffic light, will not have such a problem.

Foss said a big part of the decision for him to resurrect Fuddruckers, which proclaims to have the "world's greatest hamburger," is Fuddruckers' new ownership.

He said the once publicly owned corporation was bought by a private individual more than two years ago, and since then, that owner has sold off the restaurants that weren't doing well and invested about $23 million in others.

"They're upgrading a lot," Foss said. "It's a huge investment just in decor."

That investment includes antiques throughout the restaurants, rowboats hanging from ceilings, old gas pumps, special-effect lights, signs and pictures on walls, and an overall "kind of '60s effect," Foss said. "But the concept at Fuddruckers has always been the food."

Foss said Fuddruckers offers big burgers, homemade buns and a produce bar for customers to build their own burgers.

"I've always liked Fuddruckers," he added. "I kept my option to have the franchise rights for this part of Missouri."

Meanwhile, Fuddruckers' neighbor in the Battlefield Towers will be Schultz & Dooley's III.

Foss said it will open by May, but it will be different from the other two locations. It will not have a kitchen like the Schultz & Dooley's at 2210 W. Chesterfield Blvd. and Schultz & Dooley's Too at 3512 S. National Ave., and it will be about half the size with 2,000 square feet and a seating capacity of 70.

"The new one is a whole new look for Schultz & Dooley's," Foss said.

The bar will feature a stained-concrete floor, an exposed ceiling and a bar custom made in 1930s fashion. Slone Architects Inc. is designing both Battlefield Tower facilities, Foss said.

"The feeling is still more neighborhood bar ... kind of like the Cheers thing and like the existing Schultz & Dooley's where everybody knows your name (and) what you drink," he added. "That's how we make a living at Schultz & Dooley's."

Foss has been operating Schultz & Dooley's restaurants and bars for 21 years. The original location opened on South Campbell in 1979.

He said the idea for Schultz & Dooley's came from his belief that there is a certain group of people who don't want a fast-food burger but want something cooked to order and are willing to pay more to get it.

"I combined that with the neighborhood bar atmosphere, and that's how I started Schultz & Dooley's," Foss said. "It's kind of ironic that Fuddruckers, which I learned about a long time down the road, thinks the same thing."