Gerry Goldstein remembers his childhood trips to Royal Castle like yesterday. Burgers at the Miami restaurant chain were only 3 cents each in the 1960s.
After Goldstein and his friends collected glass bottles and got paid for them at the local supermarket, they would rush to Royal Castle.
“We would go through the alleys of construction sites, and turn them in and eat like a king,” said the 73-year-old Goldstein, who grew up on South Beach.
Now, one of his favorite childhood restaurants is gone.
The very last Royal Castle, on Northwest 79th Street and 27th Avenue, had survived for decades after the chain went out of business. A few weeks ago, the owner closed it for good, and hung a “For Lease” sign on the front door.
Goldstein loved Royal Castle so much that he went to the restaurant a couple of times a year for reunions with his old Miami Beach buddies. The school friends will now need to find a new place to gather.
The peak years for Royal Castle
During the 1950s and ‘60s, more than 150 Royal Castle restaurants dotted Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. In South Florida, there seemed to be one in every neighborhood.
The Waffle House-like restaurants — with diner booths and counter service — specialized in mini-burgers first introduced by the similarly named White Castle. Customers would slide up to the counter for a basket of the onion-topped sliders, sometimes kept warm in a steam drawer, and wash them down with a Birch Beer soda. For breakfast, eggs and bacon fresh off the griddle, of course.
In 1938, William Singer co-opted a formula made popular by White Castle, a national fast food chain: small hamburgers, what we now call sliders.
His restaurants quickly became popular throughout Miami and a fixture in the lives of people like Goldstein.
On the way to Walmart with his wife a few weeks ago, Goldstein noticed that the last Royal Castle on 79th Street, the one where he could relive his childhood, had shut down.
“I saw the notices on the door,” he said. “It was lit up inside, but all the shelves were vacant.”
Bennett Bramson grew up with Goldstein in Miami Beach, and the two men continued to share a love for Royal Castle burgers. Bramson, a former Miami Beach teacher and recreation director, now lives in Basalt, Colorado. But he returns to Miami for two months every winter.
Bramson, 73, always looked forward to visiting Royal Castle with his lifelong friend and getting some of that good grub.
A generation shift for Royal Castle
Besides the burgers, Royal Castle stood out in a time of racial issues at restaurants, in an era when Black customers couldn’t even sit at the restaurant chain’s counters.
After the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964, not only were Black customers welcomed, but so were Black managers.
James N. Brimberry had just completed a stint in the Army when he was hired by Singer in 1964. Brimberry was training to become an assistant manager. A white customer told Brimberry that he didn’t want a Black man cooking his food and called him a racial slur.
Brimberry’s manager took him aside for a sobering conversation over a cup of coffee.
“I made a decision that day, sitting on that stool, holding that cup of coffee that one day I would own this place,” Brimberry told the Miami Herald in 2021.
In 1976, the company was in financial trouble and sold off many of its locations to employees.
Brimberry bought seven Royal Castle locations.
He had followed through on his promise.
James S. Brimberry purchased the restaurant at Northwest 79th Street from his grandfather. It was the last of the seven locations, and the younger Brimberry had plans to update the place.
In 2023, he sold the last restaurant to Charlise Stallworth, his cousin and business partner who also owns the brand.
“They’re rebranding,” he said. “That’s why the restaurant isn’t open right now.”
Stallworth hopes to reopen the last location as a new restaurant by Dec. 1. She is interviewing chefs that can help modernize the menu and increase business.
“With the demographics of the area changing, the old traditional menu isn’t working as far as sales go,” she said. “I’m closed now to bring a new menu and insight to the place. We’re trying to bring something different to the community. “
As for the “For Lease” sign that hung on the door after the restaurant was shut down, Stallworth said that was a way to attract new chefs to partner in the business.
According to Florida public records, Royal Castle’s trademark lasts through 2028. Even if Royal Castle burgers are no longer on the grill, the likeness is still owned and can be used.
Property records indicate that the land where the restaurant building stands is owned by Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Representatives for Shriner’s, based in Tampa, didn’t return calls for comment.
Looking back at Royal Castle
In 1969, the Royal Castle chain reported sales of $221 million. But while revenues were rising, profits fell.
William Singer sold his interest in the company for about $6 million in the late ‘60s. His son Lawrence ran the company for several years.
But the red ink flowed along with the Birch Beer.
Former Florida Governor LeRoy Collins even took a shot at running the company for about a year.
In 1975, the company folded, by then owned by the same corporation that failed with Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken stands.
But the handful of independently owned Royal Castle locations went on in Miami-Dade County.
Until there was one.
And now that one is none.
The closing of the last Royal Castle reflects a shift in the food service business. The chain didn’t scale up like Miami-based Burger King. And despite attempts to get with the times, like supersizing the burgers, Royal Castle stuck with tradition.
Seth Bramson, a Miami Shores-based historian and the brother of Bennett, wrote a book on the “Lost Restaurants of Miami.” He said the reason that the last Royal Castle closed revolved around customer service.
“A large reason the place closed is because people stopped going there,” said Bramson, 81.
Seth Bramson worked in hospitality for years before teaching it at the college level.
“It didn’t have to end that way,” he said.
No matter what new restaurant concept Royal Castle becomes, the memories for fans like Gerry Goldstein and the Bramson brothers will last forever.
“It’s so sad for us to see the last Royal Castle leave the planet,” Bennett Bramson said. “It was always a place where we loved the food.”
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