A popular fast-food restaurant with Midwestern roots may be coming to Whitehall.
Culver’s, an American fast-casual food chain with more than two dozen locations across Ohio, is seeking a special permit from the city of Whitehall to open a restaurant at 4600 E. Broad St. in the heart of that Columbus suburb.
The proposed building for the eatery, a more than 4,500-square-foot building that sits on the north side of East Broad Street and west of Hamilton Road, is owned by Meyer Foods Management Company, which also owns and operates more than 30 Culver’s restaurants. The company is seeking a special permit to open a drive-through for the restaurant, according to a legal notice posted in The Dispatch.
The application for the special permit must first be reviewed by the Whitehall Board of Zoning and Building Appeals during a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on May 11 at Whitehall City Hall, the notice states.
Meyer Foods Management Company must also seek the permit for the drive-through from the city Planning Commission. A public hearing before the commission will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 21, also at City Hall.
Following these two meetings, a public hearing will be held during a regularly scheduled City Council meeting on June 2 to further discuss the proposal, and City Council members will vote on it.
“Whitehall is excited to continue to bring in new business to the community,” Gayle Saunders, a spokesperson for Whitehall, told The Dispatch. “Culver’s is expected to break ground at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027, should it make it through zoning and all of the proper processes.”
A spokesperson for Culver’s said that since the proposal is in its early stages, they are unable to provide any additional information or details until an owner-operator is selected for the location.
Culver’s was founded in 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin, as a fast casual dining restaurant, according to the restaurant’s website. Some of their signature menu items include ButterBurgers, fresh frozen custard, and Wisconsin cheese curds. There are nearly 1,100 Culver’s restaurants throughout the U.S., including in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Utah, Illinois, Florida, and nearly two dozen other locations throughout the country.
There are 30 Culver’s restaurants throughout Ohio and five locations throughout central Ohio, including restaurants on Columbus’ West Side and on the city’s Northeast Side near New Albany, as well as Reynoldsburg, Powell and Marysville. Three other restaurants are planned in Canal Winchester, Lancaster, and Heath, according to the restaurant’s website, but no opening dates have been posted publicly.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Culver’s restaurant seeking zoning permits to come to Whitehall
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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