The story of Runza dates back more than 250 years, to the time when Catherine the Great invited German citizens, many of them farmers, to settle in Russia. Most made their homes in the Volga River valley, where they thrived in the remote region more than 1,100 miles southeast of Moscow. It was there that the Volga Germans developed a Russian-German mashup they called bierocks.
Pierogies, a staple in Russia, consisted mostly of potatoes and onions, while bierocks were made primarily with meat and cabbage. These dough-wrapped savory pockets were designed to be portable so farmers could take them into the fields. Bierocks later made their way to the United States after many Volga Germans immigrated, eventually settling in central Nebraska, a region with a climate and landscape similar to their former homes in Russia.
Two of those immigrants, Alexander Brening and Katharina Lehr, both of whom arrived by 1910, settled near Sutton, Nebraska, after marrying. When Katharina left her native country, she brought with her the family’s bierock recipe, which she passed on to their daughter Sally.
Sally adapted the recipe, filling the dough with ground beef, cabbage, onions, and seasoning before wrapping and baking it. Alongside her siblings, she opened a food stand that sold an Americanized version of bierocks, which they called Runza. The name was likely derived from other terms for bierocks, such as krautrunz and runsa. She altered it just enough so that it could be trademarked. To launch the business, they purchased an old hot dog stand and moved it to a cornfield near Pioneers Park.
They opened their first restaurant, Runza Drive-In, in 1949. Business started slowly after Salt Creek flooded on opening day. The namesake sandwich was also slow to catch on, taking nearly five years to outsell hamburgers and hot dogs on the menu. In 1955, they replaced the original building with a new one.
Sally’s son, Donald Everett, took over the family business in 1964, and growth accelerated. He opened a second location at 56th Street and Holdrege Street in 1966 and expanded far beyond Lincoln’s city limits. As Runza’s popularity grew, other restaurants began using the name for their own versions of the sandwich. This prompted Donald to purchase the trade name and incorporate the restaurant. By then, various family members operated restaurants with similar names, all under the Runza trademark: Runza Drive-In (Sally), Runza Drive Inn (Donald), and Runza Hut (Rich).
Rich opened the first Omaha location at 120th Street and Center Street in 1969, and the family began franchising in 1979. Over the following decade, it expanded to more than 40 locations, including Parkfair and Crossroads Malls in Omaha. The restaurant debuted its Italian Runza in 1985 and went on to add several others over the years, including southwest, barbecue bacon, and Swiss mushroom. In 1991, it opened a retro diner version of the restaurant in downtown Lincoln called Rock ‘N’ Roll Runza, complete with games, a jukebox, and beer.
As the company expanded, the family rejected far more franchise applications than they approved. In an interview with the Lincoln Journal Star, Donald explained that they “want an owner-operator rather than an absentee investor. Nine out of 10 requests don’t meet that criteria. When I find a good person, I build them a Runza and then we’ll be partners.”
Donald received numerous accolades during his tenure, including Nebraska Restaurateur of the Year in 1994. He was inducted into the Omaha Hospitality Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame in 2013.
After Donald retired in 1997, his son, Donald Everett Jr., took over the family business. Under his leadership, Runza became an official partner of Nebraska Athletics in 2000, giving it the opportunity to sell thousands of sandwiches on Husker game days. It’s likely no coincidence that they opened their 80th location just one year after introducing their famously odd chili-and-cinnamon-roll pairing in 2008. Innovation continued, with Temperature Tuesdays launching in 2010.
The restaurant still prepares and bakes its bread, seasons its ground beef, mixes the cabbage and onions, and hand-presses its burgers on site. Long synonymous with Nebraska, it has expanded beyond the Cornhusker State, having opened more than 90 locations in Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, and Colorado. More than 75 years after its founding, Runza is now more popular than ever.
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Sources
- Omaha World-Herald archives
- Lincoln Journal Star archives
- York-News Times
- https://www.runza.com/about/history
- https://smartmouth.substack.com/p/runza
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runza
- Chicago Tribue, Sandwich that stems from Eastern Europe powers Great Plains chain, Dec 27, 2016
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