MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Free burgers for everyone! It was the day the Brewers beat George Webb

Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It was the day the Brewers beat George Webb.

Thirty years ago Saturday, thousands of people stood in line in the rain to collect on a promise made by George Webb, who by then had been dead for three decades.

Webb, the quirky, iconoclastic restaurant owner who installed two clocks right next to each other in his restaurants for no discernible reason, had predicted Milwaukee's baseball team would someday win a dozen games in a row.

There was no promise attached to the prediction, but all assumed it would mean free burgers if Milwaukee's baseball franchise ever won 12 in a row.

No matter that Milwaukee's team was then the Braves and hamburgers were 15 cents when the prediction was made. But year after year Webb printed the prediction on its napkins. Finally, in April 1987, it happened.

"I didn't think it would take that long, but I knew it would probably happen because of the players we had" in 1987, said Mary Beth Unglaub, a waitress at the George Webb on S. 76th St. in Franklin.

Unglaub has worked at the same Webb's since 1981 and was excited to be part of the burger giveaway from noon to 8 p.m. on April 22, 1987, at all 48 Webb locations in southeastern Wisconsin. She still has a red T-shirt given to employees with "I Survived George Webb Restaurants Brewer Burgermania" on the front and "Brewers 12, George Webb 168,194" (the number of burgers given away) on the back.

"Oh, I wanted to work that day. Oh yeah. They put on extra people. It was exciting to see how many people came in. I enjoy what I do," said Unglaub. "It was a rainy day, I know that. Hopefully, if they do it again, it won't be raining."

As the Brewers began racking up victories to start the 1987 season, the excitement grew exponentially. When the team won 10 in a row, one fan was quoted in the Milwaukee Sentinel crowing "George Webb will pay."

The 12th victory came on a sunny Easter Sunday, in a dramatic come-from-behind win against the Rangers before a sellout crowd. Down 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Rob Deer hit a three-run homer to tie it and shortstop Dale Sveum's game-ending two-run blast into the right-field bleachers threw the crowd into a frenzy.

George Webb Vice President Ryan Stamm was at that game with his father, Dave, who was then the president of the company.

"We left the game early — and at the time they were losing — to go to a press conference. By the time we got to the restaurant at 76th and Good Hope the parking lot was filled with fans," said Ryan Stamm, who was 11 at the time. "When they won the 12th game we really didn't know what we would do. How do we pay off this prediction?"

A plan was put in place and Dave Stamm announced at the news conference that a free burger for each customer would be handed out three days later. And they came. Lining up outside restaurants for hours, patiently waiting in the rain to taste victory covered with ketchup, pickles, fried onions and mustard.

"It was actually very good for business. It wasn't a dreaded thing, it was an exciting thing," said Tom Aldridge, a second-generation George Webb owner who had nine franchise locations in 1987. "Business went up 20% around the ninth victory and business went up for months after that."

Restaurant owners and managers worried about running out of hamburger patties and buns, but the operation appeared to run without a hitch, assembly lines were set up with workers grilling, adding condiments, bagging and handing out. Styrofoam coolers were filled with burgers as the lines seemed to keep growing throughout the day. A grill fire at the Webb on W. Silver Spring Drive delayed service about 20 minutes and a firefighter jokingly denied that rescue squad members ran into the restaurant to get to the front of the line.

The George Webb Commissary ordered around 25,000 pounds of beef, about 3 1/2 times as much as a normal week, as well as 173,000 buns with hundreds of pounds of pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard.

Some restaurants dispensed only burgers, fries and soda during the eight-hour giveaway while others accommodated customers who wanted to order chili, eggs or anything else off the menu. One man interviewed by the Sentinel claimed he was packing his burger in dry ice to mail that evening to his son stationed in San Diego with the Navy.

"One that sticks out to me was the man who bronzed his burger. How do you bronze a burger?" said Aldridge, who now owns four George Webb restaurants in Milwaukee and one each in Racine and Wauwatosa.

Robyn Thompson had worked at a Webb at 27th and Clybourn since 1981 and didn't think the day would ever come when the Brewers would win 12 in a row. She and other employees checked the scores each day once the team started winning. At her restaurant, only burgers with the works — fried onions, pickles, ketchup and mustard — were handed out.

"There were people lined up across the bridge. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting," Thompson said on Thursday after finishing a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at Webb on Old World 3rd St. "We thought — they're standing out there for a hamburger? For a hamburger?"

It's been 30 years since the hamburger payoff. Every time the Brewers come close, winning nine or 10 games in a row, hamburger giveaway fever seems to grow. This season, considering it's another rebuilding year for the Brewers, it seems unlikely George Webb will be giving away burgers.

But George Webb will if the Brewers do, said Ryan Stamm.

"Oh yes. Every year we have a 12-game prediction," he said. ​