WILLIAMSBURG — If you ask Matt Peck about his hobbies, hamburgers are bound to come up, and that passion for hamburger history helped earn him a place in White Castle’s Champions of Crave Hall of Fame.
The Williamsburg resident has been interested in the art of the hamburger since he was young. On a road trip from his home in Pittsburgh to Walt Disney World, Peck sat in the backseat flipping through a Reader’s Digest magazine that had an article on the history of Mcdonald’s. He was hooked.
“I soon found out it was more than just a clown and Ray Kroc. I read about the brothers and franchising and realized there must be a whole history to the burger I wasn’t aware of,” Peck recalls.
In 2004, Peck enlisted in the Air Force and found himself traveling all over the world. Through years of research, he had learned about the original concept behind White Castle, and although he had never visited one, he was fascinated by it.
That same year, “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” was released in theaters. The movie follows Harold Lee and Kumar Patel, two young men looking to fulfill their munchies craving and go on a wild adventure throughout the state of New Jersey looking for their beloved White Castle.
Peck watched the movie and instantly wanted to find a famous White Castle slider of his own to try. Newly stationed in the Williamsburg area, Peck and a friend drove to Walmarts in Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Gloucester in search of the frozen sliders, but everywhere they went, there was no White Castle to be found.
“After about fifteen stores, we wandered into a Kroger at about one in the morning. This was our last stop before throwing in the towel. We asked the first clerk we found and she had no clue what a White Castle slider was. We were nearly defeated as we shuffled to the freezer section. Alas! To our surprise there was the beautiful blue and white box. We picked up four and bombed back to our base in my newly purchased Bonneville and hit the microwave. We watched Harold and Kumar again while rejoicing over the delicious sliders. It was something so different and new. Something we’d never had before but just tasted right and familiar,” Peck says.
According to Peck, that’s where his love for White Castle all began.
When he was stationed in Germany during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peck’s wife stumbled upon a contest to enter for a chance to be in the White Castle Champions of Crave Hall of Fame. Peck put together an essay about his love for the chain, submitted it and forgot about the competition.
“It was really funny because we did not have an American phone number and you had to put a phone number in to enter so I put in my parent’s number. My mom during one of our FaceTime calls said ‘I got a call from White Castle?’ and she was so confused by it. She played back the message that I had made it to the next round and it just kept going from there until I actually made the final cut and got accepted,” Peck said.
After notching his place in the hall, Peck participated in a virtual Hall of Fame ceremony where he was honored with a plaque including his story which hangs in White Castle headquarters. He is also immortalized on the Hall of Fame’s website.
“I was over the moon. What better thing to be accepted into for somebody that just geeks out on hamburger history than the place that made the hamburger acceptable across America? I was just so excited because there is just so much history to it that is so much fun and to be part of future history is an honor,” Peck said.
After retiring from the Air Force, Peck and his family moved back to the Williamsburg area. His oldest, Joshua, was always his White Castle buddy, egging his dad on to stop at White Castles along their road trip routes.
In December of 2022, Joshua passed away after falling ill with a rare strain of bacterial meningitis. Peck and his wife Christina ended up establishing a nonprofit in Josh’s name, the Joshua Chamberlain Project. When White Castle found out about the organization, it immediately jumped in to help the Peck’s with their mission by donating $2,500.
“There’s no White Castle that is franchised, it’s all family-owned. You see a business like that but then you really get an idea that it is still a family business. Even though it’s big, it’s still a family business. We felt like we were family, we felt like they cared, I wasn’t just part of this promotional gimmick to get into the Hall of Fame. They still reach out, they still engage, and they supported us in our greatest time of need,” Peck said.
While Peck has transitioned back into a civilian job, his dream of opening his own burger restaurant still comes to mind from time to time.
“I’m always musing about different buildings and how they would be perfect for my little burger shop. I’ve thought about creating a little fleet of mobile hamburger trucks. It’s always on my mind, I don’t know that I’ll ever get to it, but I’ve already thought of the name, the menu, and the color scheme and everything,” Peck said.
To learn more about Peck and his fellow inductees in the Champions of Crave Hall of Fame, visit whitecastle.com.
