 |
| Brian Tomasko, seated on his new Chief Vintage, with Eagle Rock Indian dealership owner Todd Williams. |
Culver’s is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. If you go to their web page, https://www.culvers.com/restaurants/idaho-falls-id-pancheri-dr, you will see that today’s flavor is Brownie Thunder and tomorrow’s is German Chocolate Fudge.
 |
| Today's flavor at Culver's: Brownie Thunder |
This is the fourth Culver’s in Idaho. The first was opened in Twin Falls in 2014, by Eugene Smith, a fourth-generation Wisconsin dairy farmer who left agriculture and moved west to open a franchise. As an alumnus of Ricks College, where he studied dairy farming, Smith had some experience with eastern Idaho.
The chain dates back to 1984, when George Culver, his wife, Ruth, son Craig, and daughter-in-law Lea, opened the first Culver’s Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Franchising began in 1987, and after a shaky start the chain expanded into Milwaukee and Madison. By the end of 2011, there were 445 Culver’s restaurants in 19 states.
Eagle Rock Indian opened on Friday and sold its first bike the same day, a Vintage Chief to Brian Tomasko. I have reposted the photo from their Facebook page, and it is gorgeous.
Indian is a company that dates back to 1901, when it was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts. In the 20th century it was a longtime competitor with Harley-Davidson in the U.S. motorcycle market. Chiefs, Scouts, and Junior Scouts were all used in World War II, but none could unseat the Harley-Davidson WLA as the motorcycle mainly used by the U.S. Army. The company went bankrupt in 1953.
In the years that followed, however, Indian’s legend was valuable enough for companies to want to revive the name. The latest iteration was formed in 2006, in Kings Mountain, N.C., where it manufactured Indian Chief motorcycles in limited numbers, with a focus on exclusivity rather than performance. In 2011, Polaris Industries, parent company of Victory Motorcycles, announced its intention to acquire Indian. The company’s production facilities were moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa, and in March 2013, Indian unveiled its new 111 cubic inches (1.82 L) "Thunder Stroke" engine and began to sell the newly designed motorcycles based on it.
For more information, visit http://eaglerockindianmotorcycle.com. The Idaho Falls showroom is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m to 6 p.m. They’d probably appreciate it if you ate your ice cream outside.
