The changing times have brought much excitement to our modern-day world. Information can be found at the touch of a button, or rather the utterance of a word or phrase. Cars can literally drive themselves, and you do not even have to pedal your bike if you so choose. With all this innovation, one would think the quality of life would be so much better. Unfortunately, the cost of several of these features has been good old-fashioned values, such as hospitality, quality, and tradition.
Three entrepreneurs decided this should not be the case when it came to the restaurant industry, so in 2002, they decided to start the first Freddy’s Restaurant in Wichita, Kansas. Brothers Bill and Randy Simon and their friend Scott Redler envisioned a place where customers could receive quality food in a clean, traditional environment served with good old-fashioned hospitality.
This vision exploded into more than four hundred locations, one located conveniently in Dubuque, right along the Northwest Arterial. Freddy’s is currently number eight in the top ten fastest growing restaurant chains in the United States, showing the desire for tradition, kindness, and quality have endured, even with the rapidly changing times. The foundation of Freddy’s did not evolve from thin air. Freddy is in fact a real person- the father of founders Bill and Randy Simon. Until 2020, when he passed away at the age of ninety-five, Freddy loved visiting with the customers and enjoying a good, fresh Freddy’s Original Patty Melt. At age seventy-seven, his fifty years of knowledge and expertise in the service industry allowed him to help guide his sons and their friends in opening the new eatery.
To read the remainder of this premium article and other premium articles in their entirety, pick up the June 2025 issue of Julien’s Journal. Single issues are available in print at area newsstands, or you can click here to read the entire article in the digital version of the magazine.
Read Julien’s Journal, CHOICES For Fifty Plus and Tri-State Home TRENDS from the Comfort of Your Home!
Click to subscribe or call 563.557.7571 to subscribe for convenient delivery to your home or business by mail.
Comment here