white castle

Dave Rife - White Castle Owner on Undercover Boss
HAMILTON — Dave Rife found himself behind the counter of a White Castle restaurant for a second time. This time cameras were following him.

Rife, the executive of White Castle restaurants, was commissioned by the CBS reality television show, “Undercover Boss” and worked at multiple White Castle restaurants for 10 days in the month of June 2009. He said he had once worked at White Castle as an employee about 10 years prior to the filming.

“When I started my career with White Castle, I started behind that counter,” Rife said. “A lot of technology has changed but the basic job itself is the same.”

White Castle on High Street in Hamilton received a visit from the high-ranking staffer.

“The Hamilton store, specifically, is a new location,” Rife said. “We had just opened the building a month prior. I kind of wanted to see how things were going. I was just really thrilled with what I found.”

Rose Neeley, a White Castle employee, was working the day Rife stopped by on a Sunday afternoon.

“They told us it was for a documentary,” Neeley said.

Rife said the employees were told he was a laid-off employee looking for odd-end jobs.

The White Castle employees at the High Street store just found out weeks ago the filming was for the show.

Rife made stops in Ohio, northern Kentucky and Illinois.

“I learned that there’s some opportunities for our company to capitalize on,” Rife said.

Rife said he learned the ins and outs of working at a White Castle.

“I would call it an emotional roller coaster,” Rife said. “We have long days. I worked all three shifts, met some remarkable people. We covered a lot of ground.”

Neeley said the show would capture fun times employees had during Rife’s visit.

“I think our show is just going to be a goofy one, it’s not going to be sad, it’s just going to be silly, ” she said.

“Undercover Boss” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on WKRC-TV Local 12.
Subsidiaries: White Castle Distributing LLC, which produces frozen product line for retail and PSB Co., which specializes in manufacturing stainless steel fixtures and equipment. The company also operates three bakery sites and three meat plants.

Stores: 415, all company owned.

Co-branded stores: 27 White Castle locations in three states are co-branded with Church's Chicken.

Employees: (at the end of 2007) 11,630, including 10,785 in the restaurant division. Of those, 500 have 25 or more years with the company, and more than 2,000 have more than 10 years continuous service.