Clown Burger takes brief hiatus as owner retires

The notice popped up on Facebook a couple of days ago: Bill Louthan, the owner of longtime Haltom City joint Clown Burger, was retiring. He’d already hinted at it, but in essence, he was retiring now.

“I just don't have the stamina to do the job anymore,” says the post on the Clown Burger Facebook page. Here's the new plan. When we close [Thursday], the Clown will reopen with my daughter in charge on June 1st.”

Louthan says that the intervening weeks will be a transition period as he helps his daughter, Kari, take over the business. “With Kari in charge you ill be able to get a burger on Saturdays!,” the post says.

By the time we were able to get to this, the restaurant had sold its last burger — but Mike Castellucci of Star-Telegram/DFW.com content partner WFAA/Channel 8 made it. He must’ve had to rush, because according to his report, the restaurant sold out of burgers in two hours on Thursday, thanks to well-wishers bidding Louthan farewell.

Our Bud Kennedy reported in late 2015 that Louthan had postponed retirement plans, and intended to stay at least until summer. We think he made it — in Texas, summer starts in May, right?

Bud started off his Eats Beat column with “Before McDonald’s, before drive-throughs, there was Clown Burger.” The joint actually pre-dates Louthan, who has been there since 1963; Louthan told Bud that there were customers who had been coming there since before he started working there.

And there were other family memories on Facebook, including this very sweet post. We’ll see you in June, Clown Burger.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Clown Burger takes brief hiatus as owner retires."