A taqueria in San Antonio, a used-car dealership in El Paso, an art school in Dallas, and a coffee shop in Waco. What do they all have in common? They’re housed in buildings with distinct A-frame structures and long, jutting awnings. Out-of-state passersby might simply note them as quirky architectural outliers amid unremarkable surroundings. But Texans know.

There’s no mistaking the iconic outline of an original Whataburger. It’s just as founder Harmon Dobson intended when he opened the first A-frame location in Odessa in 1961. Dobson, an aviation enthusiast with sky-high aspirations for Whataburger becoming a Texas institution after establishing the first restaurant in Corpus Christi in 1950, reportedly sketched the design on a napkin, hoping the finished structure would stand out f

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