Don Carlos Edwards

Don Carlos Edwards was a restaurant owner and creator of fry sauce. He was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was born in Logan, Utah, on October 6, 1899. He was a veteran of World War I. He opened his first restaurant in 1924 when he “hooked up a food trailer to his truck and transported it to carnivals and fairs.”[1] In 1941, he created the restaurant Don Carlos Bar-B-Q. He established the first Arctic Circle Drive-In Restaurant in 1952 in Salt Lake City and the franchise expanded, at one time, to more than 250 locations in sixteen western states. The restaurants now number 28 company stores and 45 franchises.

Edwards created what he called “pink sauce” to go on the burgers at his Don Carlos Bar-B-Q. A few years later, he dipped a fry in the sauce and was “impressed.”[2] Friends and customers loved it and it became a staple at Arctic Circle. He eventually closed his barbecue restaurant and devoted most of his time to his Arctic Circle chain. The fry sauce is made from a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, garlic, dill pickle juice, and a closely guarded list of other ingredients.

Edwards created other crowd pleasers that caught on with other restaurants, such as a kid’s meal, a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone (brown toppers), a ranch burger, and the exclusive use of Black Angus beef in burgers and halibut in fish-and-chips.

He died on December 26, 1971, just one year after retiring. He and his wife, Minnie, were the parents of two sons.