In 1954 the Bresler's Ice Cream Company decided to expand into the growing fast-food drive-in industry.

Company executives were looking for a new outlet to promote higher sales of their malts and shakes without altering their existing ice cream shop franchises.

Henry's was modelled after James Collin's Hamburger Handout restaurants in Southern California which in turn had been modelled after the McDonald brother's San Bernardino operation.

By the early 1960s there were over two hundred Henry's restaurants across America with operations headquarters in Chicago.

[3] By the mid-1970s Henry's Hamburger locations began closing while repeated mergers and ownership changes took place within the Bresler company.