Mike Higdon

mhigdon@rgj.com

A "White Castle Coming Soon!" sign keeps appearing on Gateway and Prototype drives in south Reno. A few readers posted it to the RGJ Facebook page a few months ago asking if it was real, and today Reno Foodies, a Facebook group with more than 7,000 members, posted another photo asking the same question.

While White Castle, a fast-food miniature hamburger restaurant, already opened restaurants in Las Vegas, a spokesperson for the company said they have no plans to expand to Reno in the near future.

He also said they occasionally must track down fake signs and imposter restaurants. Since the White Castle mini burgers can be purchased in the freezer section of local grocery stores, people have set up fake fast food restaurants, cooked up the frozen burgers and sold them out of the unauthorized stores.

What's worse, the sign may be posted illegally, both against city code and state law regarding billboard advertising and commercial signage without a permit or permission from the land owner, according to Associate City Planner Nathan Gilbert. The land owners, Nevada Pacific Development Corporation, could not be immediately reached for comment.