Call Me Dave was a great biography of Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas. Someone we would all recognize from his presence in his commercials, but also someone we might not know much about the greater impact he was making. It was very interesting to hear Dave’s “rags to riches” story from being adopted himself, being moved around multiple times in his teen years and finding the drive to work hard himself, learning the restaurant business and having the drive to want to succeed. I learned a lot myself. I had no idea that prior to founding Wendy’s he owned a few KFC franchises and that he would make the secret recipe at home for his family on special occasions. I loved hearing about the making of all of the commercials as I remembered many of those campaigns from when I was a kid. I also would have connected Wendy’s with being involved with promoting adoption, but had no idea how near and dear to Dave’s heart (and also no idea of how much they did for so many children and families). I think the quote by Tom Brokaw was best, saying that Dave was a “Modest man that built an empire on hamburgers and humility). After finishing this one up, I just might have to get to Wendy’s for a hamburger and frosty.
Thank you to NetGalley, Koehler Books, and the author for the ARC of Call Me Dave in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Publication Date: 7.21.26
Genre: Biography & Memoir, Business & Leadership

This was such an interesting and informative read. I learned quite a bit about Dave Thomas and found my level of respect for him only grew after this book. He was such a stand up guy that cared about everyone around him. I loved his initiatives and dedication to remaining his most authentic self. This is a must read for reminders of how to view business and be an all around decent human being.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Dave is awesome, and this book was a great read. I really enjoyed all of the back stories and insight into a wonderful American icon.

“Call Me Dave” is an easy-to-read tribute to the founder of the iconic hamburger chain, Wendy’s, set forth by an insider, Denny Lynch, with a foreword by none other than Wendy herself, growing up being the iconic face of Wendy’s and the assumptions people would make about her and the family.

Indeed, it is a rags-to-riches story about a poor orphan boy who never met his mother (though he managed to eventually track her down too late to ever meet her), who was fascinated by the restaurant business. Dropping out of high school to work long hours in the business, Thomas went on to work his way up to running a KFC franchise (after meeting Colonel Sanders himself) and, after selling the business at age 35, chose not to rest on his laurels, but to pursue what had forever been his dream, opening a hamburger chain of quality hamburgers.

Dave Thomas demonstrated how hard work and dedication to even the smallest details can pay off and created a restaurant legacy with his children running quite a few of the restaurants in the Ohio area.

This fairly short book (review based on advance reader’s copy) offers an insider’s portrait of one of America’s unique entrepreneurs.

I got this book from Netgalley, so I can read and review it before it's published. I thought this was going be more of a book about Wendy's and how the restaurant came to be (I mean, it was a little bit, but I wanted more). Rather this book was much more about Dave Thomas and his family.

I didn't know he was a high school dropout. He later earned a GED.

I didn't know he was adopted. Throughout his life, he was very involved in this endeavor and created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. There was a whole section about this and how he helped kickstart companies to offer adoption benefits for their employees.

I didn't know about his extreme generosity. I didn't know about his care and commitment to all the Wendy's stores, employees, and especially the customers.

I didn't know he was a franchisee of KFC, and worked along side Colonel Sanders. He eventually sold them and was a millionaire by age 36. Afterwards, Wendy's was established. Pretty cool, and he may have known the secret KFC recipe!

This book dived into his commercial success. It also talked about a few bad things that happened to some of the stores, and how the Wendy's team responded. There were a lot of stories from Wendy's employees as well as a lot of Dave stories.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but towards the end, I was ready to be done.

Considering I couldn't currently name a single CEO of a fast food restaurant, it feels exceptionally nostalgic to be able to clearly remember Dave Thomas and his commercials where he proudly told you he was the founder of Wendy's. Just as the description says, this a book of anecdotes and personal reflections, so the overall tone is very warm and sweet, if not always very in depth. It actually reminded me of being a kid and listening to an older relative telling family stories, and it was nice to read about a man who was very loved and seemed to have deserved all of the praise. If you want something light and hopeful, I would definitely recommend this book.

I love reading bios about famous figures that I don’t know much about. This one was great! Dave Thomas was amazing. Obviously Wendy’s is a huge chain, but his work for foster children and adoption really shines.

I will say that this book got a bit repetitive just based on the format (each chapter is its own story but there are a lot of connected ones) but otherwise I loved it!

Call Me Dave: Behind the Counter With Dave Thomas is an intimate look at the founder of Wendy’s personal life. I remember Dave from his commercials but I never knew a lot of the things the books reveal about him. He was a high school drop out who got his GED in his 60s, was a millionaire (on paper) in his 30s from selling KFC stores, and was extremely generous to all those around him. That’s just a few of the things I learned! The book doesn’t go much into the nitty gritty of him making and running the restaurant. Rightfully so, as there is already several books on that that Dave wrote himself. As his daughter Wendy writes in the introduction, this book is more personal and mentions the things her father would often gloss over when telling his own story. Dave was a man who became a legend and this is his story.

Call Me Dave
by Denny Lynch
Pub Date: July 21, 2026
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This was a great biography and I enjoyed reading it.
Featuring personal reflections and anecdotes from his wife, daughters, employees, friends, and Wendy herself, Call Me Dave explores Dave's quest to build the nation's best hamburger chain while staying true to his principles. Dave never forgot where he came from and created a second legacy-the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption-dedicated to finding loving homes for more than 130,000 children lingering in the foster care system.

All author profits are donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, continuing Dave's lifelong mission to find every child a forever home.

Beautifully arranged and beautifully told. I enjoyed each story and the way they were broken up into little bite sized chapters that manage to still flow together beautifully. I enjoyed learning about Wendy’s, but most importantly I enjoyed learning about Dave himself, and all the adversity he overcame to be the Dave we all grew to know.