It was the ’90s. Vegas was booming, sprawl was unhinged and times were crazy. We needed answers, something to help us move on. We knew the truth might not make us happy, but it could settle a few arguments, maybe even give us closure. So we asked:

“White Castle would never come to Las Vegas. Never ever,” was what I thought the spokeswoman had said. But the “never ever” was just a manufactured echo in my empty heart. In fact, her words were “probably not.”

The reason, she said, was that the family-run company wouldn’t franchise in the U.S. and wanted to keep its restaurants close to better oversee production—nothing west of the Mississippi. Meanwhile, other companies serving tiny burgers, confusing anyone in the know, had hijacked the term “slider”—even though the imposter burgers hardly compare to the eighth-of-an-inch “Whitie-One-Bites” punched with holes and steamed.

So when the Las Vegas Foodie Fest, at the Silverton April 26-28, announced that White Castle was in its lineup and placed the White Castle logo on the flier, we were suspicious.

We called White Castle again, and this time the news was good. The Americana-steeped chain is actually shipping two grills from Columbus, Ohio, to Las Vegas for this weekend’s festival, with food coming from a warehouse in St. Louis.

And more importantly, after reiterating last week that White Castle has no plans to open in Las Vegas, a company spokesman added this: “We are in the process of developing a food truck.”