What next for the burger?
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Version 0 of 1. At last something different, I hoped, as images of Burger King’s new Black Kuro cheeseburger darkened my desktop screen last week. Predictably, I was left disappointed when I realised this was a gimmicky goth burger – the usual beef pattie with a bit of Halloween treatment. It’s the same old thing all over. Byron, MeatLiquor, Lucky Chip, Patty&Bun, Honest Burger, Five Guys, Shake Shack, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Almost Famous … none of them seem to be doing anything new. It’s all beefy buzzwords – grass-fed, dry-aged, specially reared, authentically British, generally served up in a glazed brioche bun. All promise to take me to a state of beef burger nirvana. So why then am I so completely bored by it all? The burger still remains our most popular choice when it comes to eating out, according to the latest research from Horizons, with the average restaurant price for one now just under a tenner (£9.36). But where’s the creativity? I love to indulge in a juicy medium-rare cheeseburger, but I’d also like to see menus which don’t give me such a prominent sense of deja vu and, well, cow. Why aren’t lamb and pork more regularly seen on burger menus? Or even game and ostrich? Why can’t anyone give me something new? “What, like horse?,” jokes a defiant Tom Barton, co-owner of premium, seven-strong London chain Honest Burgers. “Look, what’s the point of trying gimmicks when people still just want a great piece of beef?” he asks, pointing out that it’s the most versatile meat. And fair enough - who among us would mourn the loss of poor quality microwaved frozen burgers, or argue against a better choice of high-quality burgers? Barton argues that this shift is “still in its infancy”, but I still think high-end chains are playing it too safe. Specials – usually a chance for experimentation – seem to solely consist of tarted up or regionally tweaked versions of what’s already on offer. Byron – not the only guilty party, I’d like to add – recently unveiled its latest special, The Shady, with its double cheese and crunchy onions. Hardly radical. Perhaps I’m not alone. Burgers featured on 17% fewer menus last year, hit in part by the rise of hot dogs and ribs, which appeared respectively on 86% and 15% more menus than the previous year. MEATLiquor, meanwhile, arguably the architect of Britain’s current obsession with burgers from its early days as MEATWagon, seems to be abandoning ship. The company, which just opened its third MEATLiquor restaurant in Leeds, recently altered Twitter handles in restaurants to say “Not just burgers”. Is MEATLiquor moving on? “Absolutely not,” insists founder and owner Yianni Papoutsis, although he admits burgers are becoming less prominent on his menus. “We are intentionally called MEATLiquor as burgers do not define us but all this talk of the death of burgers is a bit premature. Whenever there’s a zeitgeist, not everybody will get it right. Bigger chains will try to imitate what we, and others, are doing so well, but the customer isn’t a fool, and I think you’ll see a lot of closures and consolidations for those who don’t do the burger authentically.” Certainly, the customer base still seems obsessed with its burgers, which, despite making up only a quarter of the MEATLiquor menu, still account for 70% of sales. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the rise of the high-end burger is Byron. In a relatively short time, its exponential growth has seen it develop into a nationwide chain with almost 50 sites. Owner Tom Byng says that he is confident of hitting 100 restaurants and doesn’t rule out 200. Hardly the talk you would expect from a man unsure of the future. “Yes it’s true that you’ll find a burger place every 30 yards, but what about pizza?” he counters. “Pizza places outnumber burgers quite comfortably, so why can’t burgers catch up? After all, not every region has been as spoilt as London in terms of high-end burgers, and there are plenty of places in Britain where people still haven’t experienced an authentic hamburger.” People don’t want an overly complicated hamburger, he says, pointing to In-N-Out, one of America’s most iconic burger chains whose menu remains very basic. “The burger remains Britain’s favourite snack and I can’t see that changing any time soon.” However, I find that I agree most with the words of Joe Grossman, founder of London’s Patty & Bun: “Unfortunately, some burger places are becoming a bit soulless, and there’s always a risk that when everybody latches on to the next big thing in food, the category can, fairly or not, start to appear a bit stale and old,” he says. “For example, KFC recently latching on to street food with its pulled chicken has already made a lot of people dissociate themselves from pulled pork baps – it is like a switch going off. The smaller chains on the market have to make sure we keep it fresh and the quality high as our popularity isn’t guaranteed.” Are you bored by burgers? Are there too many burger places on the high street? |