South St. Burger Co.

We received this great write up in the Culinary Seductions blog which we had to share. Thanks Dan for the feature!

“We don’t usually think of quality when we think of fast food, but that is changing. Fast food is moving away from frozen, low-grade, mass processed, and cheap “product” to fresh, local, organic, naturally raised, and hormone & antibiotic-free food.

“People are pickier about what they eat these days” says Jay Gould, President of South St. Burger Co., a Toronto based burger bar chain that grills up fresh, naturally raised, hormone & antibiotic-free burgers. Books, television shows and films such as Fast Food Nation, Super Size Me, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and Food, Inc. have exposed the dark realities behind mega-corporate manufactured food products and the ill effects their production has on livestock, agriculture, employees and the public. As a result, there is a transformation to real food from local sources.

Brands such as Chipotle, South St. Burger Co., and Mendocino Farms are delivering real food that is fast. Great food starts with the best ingredients you can get your hands on. When I cook to impress, I look for the best ingredients I can get. It’s not cheap, but it tastes better. So when I go out to eat, I look for a restaurant that wants to impress me…whether I want a four-hour fine dining experience or a ten-minute fast food indulgence.

“Food With Integrity”
Chipotle Mexican Grill is a leader in this fast food paradigm shift. It has been around since 1994 when founder and classically trained chef Steve Ells started serving up big, tasty and fresh burritos and tacos out of a converted ice cream parlor in Denver, Colorado. Chipotle is the benchmark brand having over 900+ restaurants in the United States, Toronto, London and soon Paris and Fankfurt. They use the finest, freshest, all natural and local ingredients. I can confirm this because I used to work at Chipotle’s first international restaurant in Toronto.

The food we cooked was outstanding for the extremely high volume of output. Chicken and beef come in fresh several times a week from Berretta farms, a local farm in Ontario, Canada that is known for high quality, naturally raised, hormone & antibiotic free meats. The pork comes pre-cooked from a farm in Quebec and it’s delicious too. Fresh produce and fruit are also delivered several times a week. Guacamole, salsas and dressings are made fresh several times a day and lettuce is cut for salads, burritos and tacos while cheese is shredded daily. You never get any leftover cooked food at Chipotle.

Chipotle has one location that serves up breakfast burritos at Washington Dulles International airport. They are also experimenting with introducing chorizo (Mexican sausage) and soup on the menu. In Paris, they will serve wine and have additional meats such as goat. However, you won’t see them deviate too much from the core menu because people crave the chipotle flavor. Although these ingredients come at a cost, Chipotle has proven that people want quality food even if they have to pay more for it. They have paved the way for other brands in the fast food sandwich segment (yes, a burrito is considered a sandwich) to take the leap away from serving cheap, low quality product to real food.

“Be the Right Choice”
What is Jay’s favorite burger from his South St. Burger Co.? It’s a large beef patty with curry mayo, Dijon horseradish, tomatoes, ketchup and Swiss cheese. Those are just some of the more than 25 gourmet toppings you can choose to put on a fresh, naturally raised, hormone & antibiotic-free burger patty.

Jay Gould, the entrepreneur behind New York Fries, started South St. Burger Co., with one location in Toronto in 2005. Although Jay may already be the Lord of Fries (with over 185 New York Fries shops in Canada, Korea, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong) he may soon become The Fresh Prince of Real Burgers because of his quest to make the best burger possible.

Burgers and fries are a classic combination. Since New York Fries (is known for having delicious fries, not just any burger would do. Instead of adding a burger to the New York Fries brand, Jay created a new restaurant and took time to create the food. He and his team visited successful Mom & Pop burger bars in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles before experimenting with ground beefs, buns and toppings.

South St. also has taken cues from Chipotle. The style in which one orders, the hip atmosphere, using naturally raised and local ingredients, making food in front of the customer, and eco friendly initiatives to name a few.

The end result of Jay’s research was a patty made from naturally raised, hormone & antibiotic-free beef from Rowe farms in Ontario, Canada. There are some frozen inputs imported from New Zealand; however, the patties are formed fresh in Toronto. Why New Zealand? According to Jay, New Zealand has more sophisticated processing technology than Canada and the United States. This makes for a better tasting burger.

It’s one of the most delicious burgers I have ever tasted from a fast food restaurant. The burger comes with your choice of a whole wheat or white fresh baked bun that is delivered fresh daily. Cheese (goat, Swiss, cheddar, pepper jack and soon blue cheese) and bacon cost extra. French fries from New York Fries, poutine, fresh onion rings (which are delicious too) and real milk shakes can accompany your burger.

What I really respect about Jay Gould and his South St. Burger Co. and New York Fries brands is that they’re “not trying to be total health food, they’re trying to be real food!” South St. Burger Co. has 12 locations, with a new location coming to the Shops at Don Mills in Toronto in the summer of 2010. They expect to expand to over 100 locations in Canada. The future of fresh and tasty burgers in Canada looks bright!

“Seasonal and Local”
Mendocino Farms, a gourmet sandwich restaurant with 3 locations in Los Angeles, is priming itself to be a national brand. The brand boasts that “sophisticated wine country-inspired ingredients composed with a fine dining approach to flavor pairing make Mendocino Farms the premier eco-artisan sandwich concept.” The idea is to reconstruct a fine dining experience within a sandwich. It’s a good idea. There is a need for a better sandwich than Subway and Quiznos on a national level.

Although a great concept, the execution is problematic. I wasn’t impressed after actually tasting a few of their sandwiches. The menu is rather large and confusing, making it difficult to choose the “right sandwich.” Also the way you order is a bit silly. Girls greet/hold you at the front door and make you line up creating the illusion that the store is busier than it is. They take your order and then hand it to you before you walk in the store. Then you hand it off to a guy behind the counter and wait until your name is called. Once your name is called you go to the cashier who gives you your food after you pay for it. They need to streamline this process if they want to be more than just a regional chain.

In my mind, if a sandwich isn’t fantastic then why bother putting it on the menu? I sampled the Blue Buffalo Chicken sandwich and the Caprese sandwich. Both were pretty boring. In fact, the most exciting thing about the Mendocino Farms experience was the Boylan’s soda fountain that dispenses several different flavors of sugar cane gourmet soda. It was exciting to see a gourmet soda fountain; however, I think I went into hyperglycemic shock after tasting their root beer.

My review won’t matter. Mendocino Farms has great marketing and their food is real! They will be successful because there isn’t anything challenging them in the gourmet sandwich segment. When Quiznos first came out, it was a better option than Subway for a sandwich, but have you tasted a sandwich from Quiznos lately? It’s sub-par at best.

“That’s What a Hamburger is All About”
Fresh, made to order, fast food is not a novel concept. In N’ Out has been serving fresh, made to order burgers and hand-cut French fries in California, Nevada and Arizona since 1948 (that’s longer than McDonalds). Their menu is simple and their food tastes delicious.

Chipotle is based on In N’ Out’s model. In N’ Out has a very simple menu with fresh ingredients. Crew members must become masters at every station before being considered for a management position. In N’ Out and Chipotle keep their operations simple, clean, consistent and they use fresh food.

“Eat Well!”
The Chipotles of the world didn’t exist when I was growing up. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and KFC dominated fast food. And although Chipotle, South St. Burger Co. and Mendocino Farms are innovators, Jay Gould believes it’s the “big burger companies that we should look to for future trends.” McDonalds may not serve real food, but they serve value and have deep pockets to market “healthier” food items on their menus. While Jay might be right, I still hope people make informed choices and don’t get fooled by marketing alone. Although a real meal will likely always cost a bit more than ultra-processed crap, at least you can now get fresh fast (so the savings on time is diminishing). Plus, a few dollars more in the short term may lead to greater savings in the long run. After all, you get what you pay for… and you are what you eat.”

Jay Gould, the president and founder of New York Fries and South St. Burger Co. is profiled in today’s National Post in the Q&A section (FP8). In this article he shares his secrets of success and the insights that were at play when he created the South St. Burger Co. brand. Article is courtesy of Hollie Shaw.

After successfully founding Cultures Fresh Food Restaurants and New York Fries, Toronto entrepreneur Jay Gould ventured into premium burgers in 2005 with the opening South Street Burger Co. in Toronto. He opened his 12th store this year — all them in Ontario and Alberta. He spoke with Hollie Shaw about expansion plans and how to stay unique in a crowded category.

Q: What made you decide to get into the burger market? Given the market presence of giants like McDonald’s and specialty players like Licks, it is a pretty competitive category.

A: South St. Burger Co. came about initially as an expansion strategy for the New York Fries brand and as we began to build the concept we quickly realized that this was a much bigger opportunity than merely growing our fry units. We noticed that the premium burger segment was being poorly serviced in Canada, so we set out to create upscale burger experience that stood apart from traditional fastfood burger offerings. NYF was built on the concept of real and fresh ingredients and we wanted that same standard put to our burgers. So, while the burger category is a very crowded one, as you point out, we don’t feel there is strong competition at the higher end. Burgers are the second-most-purchased food item outside the house in North America. And fries are No. 1.

Q: How do you make a unique brand statement?

A: Our mantra is to “Be the Right Choice”–our guiding principle in dictating which ingredients we purchase, our obligation to our community and environment. Our burgers are made with fresh, 100% pure beef patties [with] no preservatives, additives, spice packs or filler. No hormones or antibiotics are given to the cows; and the animals are naturally and conscientiously raised. We use only real cheese for our cheeseburgers and have a selection of four or five different cheeses depending on what is locally available. The mantra [also] extends beyond our food. We recently signed up to have five of our stores Bullfrog powered, we installed a solar electrical system and solar thermal system in two locations, and we have moved into high-efficiency equipment even though the cost is higher upfront. A brand is built, not designed, and we feel these were the right long-term moves for the company.

Q: Was it any easier to secure new business funding given your established track record?

A: Absolutely it makes it easier. As most of our New York Fries units are franchises, the company has not had to rely on raising capital to finance the expansion of the NYF brand. But having a franchised model for NYF has certainly worked in our favour to develop the South St. Burger Co. brand, which are mostly corporately owned. The royalties earned from our NYF franchisees provides a predictable influx of money to the company. Leveraging the cash flow from our New York Fries operations, the company has been able to finance the construction of eleven South St. Burger Co. restaurants, with one more unit [in north Toronto] currently under construction.

Q: Did you plan the venture with the idea of co-branding locations with New York Fries?

A: Pairing New York Fries with South St. Burger Co. was a deliberate strategy. We knew that NYF was an impulse purchase and did very well in mall food court environments, but it wasn’t a strong enough calling card to serve as a destination on the street. Serving it with a premium burger changes the game. South St. Burger is a destination brand, and serves to expose many men, who do not hang out in malls, to New York Fries. Also, with so many burger concepts focusing only on the burgers, and leaving the side orders as a distant afterthought, we knew there was an opportunity to improve the overall gourmet burger experience with the New York Fries quality.

Q: Everybody was hit in some way by the recession, and in your category you offer a premium product. Did the recession hurt sales and profits?

A: We fared well during the recent recession, but I should qualify that the fast food industry as a whole generally does well in tougher times. People tend to trade down from a sit-down experience to a quick-service meal, and though we don’t classify South St. Burger as a “fastfood” play, the same rules applied to us. The recession actually coincided with the hamburger “barbell” phenomenon: Many traditional fast-food restaurants went after the value meals and at the same time launched a premium burger offering, so they could offer their customers a meal that suited them. We don’t have a dollar menu list, but we still found that people opting out of their $30 steak dinners were coming to us for lunch. The chain also opened new units within the past 18 months, so we had the benefit of double growth — same-store sales increased in addition to new unit growth. Q What advice would you offer to other entrepreneurs? A Surround yourself with a strong team. Many entrepreneurs are too used to doing everything themselves and have some issues with control. Being able to identify areas that are not your strengths, and hiring strong people will take you from a respected one-person show to a successful and valued company. Also, seek advice from appropriate professionals but don’t let your idea get too watered down–stay focused.

Q: How big would you like South St. Burger Co. to get?

A: In the short term, I would love to see South St. Burger Co. continue to grow within the two markets that we already occupy, [southern Ontario] and Calgary, before we venture into new territories. In my experience, restaurant brands work well when they are developed within a concentrated market first, to leverage the efficiencies of marketing and operations. Expanding into new territories means we need to source a local supplier for our beef, buns, ice cream, etcetera, which takes time and patience. That said, from a brand perspective, we think the concept has a broad appeal [that could grow to] at least 100 units in this country. After that we would consider international expansion, if all our criteria were met.

Read the original article here: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=3091162#ixzz0pWCRU7j3

We recently set out to find mommy bloggers in the Toronto area that like to do entries about food and restaurants, and asked them to review South St. Burger Co. Below are a couple of fun reviews we received. If you know of a mommy blogger that may be interested in trying us out, please put them in contact with us!

“South St. Burger - Lena Approved” from Listen to Lena blog - http://www.listentolena.com/2010/05/south-st-burger-co-lena-approved.html

“South St. Burger” from Cat Can Cook blog - http://www.catcancook.com/south-st-burger/#comments