South St. Burger Co.

TORONTO, ON – March 9, 2011- South St. Burger Co.’s Don Mills location will receive the 2011 Special Recognition Award for Innovation in Energy by the A.R.E. Sustainability Awards. The award will be presented at the A.R.E. Design Awards ceremony at Globalshop 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 28th.

The South St. Burger Co. Shops at Don Mills location was designed by Jump Branding & Design Inc. The principle sustainable goals for the creation of the Don Mills location included: reducing energy consumption, reducing waste water, reducing CO2 emissions and using green practices in material selections.

“It is a great honour to be recognized by the Association for Retail Environments,” says Jay Gould, founder of South St. Burger Co. “Receiving the Innovation in Energy Design Award highlights South St. Burger Co.’s motto to ‘Be the Right Choice’ for our consumers when they are looking for a model dining experience. This motto translates to our goal of being responsible to our community and the environment we operate in.”

South St. Burger Co. has pioneered the notion of premium fast food using real, fresh ingredients. Its beef is purchased from local farms that practice conscientious and natural farming, raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics, and is turned into fresh, 100 per cent beef patties. South St. Burger Co.’s commitment to operating conscientiously is not exclusive to its ingredient selection. Restaurants have reduced their heating requirements by more than 300 cubic meters of gas per month through grill hoods with high technology heat exchange ventilation systems. The restaurants also use air cooled as opposed to water cooled ice machines, high efficiency fryers, LED bulbs for 80 per cent of their lighting requirements, and two locations have solar-powered water heater and solar photovoltaic panels, with plans to add more.

Five years down the road, Gould says he expects to be operating some 50 South St. Burger Co. locations, each of them a notch greener than the previous one. Other green initiatives include purchasing clean, renewable electricity, installing sensor light switches and low-flow toilets in washrooms and using reclaimed wood, non-toxic cleaning products and post-consumable recycled paper products where applicable.

“It’s been an evolutionary process and Jump has been there every step of the way,” continues Gould. “So far what we’ve done, apart from being responsible citizens, has not been as painful as it might seem. Our energy investments are paying for themselves.”

Eric Boulden, Jason Hemsworth, Jerry Alfieri and Melissa Zurfluh from the team at Jump Branding & Design Inc. will be receiving the award for the Don Mills location on March 28^th in Las Vegas. For more information about the awards visit www.retailenvironments.org.

About South St. Burger Co.

South St. Burger Co. has 12 locations in the Golden Horseshoe area, one in Calgary and 4 locations in development. Location addresses and directions can be found online at www.southstburger.com. All South St. Burger Co. burgers are 100% pure, fresh, beef patties that come from cattle that was naturally raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics. Plus, the sides are anything but a second thought. Serving New York Fries french fries, New York Fries signature poutine and South St. Burger Co.’s hand-made onion rings, you’d better brace yourself to rethink your burger experience.

This September marks South St. Burger Co.’s 5 year birthday! With the recent opening of our 13th store at Shops at Don Mills, we have a lot to celebrate. On the outside, our brand has evolved into a tighter design with a more succinct tone. We have embraced sustainability. We are now purchasing energy efficient equipment and local ingredients wherever possible. Half of our locations in Ontario are completely Bullfrog Powered, which represent some great advances since we opened our first location.  But as we continue to find new meaningful ways to channel our brand, on the inside, we have stayed true to our roots. Despite our growth, we still use a fresh patty, from naturally raised cattle, bred without the use of hormones or antibiotics. We continue to have our buns baked by a local baker each morning, then delivered to our stores for the day’s use. We still offer a selection of real cheese to turn your burger into a cheeseburger, and have added blue cheese based on our customer feedback. Our condiment counter remains full, with some new exotic new additions since our initial store, including curry mayo, Chiptotle BBQ sauce and Cajun onions, all of which continue to be complimentary, and allow customers to completely customize their burger.

Over the last five (actually 6) years, we have had the pleasure of creating and growing our South St. Burger Co. concept with our branding agency, JUMP Branding and Design.  JUMP has captured some lovely photographs of the store interior, and pays tribute to our longstanding partnership on their blog. After 5 years of grilling burgers across the Golden Horseshoe (and Calgary!)  we would like to thank all our customers, partners and suppliers for helping us achieve this milestone, and for making South St. Burger Co. the success that it is today.

At long last, after what seems like the longest construction project ever for us, we have finally opened our doors at the Shops at Don Mills, just in time for the last days of summer. Located at the north west corner of Don Mills and Lawrence Avenue in Toronto, this latest addition (lucky #13) occupies 1800 square feet of burger heaven.  Featuring many unique South St. design elements, like the  circular wooden banquettes, sleek counter and industrial lighting, this store has challenged us to finesse our decorating to keep up with the other stylish tenants!  Look for new art treatments, including our humour posters and signature burger line art to add some contemporary, upscale flair to the space!

In other exciting news, Jay Gould, our president and founder, was interviewed recently by BurgerBusiness blogger Scott Hume. Check out the great press we got here.