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In March of 2007, David and I took everything we had and opened our first little burger restaurant in Mill Creek. We wanted to open a quick-serve restaurant (because I don’t like to wait) that served big, beautiful, hand-crafted gourmet burgers with top-of-the line, local ingredients and homemade accompaniments at the best possible price in a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere
We had no idea just how hungry people were for big juicy burgers in Mill Creek. We thought people would trickle in and we would have time to carefully craft each item. But the moment we opened the doors, the lobby was packed and everything seemed to go wrong! As much as we thought we had prepared, opening a restaurant from scratch is a lot harder than it seems.
We were not prepared to handle the lines out the door. The menu was so big that no one really knew it well enough. The cashiers and the cooks had to look everything up so it took forever to take and deliver an order. Our kitchen hoods were not big enough to keep up so we had smoke pouring through the dining room all the time. Our broiler grates were angled wrong for the volume of fresh burgers and would catch on fire all the time. Our freezer space wasn’t adequate for our volume. Our ice machine could not keep up and we ran out of all kinds of things (including French fries, onion rings, hamburger, buns, and vanilla ice cream!). Consequently, our guests had to wait an hour for food that was made incorrectly, missing items or burnt!
But we hung on and our guests stayed with us because they knew we were trying to do something special. We attacked the problems one-by-one. We improved our processes, fixed our equipment and we learned how to order the right amounts of food and supplies. The best employees stayed with us (you can still see Omar in Mill Creek and Darius runs operations in all the stores). After a while, things were going smoothly and people recognized the quality and started raving about our amazing food. We were finally able to give our guests the outstanding food and the excellent experience we had envisioned!
We now have 7 locations in Puget Sound to serve you.
David and I only believe in serving the best ingredients. We buy beef that is pasture-raised in Washington State with no hormones or antibiotics ever, from a family-owned, 100% traceable and sustainable farm, Royal Ranch, in Royal City. Our beef is environmentally friendly, nutritious and delicious! We buy high quality cheeses like Tillamook, creamy Oregon ice cream, thick-peppered bacon (you will not find in any typical burger joint) and other ingredients that may be more expensive, but add so much to a great creation. We like to make our own food in house as much as possible because it just tastes so much better. All of our sauces, soups and seasonings (as well as our famous peanut butter pie) are homemade and we still hand-scoop our milkshakes!
Sincerely,
Lorri Jones
