Gourmet Burgers And More At New BurgerFi Location In Wellington Story by Chris Felker • Photos by Abner Pedraza
Gourmet quality is the name of the game at BurgerFi, now open in Wellington. The Delray Beach-born chain has already expanded to 71 locations after only four years in business. And it’s not only in South Florida; there’s one as far away as Alaska. Burger fans nationwide have been flocking to BurgerFi, turning out in droves to new locations, like the one at the corner of Forest Hill Blvd. and Wellington Trace. At first look, BurgerFi might seem like a typical fast-food place, but any resemblance ends the moment you start reading the list of choices. Hundreds of excited customers flocked to the long-awaited Wellington opening in May, General Manager Rett Wedding said. He’s excited to be part of 68
august 2015 | wellington the magazine
the team that brought BurgerFi to Wellington. Wedding, 47, got started in the restaurant business during his teenage years, when he was a dishwasher at the old Wellington Club, and went on to spend 20 years with Outback Steakhouse, moving up to become a managing partner at two locations. Now, he lives in Wellington with his wife and two children. BurgerFi puts an emphasis on quality, fresh ingredients and efficient systems for producing perfectly made-toorder plates. “There’s no freezer in the kitchen; that’s the coolest thing,” Wedding said. “The only thing we freeze is our custards. Everything we get is fresh, and ev-
erything we serve is made from scratch.” BurgerFi corporate representative Paul Griffin explained that the fresh ingredients and made-from-scratch ethos is the key to the growing chain’s success. “It’s the quality,” he said. “The meat itself is part of our ‘Never, Ever’ program. It’s never had any antibiotics, no growth hormones, no steroids and it’s vegetarian-fed. That feeds into what the millennials and the Gen Zs are all talking about — they want better.” BurgerFi has a fairly simple menu, which helps keep the traffic moving, because no one needs to dawdle over the list. “It’s burgers, fries, hotdogs, custards and drinks,” Griffin said. “We don’t hold anything. We cook immediately. We have some operations systems