can cheeseburgers save the restaurant industry? FINDING COMFORT IN AN AMERICAN CLASSIC by Ryan Donahue for the California Cattlemen’s Association On March 15, 2020 our casual diner in midtown Sacramento, open just for a few weeks, had it’s most lucrative service ever. As operators, days like those normally validate all of the preceding hard work. All the cleaning, hiring, sourcing, training etc. However, on this day my partners and I were filled with anxiety. Four days prior the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a global health emergency and even more impactful (to us anyway) the NBA abruptly ended it’s season minutes before tip-off at Sacramento’s Golden One Center that same day. After that brunch service Sunday our team met and accepted the inevitable. We had to suspend indoor dining (a mandate which would later follow on March 19). At that time uncertainty ruled all of our actions. We trashed the regular restaurant order guides and brought in canned goods, frozen meat and whatever sanitation supplies were still available. We figured we’d at least have food for our employees and families should the supply chain shut down. I specifically remember a day where I met one food service representative in a parking lot where he gave me the last bottles of concentrated sanitizer he could get his hands on. It felt like a drug deal. A few days passed and we discussed what was next. Re-opening the restaurant was not feasible. We didn’t want to put anyone at risk whether customers or staff. We went into a holding pattern. With indoor dining shut down and all restaurant’s reeling to figure out how to do any business, we arrived at the only type of service that could be profitable and safe. A fast food drive-thru serving cheeseburgers. Our diner was not conducive for the operation (we had no drive thru) so we secured an unpermitted industrial space owned by friends. While we had mailing lists of customers we opted to advertise only on Instagram and compile orders on a spreadsheet where instructions were emailed to each customer. At first we offered a single item. A “wiener burger.” The burgers were meat/cheese/bun and were packed them with a bag of chips and a zotz sour candy. Cash only (exact change), no food modifications and everyone stays in their car. Our pop-up cheeseburger restaurant was wildly 70 California Cattleman September 2021
successful. We would sell out in a few hours, customers were good about maintaining their windows of time and the burgers went out hot. We did a half dozen pop-ups, all of which sold-out. I’d like to think that our burger recipe, though simple, was exceptional or that we were marketing geniuses but ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 72
