Street Food Profile: Only Burger in Durham, North Carolina
Note: It's time for another edition of Street Food Profiles. This week we scoot to North Carolina, not necessarily known as a street food hotspot but this burger truck is changing that.
Name: Only Burger
Vendors: Brian Bottger and Tom Ferguson
Location and hours? Durham, North Carolina for lunch, dinner, and late night.
Twitter: @onlyburger
What's on the menu? Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, veggie burgers, turkey burgers and fries of course! (With occasional specials for special events.)
How long have you been street fooding? Just one year.
How has Twitter affected business? We have recently started tweeting our locations and specials. It has done wonders for our business and we have recently hit our 1,000th follower.
Brian Bottger taking your order.
Why a mobile business over brick-and-mortar? It was a combination of the lower start-up cost and it was a fresh concept for us. There are so many different crowds to Durham and we wanted to appeal to them all as opposed to a fixed location.
Who are your typical customers? We get everything from students to seniors (citizens that is). Many regular loyal customers who claim to be "hooked" and wouldn't have it any other way. We like to call them our "twitter-stalkers."
Describe a typical day from start to finish. We start day by checking our prep list for the entire day and making sure we have enough product for what the schedule entails. Then, time to par out the bank, start the generator on the truck, and play the waiting game for the refrigeration to get nice and cold. Load all of the fresh ready-to-be-grilled patties on the truck, verify the route for the days mission, crank up the grill, and go go go!
What are/were you doing before this? Many years spent in the restaurant industry.
What makes your food so special? Can anything like it be found in the city? We use freshly ground beef, ground daily at a local meat market, and hand cut fries with a perfectly grill-toasted bun.
How would you define "street food"? Something you can eat—standing in the street.
The best street food city and why. Los Angeles and Portland. They both have a high population of vendors with a nice variation and selection of different foods. And a real appreciation for it.
Your comfort food after a long day? Grilled cheese and ramen noodles.
Advice for an aspiring vendor? Plan to work long hours—and be hot and sweaty. Be organized. Find good help you feel you can trust, and enjoy the customers! (You never know who might walk by.)
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8 Comments:
I don't know about the rest of North Carolina, but Durham can certainly stake some claim as a "street food hotspot." From OnlyBurger to cupcakes, and tacos to fresh fruit juices, there's plenty of mobile munching opportunities in this city, not to mention some serious eats all around this area!
mmmyummay at 3:41PM on 10/12/09
Best street food city is LA or Portland???
I'd say Prague or Hong Kong, and I'm not even thinking hard about it.
Garvey at 3:45PM on 10/12/09
Have them send a truck or two over to Raleigh as we really need one! We have these hot dog carts and ice cream carts, but nothing that smacks of real food. I work downtown and we need a bit of a shake-up at the Capitol! I get so sick of Durham getting all the good food!
queenbleu at 3:56PM on 10/12/09
I LOVE Only Burger!! There's nothing like walking out of a movie at the Carolina or the market and see them there ready with big juicy, yummy burgers. It's lovely. We even got them to park in our office lot once...come back. Durham is a fabulous foodie town...after burgers, enjoy DaisyCakes, favorite: http://www.zomppa.com/2009/09/26/photo-of-the-day-sweet-daisy/
Belinda @Zomppa at 4:02PM on 10/12/09
Just curious, what's the rest of the sign that says "Yeah, we have veggie burgers," behind the egg carton?
ratbuddy at 5:06PM on 10/12/09
Although it definitely hints to something derogatory... it says... "too". :)
Nominatrix at 6:34PM on 10/12/09
Aww. I was hoping for something juicier.
ratbuddy at 11:26AM on 10/13/09
@ratbuddy: According to Only Burger, there's nothing else on the sign. The egg carton was just there because they usually do a breakfast-style burger for morning and late-morning at the farmers' market.
Erin Zimmer at 2:14PM on 10/13/09