PHILADELPHIA Stephen Starr figured he was merely being civic-minded when he opened a retro burger stand this summer inside a renovated public square of his hometown Philadelphia.
“Stephen’s whole positioning on this was he wanted to do something great for the city, to give something back,” Simon Powles, president of Starr Restaurants’ catering operation, said of the 15-foot-by-30-foot SquareBurger. “It wasn’t something he was doing for the business.”
Then came the soft opening.
The company had invited 350 city workers for the kickoff, unwilling to leave a first-night turnout to chance. But before long, 400 passers-by had joined the queue.
On the first weekend night of operation, 500 customers showed, and the volume hasn’t let up since then, Powles said. “Our sales are 40 percent higher than expected,” he said. “That’s the power of Stephen’s name.”
That name has been applied to such celebrated Philadelphia restaurants as Buddakan, Morimoto, Alma de Cuba, Pod and Tangerine.
Powles declined to disclose sales for SquareBurger, but noted that tabs have been averaging about $8.50. Those figures equate to a Friday night of more than $4,000 in sales for the native son’s civic giveback.
The main lure of the seasonal kiosk is a retro-style burger, a hand-formed patty of ground beef, with an 80:20 ratio of meat to fat, topped with chopped pickle, diced onion, ketchup and mustard, all served on a potato roll. The 4-ounce burger is priced at $4.75 and is also offered with a slice of American cheese.
“It’s that old-fashioned, classic burger,” Powles said.
Rounding out the limited menu are other yesteryear selections, many with a Philadelphia or Starr twist. The beverage selections, for instance, include a root beer float, lemonade and an old-fashioned milk shake made with a local snack cake, Tastykake. The cake is blended with vanilla ice cream and whole milk to form The Cake Shake, a signature that has drawn considerable praise in online customer reviews of SquareBurger.
Also offered are French fries and the Philly Dog, a hotdog wrapped in a slice of salami. “It’s actually a Chicago-style hotdog, but we tried to give it a twist of Philadelphia,” Powles said.
Nothing on the menu is priced above $5.25.
The city, Starr Restaurants’ landlord for SquareBurger, had specified that it wanted a burger on the menu but otherwise left the possibilities open, Powles explains. “We wanted to make the menu broad enough so there’s something there for a vegetarian, or something there for someone who’s eating healthy. We have a great veggie burger and a great salad.”
Still, Powles said, the company wanted to keep the menu relatively short, mindful of the 450-square-foot footprint. In addition, “quality and speed of service are essential.”
SquareBurger succeeded in keeping time spent waiting in line to 15 minutes, and “our ticket times are generally under five minutes,” he said.
Long before SquareBurger opened on July 14, blogs and message boards were buzzing with contentions that it would be Starr’s riff on Shake Shack, the retro-burger joint that Danny Meyer opened several years ago in New York City’s Madison Square Park. Shake Shack has been a phenomenal success, generating more business with its burgers, fries, hot dogs and shakes than some of the fine-dining restaurants operated by Meyer’s celebrated Union Square Hospitality Group. The group’s holdings include such upscale standouts as Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe and Tabla.
The idea for SquareBurger actually bubbled out of Historic Philadelphia Inc., the group renovating Philadelphia’s history-steeped public spaces, Powles said.
“They reopened Franklin Square three years ago with a new playground, miniature golf, a carousel and a lot of other attractions like that for families,” he said. “They wanted to open this great retro burger stand and came to us to talk about it. Then we participated in the bidding process.”
As to where they got the idea, he didn’t say. But, he acknowledges, “certainly they went to see Shake Shack. We have been there several times.”
He’s quick to point out, though, that Shake Shack serves a burger dressed with lettuce and tomato. “We don’t have lettuce and tomato on ours," he said.
Meyer has cloned Shake Shack, opening a streetside version in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and outfitting the New York Mets’ new Citi Field stadium with a walk-up kiosk.
Might more SquareBurgers be in the works?
“The success has been very good for a first week,” Powles told Nation’s Restaurant News five days after the stand opened. “We just want to see how this goes.”
SquareBurger will be open until Oct. 31, though temperate weather could delay the closing for the season, Powles said. It’s scheduled to reopen next year on April 1.