Many people will attest to the fact that juicy, well-made burgers are their preferred comfort food. No wonder then, that this dish has numerous versions and a large number of restaurants dedicated to it. The latest entrant in the burger market in Mumbai is B Burger and it promises a party of flavours in your mouth through its succulent and well-crafted burgers. Founded by Anurag Mehrotra and Krishnakant Thakur in 2021, and helmed by Mikhail Shahani as its founder chef, B Burger is all set to take Mumbai by storm. Chef Shahani joins The Daily Guardian for a chat about the new brand and what we can look forward to.
Chef Mikhail Shahani
Excerpts:
Q. What was your vision for this new brand?
A. We started B Burger in the month of December 2021 with the vision to create the best burger delivery brand at scale. Our founders have a good understanding of the business and that is why we are confident about this new venture. Anurag has a Bachelors’ degree in Commerce from the University of Allahabad, and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Manila. Krishnakant has a Bachelors’ degree in Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Indore, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bengaluru. Their educational and professional backgrounds have given them sound business sense.
We have done in-depth research on the concept of gourmet burgers. Based on our secondary and primary research, we realised there is a limited quality supply in the market for gourmet burgers. More so, quality players who are present do not have the reach to cater to a wide consumer base. It was astonishing to look at the data which says 95% of the supply in the gourmet burger brand is rated below 4. This shows us the gap present in the market for a scalable quality gourmet brand on a pan-India level.
Q. How did you decide the offerings on the menu of B Burger?
A. The products are inspired by our favourite burger chain in the US called In-&-Out. We wanted to create a similar experience by offering their smash grilled burger patties to our audience. In addition to this, we also have our signature Texan style smoked meats which take 12 hours to prepare and pull. They are served in both burger and slider form. These signature pulled recipes are served with different protein options. We also have an innovative plant based burger which gives you the same experience as a regular smash grilled burger. All our burgers are served with our signature brioche buns, which are the holy grail products for every burger joint. We believe we have created the ultimate ratio between bread, meat and sauce!
Q. What is your signature dish?
A. Our signature burgers are our smashed patties. These are grilled patties in a sandwich of onions, cheese and our proprietary brown sauce, served with our buttery melt-in-your-mouth brioche bun. Our Texan styled pulled meats are also innovative. Innovation is the heart of our company, we are constantly working to improve our existing recipes and create new ones.
Q. What is the story of your name?
A. B is for burger but it also stands for the sentiment “to be” which can be followed by everything that matters to us to achieve our dreams—Be magnificent, Be bold, Be beautiful!
Our endeavour has been to provide consistent and good quality products to our customers. It has been difficult for gourmet burger brands to scale, as they predominantly operate as individual outlets. Fortunately, our customers love our products and the feedback we have received at mass scale is amazing. We are now in the process of increasing our presence from 9 to 30 outlets in Mumbai over the next 120 days.
Q. What is distinctive about your burgers?
A. The first thing you notice about our burgers is the soft, lightly toasted brioche bun with the perfect patty to bread ratio. The soft melted cheese, caramelised onions and pepper sauce make each patty even juicier.
Q. What are the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
A. Our biggest challenge was getting the skill set we required together. We overcame this hurdle through extensive training and making the whole system easy for anyone to understand with the help of modern and smart equipment. This has enabled us to replicate our burgers at nine outlets and we are ready for scale. In fact, we are looking to open at two new geographies by the end of this calendar year.
Noor Anand Chawla pens articles for various lifestyle publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com. She can be reached on nooranand@gmail.com.