When Jennifer McEwen and her husband Mike decided to swap their Humble Burger food truck for a permanent residency at Elgin bar Foggies, friends told them they were crazy.
The truck had been a huge success for the couple since it hit the road in January last year.
Besides, with energy prices on the rise, opening a restaurant – even in a busy bar like Foggies – was a gamble.
But vindication came almost as soon as the Humble Burger kitchen doors opened last weekend. The first few days were the busiest in Humble Burger’s history.
“It was ridiculous,” says Jennifer. “People were queuing for half an hour then waiting for half an hour, but still saying it was worth the wait.”
A formidable reputation for US-style burgers
The queues were drawn in by the formidable reputation Jennifer and Mike built up around the Humble Burger truck.
Stationed at the Chanonry Industrial Estate in Elgin, the steel trailer served up bacon-stuffed burgers and loaded fries doused in melted cheese.
Inspiration for the business came from a trip to the US that Jennifer and Mike made in the summer before the pandemic. The menu reflected the country’s taste for heavyweight take-out food dripping in sauce.
Now that Humble Burger has been brought indoors, Jennifer promises all the old truck’s favourites are still available including the Humble Burger Classic, which can be seen being made in a video here.
But to celebrate the move to Foggies, Jennifer and Mike cooked up some new ideas.
The couple can’t wait for customers to try their Mac ‘n’ Black (£9.50), a breadcrumbed macaroni cheese with black pudding and chilli jam that Jennifer describes as a “monster” of a meal.
Putting the smash into smash burgers
The team has also joined a growing trend in the north-east for smash burgers – meat patties moulded into a ball and ‘smashed’ onto the frying pan.
“They’re really thin, and the smash gives that like lovely crispy edge,” Jennifer explains of the burgers, which come in four combinations priced between £8 and £9. “You get two of those with cheese in between, so that’s pretty nice.”
Humble Burger’s move to Foggies emulates other north-east takeaways that set up residence in bars. Smoke and Soul became the food provider for Six Degree’s North in Aberdeen while Big Manny’s Pizza started out in The Adams on Holburn Street.
Jennifer says the collaboration with Foggies is a win-win for the two businesses, especially as energy costs increase.
“It’s important to work together in the current climate,” she says. “It’s great for us and great for them because we’ve got somewhere for people to go and they’ve got a food focus.”
She also says there was stiff competition from other food entrepreneurs in the area to snap up the Foggies placement. But she was confident Humble Burger would win the spot.
“I wasn’t taking no for an answer,” says Jennifer with a laugh. “I just said ‘I want this; let’s make it happen.’”
Humble Burger is open in Elgin’s Foggies from 12-9pm from Wednesday to Sunday. Foggies is at Munro Pl, IV30 4LL.
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