Did you know My Burger is about to open its tenth location? OK, Culver’s has almost 1,000 locations, so that may not be in the cards for the Minnesota-grown burger chain. It’s been a 20-year slog, with a pause after the start of COVID (where they almost but luckily didn’t sign a lease for a new location). Similar to the slow, methodical, smart growth we’ve seen from Punch Pizza, John Abdo and his family have been smart and real estate-focused while dialing in their food and their systems to set My Burger up for success.
Number 10 is coming to Eagan and the Vikings Lakes development, possibly at the end of this month, maybe early October. But the plan is to double to 18-20 locations “over the next several years,” CEO John Abdo told me. He said “12 to 15 in the Twin Cities and then to start moving outside to micromarkets like Rochester.”
“Our goal is to not grow crazy quick, but to grow. And our other goal is to not have any dogs, one dog can drag you down,” he explained. Picking A-level locations is critical, and the market knowledge the Abdo family has helps.
Photo by Eliesa Johnson/The Restaurant Project
November marks two decades of My Burger: John’s father Larry Abdo started it in the skyway of one of my favorite downtown condo buildings, 6 Quebec, in 2004. The family has a history in hospitality—they own and operate Nicollet Island Inn, and they run Big Fat Bacon at the State Fair, as well as Gopher State Ice. They opened store nine in Edina in January, and store 10 is coming to Eagan.
So, what is the comparable? Maybe there isn’t one—I’m not sure there’s another player in Minnesota growing at a rate of three per year. Outside chains (like Five Guys) come in with a big splash, build quickly, and then stop. “No one’s really growing like us,” Abdo said. “We’re trying to do it our way because it’s our own backyard. If we decide to go to Madison or Milwaukee or Des Moines, we’d have a different approach,” he said.
Not only is My Burger local, it’s self-funded. Abdo said they use bank loans to expand but otherwise their success fuels their growth. “Companies of our size usually get to 12 and then get interest from VCs [venture capital firms], and the metrics change. They want to go from 12 to 30 in three years, that’s not really what we’re going for,” he explained.
My Burger is poised to grow now because the food is dialed in, the in-store teams are set to go in and train new groups, and there are systems designed to achieve success from day one. That wasn’t always the case.
“If there’s one thing that came out of the COVID era, it’s understanding how we can operate our stores efficiently and profitably, because we had to. We invested in our teams, in our systems and our training, and we’re extremely focused on our guest experience—in store and through the app. The hospitality part is huge, that’s the most difficult part to teach, we’re trying to systemize what hospitality looks like in a burger joint today,” he said.
While many fast-casual or quick-serve restaurant companies are going to more AI, more self-ordering kiosks (like the one I hate at the Maple Grove Shake Shack), My Burger is going all in on service in-store, according to Abdo. “The first thing is having a conversation with the guests—at the counter, asking if they’ve been to a My Burger before. Sure the burger is tasty, sure they’re going to get in and out quickly, but the connection is what’s going to drive people back. Getting regular guests to return more regularly,” he said.
That is the secret that everyone’s struggling with. My Burger’s use of monthly specials (like this month’s collab with Rise Bagel) is a way to get people to return. Going all in on hospitality is another.
