Hot Hamburger Hubs
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Project Info
Client Mr Burger
Skills Project Management, Construction
Website www.mrburger.com.au
Project: Develop funky new shopfronts for Mr Burger, to complement their fleet of burger trucks
The challenge: Deliver sleek stores in prime locations with all the tight time and access restrictions of any fast-paced project.
The demand for premium burgers has fuelled a consistent following of Mr Burger’s distinctive orange and white food trucks across Melbourne and Switch has made sure the essence of the nomadic burger truck brand was retained when the company set up its first stores.
Switch oversaw the construction of stores in Melbourne’s CBD, Chapel St in South Yarra and Fitzroy’s Brunswick Street, working with tight budgets and very tight spaces to create a new presence for Mr Burger in popular retail areas.
Switch Project Manager Hugh James had to intimately understand the food truck trend in order to ensure the stores delivered an equivalent dining experience for customers.
“We needed to develop stores in varied spaces with a consistent industrial-chic theme, without losing the community buzz that has driven legions of fans towards food trucks,” Hugh said.
“The projects posed lots of challenges, to develop practical kitchens and attractive seating areas in some quite small spaces, but it’s all worth it when you see a crowd of people sitting in there at night just enjoying being together and sharing a burger. It’s very exciting.”
The Switch team set to work stripping back ceilings and plaster to make a virtue of exposed brick and pillars, adding in strategic lighting and natural-feeling furniture to give the a contemporary appeal.
The team took care of planning and food safety requirements at each site, completing the Brunswick St store in just four weeks. They also installed a shipping container kitchen inside a very tight warehouse space at Queen Victoria Market to create Mr Burger’s fourth store.
The projects have been a runaway success, with queues snaking along the street for each opening and a thriving trade with inner-urban burger lovers.