I just bought 1000 burgers on Kickstarter. Want one of them?

http://howwastheburger.com/i-just-bought-1000-burgers/

181 66 12 years ago

Great way to get what you love and what you want!

jongold2• 12 years ago

fwiw these are the best burgers I've had anywhere in the world & Tom is a total dude - back him on Kickstarter while you can :)

buf2• 12 years ago

I can confirm these are some of the best burgers London has to offer. In addition, I recommend the "bacon jam."

patio11• 12 years ago

That's a genius use of that offering. Great instant story.

As for the offering itself (pre-paying a large sum in advance for, essentially, free-food-for-life at a new restaurant): I wonder if that's a sane method for restaurants generally. There are two in Ogaki that I'd happily spend $1k on, but I'd worry that it would change my relationship with the owners. Being a regular at the local diner is great -- the owner comes out to greet you when you come in, you always get exactly what you like exactly the way you like it, and in general they try to make you feel like a king. I'd hate to have date night in 2019 ruined by "Patrick, you're here again? Dude, it's a Saturday night. I could sell that table. #($'#( it. Well, OK, what will it be -- the free #%(#ing burger again?"

venomsnake• 12 years ago

Well a 1000 burgers are 3 years worth of lunch. Also if you are allowed to take a few at a this is great marketing for free - telling all the colleagues - a few burgers are on me in that place. Chances to convert to a regular at least one of them is high.

Probably it is how the awards will be defined. Because kickstarter is not preorder.

Also the Kickstarter community so far has shown to be remarkably supporting. So I doubt that they will abuse the privileges that will be awarded. Also basic rule for the rewards should be that you are overpaying but you like it that way. The 1000 burgers for 1000 GBP is clearly unsustainable. But looking at the KS it seems more like a marketing stunt the high tiers. So it is probably budgeted.

ashray• 12 years ago

It's quite unlikely that someone who orders a 1000 burgers is actually going to eat them. I can't picture myself eating 1000 of the same kind of burger .. or in the same place..

I guess most people would eat 200 burgers (I'd say at the high end..) which would come out to 5GBP per burger. Not bad for the establishment.. I can't think of any average but even 100 sounds high to me.

tripzilch• 12 years ago

yes but check it--the other part of the offer is that you must order two at a time. so, assuming you're not going to chow down two burgers on your own, you'll be introducing a new potential customer every time.

cfontes2• 12 years ago

With 1k burgers?

You could just order one to eat there and one to go. If you don't eat it later. Well, 998 to go now.

aleem• 12 years ago

That scenario is quite funny. Isn't it just a loss-leader model though? You will probably want sides and drinks (drinks have the highest margins).

In this author's case, he will be introducing new customers to the restaurant. In fact a stipulation "exactly two burgers" instead of "at least two burgers" would have been better. Also the opportunity cost of selling a table is fairly low (about 10 GBP if that is the cost of two burgers).

Personally, I have fallen in love with some burgers but after a month or two of obsessing I have to hold back because of satiation.

andrewmcdonough5• 12 years ago

That's a good point, but in this case, I'm guessing that Tom will be more than happy with me blogging about how good his burgers are a few times a week, and introducing 500 new customers :-)

norswap• 12 years ago

That picture had my mouth watering, too bad I'm not in London.

nawitus• 12 years ago

Do you offer vegan burgers for non-meat-eaters?

jongold2• 12 years ago

There's a vegetarian burger on the new menu; I'm not sure if it's vegan though.

johnzim2• 12 years ago

There was definitely cream cheese/yoghurt/mayo on it when I had it yesterday!

It's also cooked with the same griddle and spatula at the moment. A lot of vegans might find that a little bit disconcerting. I don't know how it will be when he has his diner up though!

pskittle• 12 years ago

marketing ninja!

hownottowrite• 12 years ago

Airfare included?

rjfarley• 12 years ago

I wish I lived in London

buf2• 12 years ago

Head's up to the OP, you have a typo in your title here: http://howwastheburger.com/i-want-a-burger/

Want on of ...

TazeTSchnitzel• 12 years ago

Now I'm hungry.

namenotrequired2• 12 years ago

It was a ridiculous idea, and so I knew I had to do it.

I like this guy.

I work for an Amsterdam startup and expect to be in London later this year, is this open to foreigners?

andrewmcdonough5• 12 years ago

Yes, I'd love to interview startup people visiting London, so just let me know when you're over. I'll also introduce you to other startup people and some great events, like Silicon Drinkabout, if you'd like.

namenotrequired2• 12 years ago

Awesome thanks, I'll get in touch when I know the exact dates! :)

finishingmove• 12 years ago

Good luck to you and your cardiovascular system!

wcummings• 12 years ago

Mark Karpeles used all the BTC on cheeseburgers [1] #bitcoinconspiracy

[1] http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091104170948/trailerpar...

mjklin• 12 years ago

Would you mind if I had a sip of your tasty beverage to wash this down?

BurgerBear2• 12 years ago

Go right ahead....

lamby• 12 years ago

I'll bite (hah) and report back.

chris_wot• 12 years ago

You ought to team up with the pudding cup guy. You could get free flights AND burgers.

buro9• 12 years ago

I know you already, but damn I'm putting myself down to have a burger lunch.

I'll bring my best stories, you know I have a few.

lifeisstillgood• 12 years ago

That is genius - I will happily buy you a beer to wash them down with just for the chance to meet and say hi. Count me in:-)

Wintamute3• 12 years ago

So will this guy eat 500 burgers himself? That could be at least a year and a half eating burgers for lunch. Good lord, it can't be healthy! :S

andrewmcdonough5• 12 years ago

Actually, I think it will be healthy. I'll probably do 2-3 interviews a week, so it's not like I'll be eating burgers for every meal. Burger Bear's burgers are made with very good quality beef. I am somebody who exercises regularly, and from my work at my startup Tribesports, I'm very aware of how to balance my activity and diet. In fact, one of the things I might do on the blog is record my weight and health throughout the project.

Wintamute3• 12 years ago

I don't doubt you're capable of keeping in shape, but the jury is definitely out on the long term health implications of eating a lot of red meat and animal protein - I don't mean just getting fat.

asciimo2• 12 years ago

You're right. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-mu...

bad_user2• 12 years ago

My grandfather ate about 8-10 eggs per day for about his whole life, because they lived on the country-side and they ate what they could produce (e.g. had hens that produced eggs). He was also drinking about 1 letter of milk daily straight from his cow and in case you never drank raw unprocessed milk, let me tell you it's freaking fat compared to what you find in store. He was also drinking about 1 letter of his own wine and a couple of shots of his own brandy per day. His favorite dish was also raw pig bacon though because of their relative poverty, this wasn't happening often, maybe once or twice per month.

He died at 99, one month from turning 100. Never had heart disease, never had cholesterol problems. He lived in an area in which all the people have similar dietary habits. In fact if you'll ever come to Romania, you'll notice that only the French eat fatter and IMHO the jury is still out on that one, because while the French use tons of butter for everything, I think we are eating more pork-based dishes (bathed in sunflower oil), more than anybody else, pork being way more popular than fish, beef or even chicken (during the holidays). You should see my favorite dishes ;-)

The above is just an anecdote of course, but do take studies with a grain of salt, especially studies on nutrition. Such studies cannot control or even estimate all the variables involved (short of keeping subjects in a cage locked away for 20 years) and cannot be conducted doubly-blind. We are a long way off to understanding anything about the impact of our diet.

Also, it should make you wonder why in the world your medics declared war on fat since 1960, while they ignored the biggest elephant in the room, which is our increased intake of sugar.

bluedino• 12 years ago

A lof of people in the USA eat McDonald's for lunch (or some other place) every. single. day.

johnzim2• 12 years ago

Burger bear tom has the best burger in London. 80% of the programmers at the company I work for (myself included) went in at the 1-month-of-burgers level as soon as the KS launched and then the company chipped in to buy a team lunch for everyone.

The London startup scene around Shoreditch is great fun, particularly because of these ancillary bonuses (being in a trendy part of town)

Interestingly, Burger Bear has long been a bitcoin-friendly vendor; one of the other programmers has bought all his burgers in Btc so far! Only times I've ever witnessed a real-life Btc transaction.

Bocker• 12 years ago

Interesting idea. Could be a great spin on Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee for the tech/startup scene.

itsnotvalid• 12 years ago

Costing 2 pounds for a story is quite a bargain.

md2be• 12 years ago

This is expensive $$ for the project. I assume that this burger retails for $8-10 dollars and that his location will sell 200 burgers a day. So he is giving up 1% of revenues for 1 1/2 years! Freemium doesn't work in the restaurant space.

Recoil42• 12 years ago

Careful when making assumptions. Not only is 200 burgers a completely unfounded number, but you've neglected to include things like fries and drinks in your calculations.

stegro32• 12 years ago

Naming your Google Apps organisation with your own name has at least one amusing side effect: "This form was created inside of Andrew McDonough". (Probably true, literally speaking...)

alinajaf• 12 years ago

I've accidentally run into Andrew at various points in my career, he's a very smart and capable guy, I always come away having learned a lot from him. He already knows basically everyone in the London startup scene, so I'd wager that anyone who has a burger with him will have more to gain from an hour of his time than the other way around.

jasonkester2• 12 years ago

Tangentially on topic, McDonalds used to have a special once a week where they'd sell cheeseburgers for $0.35 or hamburgers for $0.25. I would, from time to time, walk into the place with fifteen dollars in my pocket (and two co-workers, as they put a limit on how many one person could buy), and walk out with a sack o' sixty neatly wrapped hamburgers.

I'd bring them back to the office, and simply start tossing them at people in their cubicles (or in the parking lot from a moving vehicle if they were unlucky enough to be walking past when I pulled in), and basically just feed the entire building.

I don't think they intended that to happen with their little loss-leader deal to get folks in the door, but it sure was fun. It caught on too. If you haven't had a sack of 20 warm burgers dumped into your lap while you weren't paying attention, you haven't lived.

zachrose• 12 years ago

I do something similar from time to time at bottomlessburgers.com.

The way it works is simple: you pay me a fixed price, like $6 or $10, and show up at a particular restaurant at a particular time. My partner and I order hamburgers and cheeseburgers and you get to have as many as you want.

Theodores• 12 years ago

Speaking as a vegetarian with a sense of British humour that not all y'mericanz get...

A better deal for you meat-eaters - go to market and buy your own cow!!! I think that with post and packaging you could get a whole one for £200 or so depending on how lame it was. Give your cow a name, e.g. Ronald.

Next, get some meat grinder or improvise one. Pop to your local hire shop and just hire one of those chipper things tree surgeons use to turn whole trees into small bits. Give it a proper clean and now put your freshly purchased cow through it. You might want to hire a chainsaw too so you can cut things like the anus out first, or maybe the eyes or perhaps the teeth if you don't want to choke on them in your burger. You could even cut off things like Ronald's gonads for a special treat. Depends on when you hire, but you can expect to part with a good £50 - £100 for hiring such tools.

Now for freezing your 100% pure British Beef. Get a few chest freezers from the local tip or advertised on a freecycle thing. Expect to pay a few bob to a mate with a van big enough to get your chest freezers home. Maybe offer to pay in burgers.

The electricity bill for the freezers could be £100 a year, maybe even higher depending on how big your cow was. Depending on how many burgers you scoff and how quickly your 'leccy bill will vary.

How many burgers you end up making depends on how thin you make your burgers and how much connective tissue (brain, spinal cord) you put through the wood-chipper. You could make many, many thousands of them rather than a mere one thousand. Or you could make just the one cow-sized burger. Or do whatever on a day to day basis, maybe making other beef creations like shepherds pie from the basic mix. Or perhaps meatballs - just drop them in the deep-fat fryer as and when the urge arises.

One benefit of this DiY approach is that any sarky vegetarians will be impressed that you haven't left the difficult killing bit up to some distant abattoir, plus you will have connected with your inner hunter-gatherer self by getting immersed in the gore of killing an animal, as God intended. There will also be considerable benefits when the zombie apocalypse happens, as predicted by George W Bush in 2001.

drdeca• 12 years ago

Speaking as someone who apparently believes feigning incomprehension (also, immitation) is funny:

I don't get it. Why would you name the cow? It's not like it's a pet, or even a dairy cow. It's for eating.

Also why would you use a chainsaw?

Seems imprecise and messy.

I think it would be more efficient to have a specialized tool. But that tool would require a significant ammount of capital... Probably more than the cow! (or buying the burgers).

Maybe someone could have as a paid service a system where you could pay to use or rent the relevant equipment?

Is anyone doing that? Might be profitable. Note to self or others: look into that.

Although, I don't really feel like making a business out of that? It doesn't seem particularly elegant.

Also, my cooking skills aren't very good, so I don't think it would turn out as well?

Maybe I could do the initial cutting apart though?

And then pay someone else to turn the meat into burgers?

That's yet another thing to pay for though, and I don't think anyone is in the business of making burgers out of customer provided meat at the individual scale yet though.

Note to self: investigate this business idea as well.

(combined with renting out the machine???)

All in all, it seems rather time consuming though.

Maybe once every other month as a novelty?

Could be entertaining.

I wonder if the same equipment works with chickens.

... Speaking of which, I'm having trouble imagining a chicken bleed. Does it look the same as other animal blood?

Is it different because it's a bird?

I can imagine a cow bleeding fine, but that might be because the fur is short?

I also have trouble imagining a fish bleed, but I think I kind of remember that, so it's a bit easier.

I guess chicken bleeding would look normal then?

BurgerBear2• 12 years ago

Basically, this is genius. Thank you all for an interesting read... The #BB1000 is a big time KS reward for sure. To be fair, anyone who backed me on this reward can have what ever they like.... This is the start of my new world and you made it happen. #Cryptohub #BurgerHack #DiscoJoint

See you there!

malandrew• 12 years ago

I'm a huge burger lover, but 500 burgers can't be healthy for you unless you spread this out over several years.

I just bought 1000 burgers on Kickstarter. Want one of them?

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