QSR July 2023

DEPARTMENT ONES TO WATCH

Burger Patch The brand is looking to sell ‘convenient consciousness’ fast food to a wider guest base. BY SATYNE DONER

nostalgic taste.” The first brick-and-mor tar location reached Sacramento’s block in 2019 and has since served over 500,000 customers, ranging from loyal plant-based followers to “veg-curious” meat-eaters. The development of Horn’s KIND Lab (Kitchen of Innovation & Discovery), based in Sacramento neighborhood Land Park, has proven to be a major asset in Burger Patch’s menu development. It has been in use for over a year and serves as a prepara tion hub for ingredients and a brainstorming location for new ones. At the earliest onset of COVID, Burger Patch’s business traffic increased by upwards of 40 percent, which prompted the building of two additional locations in the Sacramento area. However, this became overpowering, and Horn made the challenging decision to consolidate to the original location. Not only that, but supply chain con straints on a niche product were difficult. Often, Horn and his team needed to cre ate their own backups by tweaking recipes and driving hours to find suppliers. Overall, downscaling was the most beneficial plan for the brand’s long-term future. “Once we consolidated, that location con tinues to soar, and sales have increased by over 30 percent. We had to take a step back and put our ego aside and learn from what the last year or two has taught us,” Horn explains. “The next phase of what we’ll do is regrow the Burger Patch brand through out the region.” For Horn, regrowing the brand means building awareness about its mission. He calls it “convenient consciousness” fast food, but in a kinder way. He wants to spread the idea of “feeding kindness” whether that is through delivering a guilt-free product, saving animals, or giving back to the com munity. In May, the Midtown, Sacramento, location celebrated its CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

NOSTALGIC PLANT-BASED

food meals,” Horn says. “At that time, [the concept] didn’t exist at all where we lived.” At the turn of 2016, Horn put together a business plan and hired a chef to bring a menu to life. It includes American staples such as burgers, chicken sandwiches, wraps, and shakes from scratch. At the time, plant based meat was not readily available in Horn’s region, and he shares that “we went through all kinds of crazy things to try and source that product.” The first Burger Patch pop-up event in Sacramento was held in early 2017, and to Horn’s delight, it was a hit. He describes the event as having “over 1,000 people show up for a one-day event, waiting in three to-four-hour lines. It was mind-blowing.” From there, Horn continued to work on what he calls “modern ingredients but a

FOUNDER: Phil Horn and Danea Horn HEADQUARTERS: Sacramento

YEAR STARTED: 2019 ANNUAL SALES: NA TOTAL UNITS: 2 FRANCHISED UNITS: 0

A DECADE AGO, BURGER PATCH FOUNDER PHIL Horn and his wife Danea began explor ing a plant-based diet. They wanted to be kinder to themselves and their ecosystem but discovered the quick-service industry lacked options. “When we made the switch to the plant based lifestyle, we were still missing the nostalgic taste of typical American fast

BURGER PATCH (2), ECO ENVIRONMENT EARTH ICON: ADOBE STOCK / YURII

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JULY 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com