Restaurant group Meatcure has confirmed it is to launch a crowdfunding campaign to take the ‘better burger’ craze beyond London.
Owners Rob Martyniak and Paul Rigby are hoping to raise £350,000 through a Seedrs campaign in June to open a further five sites by 2017.
The duo are aiming to take the gourmet burger concept outside saturated cities in to market towns across the Midlands.
Meatcure serves a selection of burgers, salads, steaks and sides inspired by ‘New York’s Meatpacking district and Southern BBQ’.
But though the explosion of gourmet burger restaurants shows no signs of slowing down, its founders feel little pressure from the competition.
Martyniak told MCA’s sister title BigHospitality: “We very clearly ride the London street food and burger boom.
“We were inspired by Scott Collins and MeatLiquor and the gourmet burgers at Patty & Bun, but we’re doing very much our own thing.”
After first opening in Market Harborough in 2014, Meatcure has launched in Leamington Spa and Leicester, with a restaurant in Bedford set to open its doors in June.
The group has agreed on a fifth site in Hinkley and are looking at venues in Coventry, Nottingham, Rugby and Stamford.
Martyniak said that there was ‘real demand’ for Meatcure in the Midlands and surrounding areas, which he felt lacked London’s thriving street food scene.
The duo are also considering launching a series of bars based around ‘good food, music and drinks’, and previously were approached to branch out in to festivals, coffee and beer.
But despite Meatcure’s ambitious expansion plans, Martyniak stressed that he and Rigby were not in the restaurant business to ‘get rich quick’.
“If we were we wouldn’t have spent a year working with a butcher to create a perfect burger, six months to create the brioche,” he said.
“We are not a faceless brand, we’re just two guys working bloody hard.”
