Joe Grossman, the founder of Patty & Bun, the fledgling burger concept, has told MCA that his aim is to do seven or eight ‘gems’ in London, each with a completely different personality.
He said that the business has taken on some investment, from a private investor, which should be enough to get a fifth site open this July, and another, that he has just signed for (all he reveals is that it will be more akin to the group’s original James Street restaurant in terms of style of operation) up and running.
Up until the most recent site, the brand’s development has been self-funded (after the original borrowing from friends and family necessary to get James Street up and running).
Grossman said the group’s next site will have a late licence, a private room downstairs hireable with a one-man bar and a DJ for around 15 guests and a stripped back version of the main Patty menu. He said it is not in the West End but is close to one of his existing operations.
Grossman is ambitious for the brand, but not in the predictable way.
He said: “You never know what is going to crop up in terms of sites and opportunities. We have a path laid out that we want to achieve but there is a lot of luck and timing involved. I do have a five-year plan, especially now I have an investor involved, but I am also a firm believer in living in the here and now.
“The aim is to do seven or eight ‘gems’ in London, each with a completely different personality. I have no desire to go beyond London. But if I could wave a magic wand, I would open abroad.”
New York and LA, birthplaces of the upscale burger, would be top of his hit list. It is a bit of a turnaround when you consider his original idea was to do his own English interpretation of Shake Shack.
He said: “I think we would do really well out there as we are doing something individual and different. For years, everyone has been saying all the new ideas come from New York, but Hawksmoor is going there next year and I think there is a really cool, interesting shift in terms of America now looking to London because it is so cutting edge.”
Hong Kong and Singapore would also be on Grossman’s wish list for Patty and, less specifically, he said, Europe.
The company opened its fourth site earlier this year on the former Stockpot site in Old Compton Street.
