Why So Many Burger Joints in Midtown?

In scouting a second location for Grindhouse Killer Burgers, a hit restaurant with downtown students and business folk, owner Alex Brounstein was drawn to Midtown’s Cheshire Bridge Road corridor for a bevy of reasons.

High visibility. Quirky shops. A centralized location near a major interstate that pulls from moneyed neighborhoods around Buckhead, Midtown, Emory and Virginia-Highland.

Brounstein was aware that several burger-focused restaurants were in the works, or had freshly opened, within a few square miles. But he wasn’t deterred. Other burger concepts offered different products at higher price points, or were more focused on ambiance than value, he said.  

Besides, Brounstein surmised, Atlanta’s appetite for burgers can probably accommodate even more brands.

“We serve good food, but so do most of the new places,” Brounstein said. “The difference is that we’re affordable and unique and fun. The other places are kind of boring, or too trendy, in my opinion.”  

In greater Midtown alone, an observer can count at least nine new sit-down/upscale burger concepts that have opened in the last couple years, or will open in coming months. This is on top of burger stalwarts like the , and George’s in Virginia-Highland, which has been dishing out ground chuck for half a century.

Experts say both patrons and proprietors have fueled the upscale burger craze. While consumers penny-pinch themselves from the worst economic climate in decades, they’re apt to turn a cold shoulder to fine dining. At the same time, renowned chefs are attracted to the burger market by higher profit margins.

In addition to Flip Burger, two Five Guys, and two Yeah Burger locations, New York-based 5 Napkin burger will open this summer in a revamped Nikiemoto’s space. , a calorie-conscious alternative, reopened in the Viewpoint development on Peachtree Street. Boardwalk Fresh Burgers at Ansley Mall, the first of 50 planned franchises in Georgia. And Brounstein said Grindhouse’s Midtown outpost could be running as early as April 7. 

That’s beef aplenty.

While some chains like Nashville-based Back Yard Burgers have been relegated to the suburbs, Five Guys has flourished in Atlanta, operating locations at the Edgewood Retail District, the Tenside development on Northside Drive and another at Lindbergh City Center. Expect another opening in mid-April at the base of the Spire building in Midtown, the company said.

Of 759 locations across the U.S., 34 Five Guys restaurants operate in metro Atlanta, said company spokeswoman Molly B. Catalano.

“Our growth in Atlanta and nationwide has been driven 100 percent by demand,” Catalano said.

The draw of burgers, aside from being a meal in the $7 to $14 range, offers financial perks for proprietors.

Last year, chef Hubert Keller told the Wall Street Journal the 35 percent profit margins he was pulling from a high-end burger venture in Las Vegas had vastly eclipsed margins (9 to 12 percent) at his famed haute cuisine restaurant in San Francisco. His burger ventures are popping up across the country, and he’s not alone.

A hobbling economy has drawn a crowd of established chefs into the burger game, from Emeril Lagasse to Atlanta’s own Richard Blais, of Top Chef fame and the quirky mastermind behind, which has branched from two Atlanta locations to Birmingham.

Kelly Hornbuckle, Georgia Restaurant Association spokeswoman, said burgers placed second recently as a national “classic menu” trend.

The front-runner? French fries.

Brounstein said while the onslaught of burger offerings might be “out of control” at the moment, Atlanta still lags behind America’s patty-crazed coasts.

“California is the burger capital of America. They have burger places everywhere there, and they always have,” he said. “New York City is catching up to them, and it’s gotten out of control up there, with a new burger spot opening like every week.” 

With three locations in New York, 5 Napkins will open the brand’s third location outside the city with an airy, “butcher shop chic” redo of Nikiemoto's at the corner of Piedmont Avenue and 10th Street.

More than its sushi and motzo ball soup, the centerpiece of 5 Napkins’ Atlanta menu will be a 10-ounce ground chuck burger topped with rosemary aioli, caramelized onions and melted gruyere on a soft white roll.

The ambiance?

“Whimsical chalk murals (will be) sprawled out over giant chalkboards, and the black leather booths and dark wood bar are sure to attract the most discriminating patrons,” the company said in a release. A spokeswoman said the opening is set for this summer.

Not everyone’s sold on the trendy burger craze.

Prior to the instant popularity of chef Shaun Doty’s grass-fed offerings at the Yeah! Burger chain in Virginia-Highland, dive-bar royalty at the six-decades-old Moe’s & Joe’s hung a grumpy sign that asked, “What’s Next – Applebee’s?” (Management at Moe’s & Joe’s haven’t returned e-mails asking if the, uh, beef has been quashed).

Grindhouse’s Brounstein said not to fret.

The allure of burgers is so latched onto the psyche of American diners, said Brounstein, the recent openings are no cause for alarm or vitriol.   

“Burgers are as American as apple pie,” he said. “Even with all the new burger places in Atlanta, we really don’t have that many burger-specific restaurants. We’re just catching up.”