Burger sales are skyrocketing for a Dunedin eatery since it was featured on an international travel website.
Co-owners Reece Turfus and his friend Rob Ratten opened Good Good burger restaurant in Vogel St in October 2017 and business had been steady but things changed a fortnight ago.
Good Good’s burgers were ranked third-best in the nation in an article titled ‘‘The 25 Best Burgers in New Zealand’’ on travel website Big 7.
The story was picked up by the Otago Daily Times and burger sales doubled in a week.
‘‘It was quite a significant change for us . . .It goes to show how many people read the newspaper.’’
The two friends had no previous experience in hospitality and it had been a case of ‘‘fake it ’til you make it’’, Mr Turfus said.
Before opening the eatery, the pair worked in Perth — Mr Turfus in the finance industry and Mr Ratten in the mining industry.
The pair met at Tahuna Intermediate and became friends in their mid teens.
After a few years in Perth, they moved home about the same time to start a business.
‘‘We wanted to do something for ourselves rather than work for someone else.’’
The found a vacant space in a building in the warehouse precinct to open an eatery.
They bought a caravan and fitted it as a kitchen.
The mobile kitchen was a move to minimise the impact if the business failed.
‘‘We had no idea what we were doing, so we thought ‘let’s put a kitchen in a caravan so if we completely blow this then we can at least pull our kitchen out and sell it’.’’
The eatery was originally going to be called ‘‘Good Burger’’ but they changed it to the more ambiguous ‘‘Good Good’’, to give them room to diversify their product line in the future.
For now, the menu featured three burgers — beef, chicken and vegetarian.
‘‘People hate making decisions, so we’ve taken the hard decision-making away from people.’’
A project to build a counter near the entrance had begun so the beer taps and point-ofsale could be moved out of the caravan.
When the counter area was finished it would feature a coffee machine and cabinet food and the business would open from 8am.
Both men worked full-time in the business and employed six part-time staff and were looking to employ two more part-time staff.
Vogel St was a great place to have a ‘‘destination’’ eatery, Mr Turfus said.
‘‘It’s constantly growing down here. We get a huge amount of workers in during the day.’’
Workers were the main demographic of lunch diners but the clientele changed at night.
They had targeted younger diners but the demographic varied and included families and people aged in their 70s and older.
‘‘It’s been quite a shock — we didn’t expect it but we get all sorts in the evenings . . . Friday and Saturday nights here are out of control.’’
