- Locally owned rural family run restaurants
- Unique and slightly quirky menu including the mushroom and Hawaiian pizza burger
- Reasonably priced
- Not fast food but quality food and a quality ‘time well spent’ experience.
Tucked away on 50th street in Leduc, Alberta, Canada, lies a gem of a restaurant which has survived in this location since the 1970s.
The “Burger Baron” is an oddball survival story in this age of large franchises and fast-food chains.
How is it that a ‘burger joint’ can not only survive but thrive in this wasteland of multinational fast-food outlets.
The first thing you notice driving in the unpaved parking lot, is the old school drive-in ordering signs with those old two-way speakers, a relic from the 1970s.
Looking at the menu, I find the very thing which we came out to find, .. the ‘Mushroom Burger’.
We then spotted the ‘Pizza Pineapple’ burger. We also decided to order the Fish n Chips, which tend to be very overpriced these days, so seemed quite reasonable at 11.95 (about 10 USD).
The burgers also were extremely reasonably priced at 6.95 to 8.95, but you are paying about that for garbage McDonalds food and twice that in restaurants.
As we waited in the short line up of 2 or 3 cars, a handful of relaxed walk in customers also arrived, who appeared to be local and on friendly terms with the staff.
Was it fast? No, it was not fast. People who go to the Burger Baron are looking for a unique and friendly experience.
For us it is a nice ‘outing’.. to be able to escape the big city to Leduc, even time for a little conversation while we are waiting, and knowing we were help supporting a local business.
The staff is an interesting story in itself, and part of the formula for success. Burger Baron was started in rural Southern Alberta in the 1960s by a family of Lebanese origin, and to this day the Burger Baron chains which dot Rural Alberta would appear to be family run by members of the Lebanese community.
The main Chef was a younger man, cooking multiple orders and placing ingredients with pride and care. Our milkshakes (Rum n butter!) were prepared by an older gentleman, likely in his 70s, and probably the owner.
Other peripheral jobs were being done by an older woman, I’m guessing they were husband and wife, so it is a locally run family owner operated outfit.
How was the food? Outstanding, so delicious. I knew it would be.
Having travelled rural Alberta for decades I always make a point of dropping in on a burger baron if I find one and having the Mushroom burger.
That secret to the Burger Baron’s modest yet stable success may be revealed through a systems analysis.
Overall, one would say the ‘goal’ of a restaurant like Burger Baron is to sustain itself through sales and in particular repeat or loyal customer sales.
If we consider elements of systems like transport, conversion, and storage, we note that the ‘storage’ or structural aspects are basically the design or infrastructure or management aspects which allow it to thrive.
From my perspective some of these elements would be
a) that it is family run, which is going to save money outlay on employees and ensures a highly motivated team with a common goal.
b) The restaurants are owned outright, and generally take hold in Rural Alberta where the costs are not so high.
In terms of transport elements, which involves motion or movement, really we are talking about those factors which inspire or move me, the customer, to take the trip out to Leduc for a mushroom burger.
It also involves supply chain aspects and I noticed that their beef comes from the nearby village of Consort, Alberta, not from a large consortium.
One could also consider the transport or flow of customers to and through the process, and this is interesting because it is not fast.
Most fast-food drive ins want to move people in and out as fast as possible. Burger Baron clients are a niche market of people who want to take the time and actually value the time it takes to prepare the food.
Conversion is the big factor here… the conversion of a curious customer to a loyal repeat customer.
This is accomplished number one through quality food and quality ingredients, unique products like the mushroom and Hawaiian pizza burger, oddball milkshakes, and reasonable to low priced food for high quality which is a factor of the reduced labor costs in a family operation.
Another significant conversion factor is the growing awareness and conscious choices of consumers who resist top-down global companies and instead support bottoms up, peripheral, small businesses like the Leduc Burger Baron.
