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Behind the new burger van

For almost 20 years, Luke Bartolo has been obsessed with burgers. It started when he was 14, with a job working at McDonald’s after school.

Jan 27, 2016, updated Jan 27, 2016
Daisy Burger's Samantha Lazarus and Luke Bartolo.

Daisy Burger's Samantha Lazarus and Luke Bartolo.

A couple of months ago, Bartolo and his partner Samantha Lazarus bought a second-hand caravan, installed a commercial kitchen in it, painted it classic black and white, and named it Daisy Burger (after their pet Great Dane, Daisy).

The van – which represents the changing face of Adelaide’s competitive mobile street-food scene – made its debut at a Fork on the Road food truck event, with Bartolo saying his vision is to produce “good honest basic burgers”.

“With Daisy Burger, the idea was to strip back the exotic ingredients and get back to the traditional and tasty.”

Daisy Burger has a short menu of five burgers: a classic cheese burger (beef, cheese, Dijon mustard, egg, mayo, tomato ketchup and dill pickle on a brioche bun, $10); a crispy bacon and cheese burger (beef, cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, tomato ketchup and egg, $12); the Great Daisy (like the crispy bacon but with beetroot and egg, $12); a southern-style chicken burger ($12); and a dessert burger with a Nutella patty with kiwifruit, strawberry and mango slices in a brioche bun ($12 – “it’s nice and sugary and a little bit naughty for ya”). You can add fries and a drink for an extra $5.

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Daisy Burger’s Classic Cheese Burger. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

“We’re quite new and we want our prices to reflect good value for money – mobile food vending is about a cheap meal that is fun,” Bartolo says.

“We already have regular customers who come back for more, just because we make an honest burger, so we’re going to stick with what we’re doing and go forward.”

Since their first Fork on the Road, Daisy Burger has been trading under licence, feeding burgers to city workers at lunchtimes and at other large public events, such as the Flinders Street Market Street Food Festival.

It is one of five new food trucks that have started trading in the city since the Adelaide City Council’s controversial decision to limit the number of vendors to 20 at any one time. Almost 30 operators – including Burger Theory, which ran one of the city’s original  burger trucks – did not renew their licences for 2016.

“Yes, there is a lot of negativity about vending in the city, but it’s all about how you make it,” says Bartolo. “We’re trading four days in the city, but we’re also getting a lot of private functions as a result of that exposure.

“The council’s done a good job, considering – you’ve just got to abide by the rules and try to do your best.”

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Daisy Burger trading at lunchtime on Thursdays in Hindmarsh Square. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Last weekend, Bartolo and Lazarus parked their truck in King William Street on Friday night to catch the crowd attending the Strikers’ BBL game at Adelaide Oval; they headed for the hills on Saturday to cater for the Tomich Wines Crush wine festival gathering, and then it was back to the city again on Sunday for the Tour de Fork event in Rymill Park to feed the Tour Down Under spectators.

“It wasn’t a super-hectic weekend; we would have loved it to be much busier, but we got great catering contacts,” Bartolo says. “The marketing makes it worthwhile.”

For big events, Bartolo can prepare more than 300 serves, but the reality is that they may not be as busy as anticipated. For week-day city vending, the average daily number of serves is 50 plus chips and drinks.

What about the waste? “I’d rather prepare for 300 and waste 50, rather than prep for 150 and sell out,” explains Bartolo.

“We go to OzHarvest with any leftovers – I’d rather donate food if I can’t sell it; it’s a win-win for both of us.”

Bartolo has a background in hospitality working in pubs, clubs and bars. Lazarus is an accountant with a post-graduate degree in teaching. Together, they’re always forward planning for the larger events around city trading and private functions.

“We’re planning for Fringe 2017 now,” says Bartolo. “With events like that, you’ve only got 28 days to make a lot of revenue.

“Ideally, we would do mobile food vending three to four days a week and a private party once per week – the revenue is there but you work bloody hard for it.

“In the next 18 months we will look at doing another van and potentially maybe a franchise.”

For now, you can find Daisy Burger in the city at lunchtimes (10.30am to 2.30pm) on Tuesdays outside Adelaide University on the corner of Pulteney Street and North Terrace; on Wednesdays on Angas Street outside the SA Water building; on Thursdays in Hindmarsh Square, and on Fridays in Victoria Square (except during the Fringe, when Victoria Square is an exclusion zone for food trucks).

Another good way to locate Daisy Burger is via the Adelaide Street Eats app.

 

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