Burger chef cooks for God
TORONTO, ON–It's a six o'clock on a Wednesday night downtown, and already the line-up is so long for The Burger's Priest that I can barely make it in the door. A parking enforcement officer is making his way through the cars stopped illegally out front, but fortunately there's an empty parking lot down the street–near a deserted fast-food franchise.
The Burger's Priest opened last spring. The food is served quick, of high quality and spiritually inspired.
“The growth has been biblical," says owner Shant Mardirosian. “I opened this place with a plan of doing 20-25 burgers a day. Day one we did 120. Now we do 450 burgers on a Saturday and 250-275 during a week. We're closed on Sundays for church."
The custom-blend beef is ground in-house, using a specialized 100-year-old grinding technique. Burgers are then fried on a griddle. The simple menu is displayed a wooden hymnal board above the counter. The most popular item heading out the door is “The Priest," which consists of hand-made hamburger, topped with an “Option"–two Portobello mushrooms, stuffed with cheese and then deep-fried. Add hand-cut fries, a drink and a warm homemade cookie and you have “What's Right."
The man ahead of me in line has never been there before, but has heard so many good recommendations he barely knows where to start. His order is called and he's replaced by two college students who tell me the hamburgers here are legendary. The line moves again. Now I'm with a health-conscious woman named Marissa, whose date teases her that hamburgers hardly go with a diet-pop and yoga lifestyle.
“But these burgers are so light and fluffy!" she says. “They're heavenly."
Mardirosian says The Burger's Priest has never advertised or run promotions. Yet they've been written up by every major newspaper in the city, been touted on countless blogs and interviewed by The Food Network.
“What I understand from my reading of Scripture," Mardirosian says, “is that basically Genesis 3-10 is about men trying to [become] great...which culminates in the Tower of Babel. Then God calls Abraham, and tells him, 'I'm going to make your name great.'
“For me it's just been about being on that faithful, obedient journey... rather than trying to beat my chest."
Dishes clatter in the background and Mardirosian rattles off Bible verses–seasoning his explanation of food prep and restaurant management with Scripture references and theological exposition.
He once thought he was called to a life behind the pulpit, and has a degree in pastoral ministry from Tyndale Bible College and Seminary.
He says, “Later I realized I was being shaped theologically and biblically to do what I was really gifted to do–run my own business."
After graduating from Bible college in 2003, he continued to work at a high-end steak house.
“All my friends were going into pastoral ministry," he says, “and I just didn't feel that was the thing for me. I knew that whatever God's call was, it was good. It was affirmed by my church, my profs, all my friends, that I was there for a reason, but that ministry wasn't for me."
Then one night in 2006, he and some colleagues decided to drive to New York City after work.
“On a whim," he says, “because we were hungry and wanted something to eat."
The drive took eight hours. They ended up at P. J. Clarke's, where Mardirosian says he sat down to a breakfast of “the best burger I ever had in my life.
“I realized in that moment I wanted to learn to make burgers and open a burger place. It was crazy, and at the same time, I kept feeling it. So, I prayed it through, and figured it out."
He flew down to New York in the spring of 2007, to apply for residence in Menno-House, a Mennonite owned home in Manhattan. Miraculously, he says, he was accepted.
Mardirosian, an American citizen by birth, lived in New York City for eight months, where he worked for half-a-dozen different burger joints, learning the specialized techniques behind making high-quality burgers. Then he came back to Toronto, and worked four jobs while he raised the money to open The Burger's Priest.
The role of a “priest" as outlined in the Old Testament, Mardirosian explains, was to be a mediator between God and the world.
“So The Burger's Priest," he says, “is taking one element of what God has created–the hamburger–and making it better. Not just in better quality food, but also in business."
The calling to work in God's world in such a way as to improve and cultivate it is a calling which goes all the way back to Genesis chapter two, Mardirosian says. And like the Garden of Eden story, there is “constant temptation to sell out."
“Like every time I walk into the supply place, there's always six different options for ketchup," he says, “and the temptation is to buy a cheaper ketchup so I can make a little bit more money.
“When everything is about the bottom line, every person that's working for you, everything you buy, every place you rent, every person you serve, is all about the dollar. You dehumanize them. And yet you need to make a profit to stay in business. So it's hard. It's not easy."
He is currently looking at selling a portion of the business to “a really good friend who is in line with me theologically and gifted in ways I am not" in order to help him grow the business in a wise and accountable way.
The bottom line is simple: good food, godly service.
“It's just about myself in front of God," he says, “and being the best me I can be."
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