Combining fast food and farm-to-table puts Jovan Curic’s Superior Burger in a unique position among Sydney’s burger craze.
The burger joint is also quite literally in an unusual location, being tucked away in a tiny shopping village in the South West Sydney neighbourhood of Wakeley.
“The city was saturated, especially in the burger market, so we were like, ‘let’s go out west’,” he says.
Curic, who was born in nearby Carramar, has always been deeply rooted in the area.
“I was born 15 minutes away from this shop. All my relatives still live out here, a big Serbian community is here and I grew up in that community.”
Working out of a nostalgic 1970s style takeaway and convenience store with a neon sign that reads “Best Burgers in the West”, he’s serving a market he knows well.
He spent $200,000 to fit out the space, but he didn’t want the location to be the only point of difference.
Curic grew up in Sydney's South West, only 15 minutes away from his business. Source: SBS
Curic is passionate about knowing where his food comes from and says it’s important to understand the labour and carbon footprint behind the food supply chain.
“If you look at high volume burger shops, no one makes their beef anymore - they buy everything in from a butcher. The sauces out of a jar are a knock-off.”
“We make everything in-house.”
Curic teamed up with a farmer in the Hunter Valley to farm a paddock of free-range, black-Angus cattle exclusively for Superior Burger, and 95% of the vegetables are picked from Sun’s Fresh Farm in Horsley Park.
The beef goes through a specialised ageing process that stops the growth of bacteria, giving the patties a pink colour.
Sun's Fresh Farm is down the road from the Wakeley store reducing the carbon footprint of travel. Source: SBS
Burger patties are then made daily by Curic’s father, which go into the three types of burgers. That includes the classic beef burger with beetroot, tomato, caramelised onion, lettuce and a house-made, smoked-barbeque sauce.
The fried chicken is also a popular addition to the menu.
Superior Burger has been open for a year and makes roughly about 2500 burgers a week in its downtime.
“There are some weeks where we'll spike like school holidays, and that’s 3000 burgers.”
Despite the success, Superior Burger has faced challenges in its first year of business as a small time operator.
Menu items include six types of burgers, sides that include fried chicken, fries and potato scallops, as well as dessert. Source: SBS
“Staffing is a big issue - just this week we've dropped four people in one week. Fees and taxes are another huge thing as we have the same regulation as a multi-venue group that has 80 restaurants –we’re paying the same in wages.”
However, with a 10-year lease signed off for the Wakeley property, Superior Burger is here to stay in the west to push fast food in a bold new direction.
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