Burgher Burger - Richmond, KY

Hey, y’all! We hope that everyone has been staying safe out there over the past couple of weeks. It’s been a weird month already, to say the least, but luckily we’re here to help distract from the happenings of the world. You all know that we operate out of Lexington and mostly cover Lexington-area restaurants, but this time we’re venturing outside of Fayette County to shine a spotlight on downtown Richmond. Here, you’ll find a handful of restaurants along Main Street who are trying to make a name for themselves, and the focus of today’s post will be Burgher Burger. Once you see what Matt and the crew are serving down here, you’ll be climbing over each other just to get a seat at the bar! Renee, her husband Richard, and I were lucky enough to spend a couple of hours hanging out with Matt Yeast, one of the partners of Burgher Burger, to learn about this restaurant and how you can help support this cool local burger joint.

“We do it the hard way,” said Matt as we all crowd around a table discussing how the cooks at Burgher Burger make their fries. He has a potato slicer that hangs on the wall in the kitchen that can cut up to 3 buckets of fries in about 10 minutes, and from there the fries soak for up to 5 hours before cooking even begins. This is the first thing we talk about with Matt on a rare sunny day in early March, where he sets out to tell us how he got involved with the folks at Burgher Burger. Matt has tons of experience running kitchens in the Lexington area, spending several years at both Lynagh’s and Carrabba’s, and a while back he had the opportunity to join in with the guys who started the original Burgher Burger in Irwin, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The group settled on this building in particular because it had been several different restaurants over the years so it was fully equipped with kitchen materials, which helps cut down on costs when you’re a new business. Using this to their advantage, Matt and some of the partners set to work getting the restaurant up to par. Using a couple of credit cards and a small loan, the guys were able to add their special touches to the space; tons of reclaimed wood and aluminum siding adorn the walls, while the bar features a hand-poured concrete countertop and light fixtures made from mixing bowls. All of these additions look cool against the backdrop of the decor. They even have a back room with a billiards table and darts, so if you’re looking for a place to hang with your buddies then this is it!

Since Matt is looking forward to expanding the franchise, we asked about similarities in the menus between Richmond and Irwin, PA, and what you’re about to read might shock you: the prices for items at both restaurants are the same! He was worried those prices might be too high for a new burger spot in downtown Richmond, KY, a place that has seen a steep decline in foot traffic over the past few years, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Conversely, we thought these prices were maybe too low for a suburb of Pittsburgh, but that’s the beauty of this place - great food at reasonable prices. Speaking of menu prices, you’ll notice that every menu item ends in $.88: this is intentional, as the owners thought that the number 88 would be synonymous with the initials of the restaurant, which are BB. Isn’t that neat? We think so! Just another way to stick out amongst the crowded burger market! We also want to point out that menu items are the same at both places…for now, at least. Matt wanted to keep the menu items the same through the first year of operation in Richmond, but he would like to experiment with trying new things in the future. As for the future of Burgher Burger, Matt and his team would like to franchise and open up at least 15 other locations, and we wholeheartedly support that decision; everyone needs access to these awesome burgers!

Now let’s get to the star of the show: the burgers. The meat comes from Critchfield Meats in Lexington via Marksbury Farms in Lancaster. It’s a signature blend of strip, tenderloin, sirloin, and ribeye, and it’s Kentucky Proud so having that extra local flavor makes these burgers even tastier! We already mentioned the process they go through with the fries, and that extra attention to detail can be found in all the menu items at Burgher Burger. Here’s where the fun stuff kicks in: we’re a food blog, after all, so naturally we tried several items on the menu, and we’re here to say that everything tastes just as tasty as it sounds! We started with an appetizer of loaded fries, which is a basket of those famous hand-cut fries topped with cheese, bacon, and sour cream (disclaimer: I was so hungry that I ate half of them before I remembered to take a photo), and Matt was kind enough to give Richard and I a sample of their homemade chili, which was sooooo good! It’s made from the same meat blend as the burgers, and it reminds me of the chili that my grandmother used to make. We each ordered meals as well. I ordered the Dragon burger with grilled jalapeño, bacon, lettuce, tomato, ghost pepper cheese, and fire mayo; Richard ordered the Junkman burger with bacon, American, swiss, and cheddar cheese, pickle slaw, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and BurgherB sauce; and Renee ordered Dave’s Chicken Cheesesteak with chicken, “Yinz” (onions), mushrooms, roasted red peppers, provolone cheese, and pesto mayo. Renee and Richard got fries with their sandwiches, while I ventured out of the norm and got an order of onion rings, which were both huge and delicious! I don’t think photos do these burgers and sandwiches justice, but we sure did get some good shots if I do say so myself! The burgers are massive ( they come with two patties unless otherwise noted), and the chicken cheesesteak was piled high with shredded chicken and cheese, which, in my opinion, totally justifies the price of these meals. For the record, the Dragon is no joke; Matt and I both agree that you should only try it if you’re palate can handle a lot of spice. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the hottest I’ve ever had, I would give this about a 6; I’ve had one other burger with ghost pepper cheese and that one lit me on fire for an entire weekend - my eyes burned so bad they turned red! That being said, I think the Dragon was an excellent burger, especially with the grilled jalapeño adding an extra layer of flavor to the mix. Richard has already confessed his love of the Junkman, and Renee enjoyed the cheesesteak and pesto mayo.

The bottom line here is that not only do the people of Richmond need to get down here to Burgher Burger for an excellent local experience, they also need to support the other businesses on Main Street and in the surrounding area. Matt is working with some of the other places in the downtown area to make the local scene as cool as it used to be, and he started that by serving up some brews from Dreaming Creek, a local brewery with locations in both Richmond and London, KY. He wants his place to be known as a restaurant with a cool bar, and not the other way around. He also wants this to be a place where kids from the local college, Eastern Kentucky University, can come down and hang out for a while between classes or with their friends on a Friday or Saturday night. He even offers a 10% discount to EKU students, which sounds very appealing as a former college kid myself! It’s a great place to come and watch sporting events as well: Matt is a huge University of Kentucky fan so he always has those games on the TVs at the bar. He would like to show more EKU games too, but they’re kind of hard to find on TV since they play in a small conference. However, to make up for that, he has a big screen TV on the back wall on a channel that only shows cat videos 24/7. Yep, you read that right: all cats, all the time. When Burgher Burger first opened, Matt had asked a server to put the Cats on the big TV (meaning the Kentucky Wildcats), but when the server searched for cats this channel came up…and the rest is history! He keeps a steady stream of Bob Ross playing in-between all the sports channels as well because, ya know, happy trees make everyone feel better! Y’all also have to eat at Burgher Burger to see the shelf of random weirdness: it’s a shelf that runs the length of the kitchen, and it features random items from Matt’s home recording studio that he brought to the restaurant to spark interesting conversation. The shelf already has quite the collection of knick-knacks, and he would love to add to it, so if you have something quirky to add to the shelf then drop in and show it off! We enjoyed coming down to Richmond and talking with Matt, and we sincerely thank him for his hospitality. This was a great experience for us, and we can’t wait to try more places in the downtown Richmond area!