Funny
place, Fulham. The Broadway has changed a lot since the old station entrance
closed and the area around has gone upmarket. The local houses cost a fortune
and many of the locals conform to the rugby playing (if men), in publishing
(if women) stereotype. And
yet as I swing into the North End Road, the crap content goes right off the
scale. Teenage Kappa Slappas pushing prams, pasty-faced
hoody kids, dodgy shops and filth everywhere. I’m a Sarf Lundun working-class
boy so I’m used to that, but I did nurture the belief that Fulham was
a bit more stylish. It’s a bit like hearing the Queen fart, somewhat
disillusioning.
Real Burger World’s new premises are at the top end of North End Road, bang opposite a Burger King and about three doors down from Maccy D. Talk about making it hard on yourself eh? The thing is that Naz and his old mate Mark have never shirked a challenge. Ever since university they had a plan/dream to open a ‘proper’ burger restaurant. One serving decent meat and decent salads. Careers in Chemistry, ‘not unhelpful when it comes to cooking,’ chuckles Naz later when we talk, were put aside in 2003 to start Real Burger World with both founders selling their houses to get the necessary cash to start in Clapham. And now this is the second, right here in funky Fulham.
I’ve arranged to meet Naz on his own as Mark, the co-founder, has gone
off on a round the world trip. Naz is smiling but behind his bonhomie you can
sense a bit of worry. Last year Channel 4 did a programme about RBW called ‘Risking
it all’. They’ve just finished filming the follow up and it’s
going out in two days time. I ask Naz if he’s seen a preview. ‘No,’ he
says cheerfully. So he’s not worried it might be negative? ‘All
publicity is good publicity,’ he shrugs. Well yes, but trying telling
that to some of the restaurants featured in Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Many of them must still be having bad dreams about closure and national ridicule.
Naz is unworried, he trusts the filmmakers which is good of him because the
first film was quite hard-hitting.
He is sitting opposite me with the window behind him. Burger King’s logo is over his head. It’s an ironic photo opportunity but I know if I reach for the Nikon he’s going to tumble it and move off. Nonetheless it’s a question that has to be asked. Isn’t this a bad place for his kind of burger? The socio-demographic at this end of the road is driven by price and taste is really not too high on their priorities. Naz is not convinced. ‘It’s not much more costly , just about a pound per burger and once people have tried ours they’re going to think it’s worth it,’ he enthuses. I must have looked sceptical so he tells me that people come from miles around for his milkshakes. To prove his point a couple of hoody kids slide in to order some milkshakes. They have McDonalds bags in their hands. ‘Yeh,’ says Naz,’ they buy their burgers there but come here for the milkshakes.’ This does not seem to worry Naz for reasons I can’t quite fathom.
There is no doubt that Naz is the firm’s biggest asset. As tracks from
David Bowie’s ‘Man who sold the world,’ (irony overload alert!)
waft out of the shop’s speakers he evangelises about his product. ‘We
want to educate people to eat real food, not junk food. That’s real burgers,
real shakes, wholesome stuff!’ This is at a time when burgers and turkey
twizzlers are being equally blamed for the decline of Western civilization
and England losing at football, so he is definitely at one with the zeitgeist
going down.
‘ It took us a long time to source good ingredients,’ he explains, ‘and basically we’ve been evolving over the past two years since opening the first restaurant. Every few months we’re looking at the recipes and ingredients and looking to do better’ He waves his arms expansively at the large menu boards. ‘It’s all fresh produce and we do special burgers around seasonal produce. The main thing is that everything is made on the day, the chips are made right here from whole potatoes. They’re washed, the skins are left on and they are pushed, by hand, through a chipper which cuts them into chunky chips.’ This latter device looks like the world’s biggest garlic press and must build up the operator’s arm muscles wonderfully.
As I’m pondering this, Naz moves on. ‘We hand press every burger and we make shakes from fresh bananas, fresh strawberries and Belgian chocolate. And that’s why we're different, nothing's frozen here , nothing's processed, no syrups, no artificial additives.’ He summons up some samples of the milkshakes for me to try and they are indeed quite delicious. I swallow far too fast and the dreaded ice pain kicks in hard, the room recedes as I feel a laser beam drill through my forehead and I wonder if I’m going to die in a burger restaurant. I do hope not, I wanted to peg out over a Michelin starred meal, face down in the foie gras. As the pain finally recedes I can hear Naz again. ‘….all made fresh each day. We sourced the machinery, we tested it all to get what we wanted, it took a while but we wanted it to be right.’
He treats me to a burger which, it’s worth noting, comes in a recyclable cardboard box. Everything has been thought through. And he’s right, it is indeed an excellent burger – pink and moist in the center and just the correct amount of fat content. I’m impressed. The chips too are good, all different sizes with the skins adding extra flavour. Yes this is the sort of burger meal we should all be eating, if Naz can persuade punters to stump the extra pence he should be on a winner. I never eat in a burger place normally, but now I will. Only it’s a ‘Real’ burger, though.
