The owner of The Beer And Burger, Ryan Kurban, is a youthful and enthusiastic restaurateur whose main credo behind his burger joint, which opened on January 14 this year, is to make people comfortable and offer something new. A prime example (pun intended) of his innovations is the monthly ‘game burger’ that The Beer And Burger offer.
“We wanted to do something that is not done by everyone else – putting a spin on something that everyone has but doing in a completely different way. The main drive behind ‘game burger’ was that every month it would change to something different: we’ve had goat, we’ve had duck, we’ve had kangaroo and at the moment we have venison.”
This month, May 2013, The Beer And Burger’s game burger has a venison pattie. In what is a casual culinary masterstroke, the gaminess of the venison is enhanced and then offset by pickled candy apple and prosciutto. Kurban explains that a lot of thought goes into enhancing the flavours of the burger via how it is served in the buns.
“One of the hardest decisions with the game burger is how we are going to serve it. Is it going to be a roast? Is it going to be a patty?” Kurban goes on to use two examples that are mainstays on the burger menu. “With the pork and lamb burgers that are on offer, the pork is served as a pulled pork and the lamb is a sliced lamb. The hardest question when conceiving a game burger is how we are going to serve it because game meats can be quite dry.”
The brains-trust that makes the tough decisions on how the game burgers, and all other burgers, on the menu are presented will be served is Kurban, his father Gabby and head chef Tom [Uttam Gaire]. Gaire has been working with the Kurban’s for many years and, as Ryan Kurban explains, Chef Tom (as he is better known) has been working on The Beer And Burger since its inception.
“I first met Chef Tom when he worked at the other restaurant in Balwyn called Colombos. Tom and I were trialling a few of the burger ideas there to see what worked. Through that process of trial and error I think we got the perfect mix when we started here.”
Kurban’s description of the ‘perfect mix’ can be extended out to The Beer And Burger’s other main experiential element and is beer. As established throughout this article, Kurban is a young man who takes his food and drink very seriously so it comes as no surprise when he explains that a lot of thought has gone into the beers on offer.
“There are six taps in total with two of them Fat Yak and Carlton Draft that we keep on as a continuous thing and the remaining four are rotating with craft and international beers. The two unique beers that we have at the moment are the Kung Fu from the Two Brothers that are in Moorabbin, and we have a Growler that is American brown ale. Kung Fu that is a rice lager that is an easy drinker that has a bit of a citreous flavour to it. People like to try something different.”
Finally, and as a very attractive bait to get Beat readers to head down to The Beer And Burger, if you mention this story in Beat you will get a burger, a side of fries and a beer (any beer) for $15 and other specials are Tight Arse Tuesday’s $2.50 pots and happy hour(s) from 3pm to 5pm every day with all burgers $10 and all beers $2.50.
