Brooke Wolfe had to go to burger school to get his burger wings.
A man with a commerce degree, experience in marketing and design, well connected in Taranaki – and here he was in Auckland, manning a till and grilling patties.
But it was part of the BurgerFuel company drill. He describes the three-month experience as one of his steepest learning curves. By the end of it he was co-managing the Ponsonby store, one of the flagship eateries in the international burger chain.
All the while his store in central New Plymouth, on Eliot St, was being built.
He returned, opened the doors on January 16, 2006 and “that’s when the fun began. The first three weeks were just insane. The sales we did were mindblowing; it was just the pace, the number
of people I had to have to keep my head above water.”
After the intensity of opening, he “crashed” and probably wondered what he’d got himself into.
He was in his early thirties and he’d never worked in hospitality.
Raised in New Plymouth, schooled at New Plymouth Boys’ High, he is the son of Raewyn and Neil Wolfe. His father is a former district councillor and Taranaki rugby identity, his mother an accomplished gardener; his siblings Katie, Sally and Todd are – respectively – an actress, artist and physiotherapist.
He jokes that he wanted to carve a niche for himself in those early days, although this might not have been the niche he dreamed of as a lad.
“I never thought I would be down the bottom of the Boys’ High hill flipping burgers.”
He was working in Auckland in the mid-2000s as an account manager, having completed his BComm at Otago University. That followed stints overseas as a backpacker.
As an account manager he was the go-to guy, the link between client and designers. The campaigns he worked on included the rebranding of Kiwibank, of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, DB, Waste Management and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union.
“That entailed quite long hours and usually late nights . . . our company would shout us dinner.”
Based in Parnell, they alternated between BurgerFuel and Indian takeout.
It was a pressured, interesting time in his life but he hankered for home. “I didn’t know what I would do but I just wanted to come back.”
Around the same time he met future wife-to-be Lucie. The couple returned to New Plymouth, he did some marketing work, but says in the back of his mind was BurgerFuel.
There was no outlet here, he’d liked the food from his time in Auckland, admired the strong brand and saw a potential partnership.
He’d already been in contact with the boss in Auckland at least six months earlier to enquire about a franchise. In 2005 he called back and said he’d found a site. “Righto”, said the boss, “we’ll send someone down”.
“The next day this guy turns up, checks out the site, says, ‘yes we like it’ but there’s a problem, we’re not sure about you.”
Two other locals had already put up their hands, Brooke Wolfe says. It was off to Auckland for interviews and psychometric testing “to check out that I wasn’t an axe murderer”. He got the nod and was back in Auckland, learning from the bottom up about food, systems, accounts and managing staff.
After the crazy opening of the New Plymouth store in January 2006, things settled down. Wolfe got over his initial exhaustion and says it was a matter of building the store’s customer base and reputation.
“We opened the year the global credit crunch started. We’ve been trading for nearly eights years in a world economy full of doom and gloom. New Plymouth was insulated for three or four years, then our economy caught up.” Still, things kept ticking along.
He has a staff of 12, four of them fulltimers, and remains manager as well as the franchisee. All his accounts – everything from payroll to GST returns – is done in his home office at the back of his garage. For the first time this year he’s thinking about employing a store manager but doubts he’ll step away. “I’ll still come in and jump on the grill.”
He’s still in the burger-making game eight years on because he’s passionate about the food and likes yarning to customers.
Locals and peers obviously rate the formula. The region’s annual hospitality Halamoana awards were held last weekend and BurgerFuel took out best takeout title. It’s dominated the category ever since it opened, which is also how long the awards have been running.
Says Wolfe, who’s involved with the organising committee: “It’s always nice to be acknowledged for hard work, especially by your peers in the local hospitality scene. It’s been a busy year for us with the refurbishment of the front of house and a new point of sale system, which my staff have embraced.”
Nonetheless running the burger joint is a commitment. He and Lucie now have two children, one school-aged, one preschooler, and for much of their lives Dad has been absent between 5pm to 7pm.
“I have a very understanding wife; she knows about the bigger picture. I get to spend a lot of time with my kids during the day when I’m not working, it’s just that I’m not there between 5 to 7pm – those two ‘witching’ hours when I’m most needed.”
Sometimes he’s on call because he doesn’t live far from Eliot St, but putting in an appearance is important.
He enjoys customer interaction, gets a buzz from making people smile, especially those who arrive with gloom painted on their face. “If you’re not happy you shouldn’t be in this business.”
Other challenges come in the form of managing staff. Many of his are generation-Yers, intent on challenging the system. “Sometimes they need a lot more convincing that this is why we do things this way. Once they get that, they’re good workers.
“It keeps me young-ish. I have gone a bit greyer.”
Following a new uniform launch this year staff are dressed by hip labels Huffer, Illicit and Puma. “So you have this nearly-40-year-old trying to rock around in these new threads. I think I keep up.”
The BurgerFuel brand is an edgy, sometimes- in-your face one: Marketing slogans are regularly updated and include lines like “Death before Bad Burgers”. Its social media presence is strong. The chief executive is the founder of Red Bull Australasia Josef Roberts.
The first store opened in 1995; now it has stores in Australia and 18 in the Middle East. For the first time the South Island will get a BurgerFuel, with a restaurant due to open in Christchurch.
In the financial year ended March 31 the group posted a net profit of more than $1 million, up 55 per cent on the previous year.
This eye-catching brand must have appealed to the marketing-savvy Wolfe?
“In the past eight years the brand has grown and that brings strong brand awareness.”
He thinks one of his strongest marketing tools is his blue jeep, emblazoned with BurgerFuel’s logo and colours.
He frequently drives around town, doing the school run with the kids or heading to and from work. Often people wave to him, and then he’ll see them in the restaurant later that day.
But there’s substance behind the gloss. Wolfe says the burgers are like the old-fashioned fare that older New Plymouth folk remember from late-night caravans such as the White Lady. The menu has varied little over the years.
Meat is cooked on a chargrill so any fat drips away, salads are made daily, the chicken is cut fresh and sauce recipes are jealously guarded.
They’re generous burgers, says Wolfe, as he builds one in his kitchen. No skimping on ingredients; strong taste and good nutrition are emphasised. “The whole package is the flavour.”
Pricing is higher than other products but he argues that his burgers are a meal in themselves. You don’t need to add other stuff – chips and oversized drinks – to feel satisfied.
He cooks quickly and expertly, slapping a patty on the grill, lifting it off, adding cheese and bacon, before carefully adding salad with a balanced touch. Topping it off is a decent squeeze of pre- prepared guacamole.
Making a burger isn’t rocket science and there are few secrets to making a good homemade version, he says.
“People making them at home do tend to go over the top – put too much on so that it falls apart.”
His advice? Make a patty with some herbs and spices, add salad, a slice of cheese, some nice relish and slap on a roof of grilled or toasted bun.
Wolfe says the last almost eight years have been a “rollercoaster, a journey”, but he remains energetic and committed. He’s carved his niche.
“Generally Todd or I get asked. ‘Which one are you? The physio or the burger boy?”‘ He’s the burger boy and proud of it.
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz
HT Editor
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