In September 2014 Chris Elliman and Andy Hall discussed launching a pop-up burger restaurant at Andy’s coffee shop, St Martin’s Tea & Coffee. Various names were considered for the pop-up including Cow & Pickle and Elliman’s Burgers. Eventually Chris landed on Crafty Burger, which became a reality in November 2014.
The laid-back, buzzing pop-up burger restaurant, which runs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 6-8.30pm, was an instant success. Customers flocked to try Chris’s creative burgers, which are made with beef from March House Farm in Great Dalby, Leicestershire. The buns come from Toby Milner Bakery in Blaby.
Options include such delights as The Crafty Poet (beef patty, smoked Applewood cheddar, American cheese, smoked streaky bacon, salted onion crisps, BBQ sauce, aioli) and El Rojo (beef patty, chorizo and onion jam, red bacon, Red Leicester, chimichurri, aioli). And who could resist the invitation to pimp one’s fries?
That success has continued. If you visit St Martin’s Tea & Coffee in the evening at the weekend when Crafy Burger is running, you’ll often see queues spilling onto the street. Chris and team regularly deal with more than 200 covers a night. Part of the success is down to the quality of ingredients, the rest is down to people loving the fun street-food vibe.
By Matt Wright, founder and Leicestershire editor
