BurgerFuel, where every form of love is found....
BurgerFuel. Not only a great place to grab a burger for any occassion but also a place to find love. Who knew? This month, we celebrate the couples that fell in love, the mates that can’t be separated and anyone that sparked their story at BurgerFuel.
This week to end our month of celebrations, we wanted to feature, not one, not two, but three BurgerFuel love stories.
Paige + Jackson
First up we have Paige and Jackson, another success story of love found on the shop floor.
So where did it all begin?
Jackson and I first meet in 2019, Jackson came along to my Grandma’s funeral to support his boss (my uncle) who owns BF Parnell & PT Chev, shortly after I started working at Parnell and I found out Jackson had a crush on me since that day! We started dating not long after and as they say the rest is history. We have now been together almost 4 years and we have 2 baby girls, a 21 month and a 4 month old. I started working for BF in 2016 after my uncle started working there, it was my first proper job and I continued working there until we had our first daughter in 2021 and even though we no longer work with BF we are often still popping in for a visit or out with the crew having some fun!
What's your idea of a perfect date night?
As parents now of 2 under 2 our favourite date night ritual is a cheeky takeaways, the mattress in the lounge and an early night watching movies.
What's are your favourite BurgerFuel go-to?
Jackson loves his Bacon BBQ Roadster with chipotle sauce and I am big fan of the Southern Fried Choppers.
Hughesy + Harvey
Next up we have childhood besties, Hughesy and Harvey, BurgerFuel Parnell and Pt Chev franchisees.
So where did it all begin?
We officially met at high school, and became great mates while away on a school white water rafting week long camp, bunking in the back of a 1980s mustard yellow corolla station wagon for a few nights when the tent got water logged due to torrential rain. High School saw us go through different phases of love and hate, mainly love, but a little bit of hate as we vide for the love of the same girl(s) lol. Later on in High School and through uni, we worked together at the local video store, while also getting jobs for as many as our friends as we could, but it was always the Harvey and Hughesy Friday night show.
Ironically it wasn’t till after we’d finished High School we we’re flipping through and old photo album and Harvey piped up, why have you got a photo of me from kindy, as it turns out, we’d spent 2 years together playing at Kindy all those years earlier and hadn’t figured that out for the best part of 10 years friendship. Even though we’re both westies, we used to spend a lot of time on the shore (better parties there back in the day) and that meant BF Takapuna was our usual weekend feed, if not Taka, then Ponsonby or the old Mt Eden store. It was no doubt a weekly thing for us, not knowing one day we’d own a couple of stores together. We drifted apart a bit after school, as life took different directions, with a catch up once or twice a year, but in the mid 2000s we reconnected with both of us living in London. We always yearned for those Friday nights burgs from home though… nothing in London filled the gap.
While Mark was working at BF HQ, Harvey approached him as he had been thinking about maybe investing in a franchise, and BF ticked a lot of boxes. Hughesy was at the same time already in the process of moving from the Franchisor side of the business to franchisee, and after some discussion, the idea of doing it together became the preferred option. The skill sets that we brought to the table were very complimentary, covering each other’s weaknesses in a big way!
There was one moment, probably after about 6 months of hard slog after buying Parnell, we were in store after close, late night cleaning, defrosting, whatever, out on our feet, and there was just this moment that we were sitting, exhausted and realised at that moment that we owned a soft serve machine, some thing we could have only dreamed about when we were young mates, we cracked up and had our very own all you can eat soft serve night and went home both feeling rather green about 1am that morning.
How are you and BurgerFuel connected now?
4 years next month we bought our first store, Parnell, 18 months later, the day this new thing could Level 4 lockdown was announced, the (beautiful) purple neon’s went up for our second store at Pt Chev… bloody Covid.
What's your idea of a perfect mate night?
The mate night ritual has changed a lot over the last 4 years, and it’s more about smashing out a killer Friday night shift with our crew, then grabbing a burger and shake, sitting front of house and having a good yarn about taking over the world, one burger at a time. We’re trying to get back to a bit more ‘fun time’ outside of the business, but to be honest we love this business and it’s as much fun as pretty much anything else we would do anyhow!
And of course, what's your favourite BurgerFuel go-to?
Harvey has always had a soft spot for the BBQ Bacon Roadster, or the Ford Freakout, and a chocolate shake, and has been known, probably a couple years ago now, to polish all 3 of those items off in one sitting. Hughesy has a bit of a sweet tooth, so has made the Bacon Backfire, with a good lashing of plum sauce, but more recently, with the legendary Southern Fried Choppers joining the menu, there’s a few more sides than maybe there used to be at meal time!
Nikki + Josh
Last but definitely not least, is a head office love story, that was just meant to be, Nikki and Josh.
So where did it all begin?
100 years ago, in my early twenties, I was a struggling jeweller with a small business trying to make a living. I worked 4 different jobs, and one was waitressing at a café that was under the BurgerFuel Head Office on Ponsonby Road. It was through that café that I got to know many of the BurgerFuel franchisees and HQ staff that are still in the business today. One day, a very (very) tall, dark, and handsome guy walked in and the BurgerFuel CEO introduced us. Josh was a stuntman and the CEO’s personal trainer at the time.
He was also an MMA fighter who BurgerFuel were sponsoring in chicken for his upcoming fight, so he had quite a few meetings with the marketing team in the café. He quickly became a café regular, making an appearance every Friday, ordering a Classic Breakfast with scrambled eggs, and a Lemongrass tea. I thought he was lovely (and a babe), but we were both in a relationship and it took nearly a year for the stars to align and one day he asked me out for dinner while I was clearing his table. 14 years later, a very looooong engagement and some kids in the mix, and we’re still hanging in there. He’s still a babe.
How are you and BurgerFuel connected now?
I started out as the brand manager 8 years ago and am now the head of brand and marketing, working with an amazing team and in a very collaborative and supportive environment. I love the brand and the people – we all get along and it’s like a family.
Josh’s story with BurgerFuel started in 2006 when he started giving the HQ staff training sessions at the boxing gym he worked at. That evolved into one of BurgerFuel’s cultural pillars, with him establishing ‘BurgerFuel Athletic Department’ (B.A.D.) in 2013, our in-house basement gym and fitness and wellbeing platform. He has created bespoke strength and conditioning training programmes for head office staff and Friends of the Fuel ever since, with quite a few hiatuses’ working on films as a stunt performer and actor.
What's your idea of a perfect date night?
With a 4- and 5-year-old, we have no social life to speak of, so date nights are few and far between. He’s just come off the back of 5 months working in Australia on a film, so my ideal date night is just hanging together after the kids have gone to bed with a wine (for me) and watching a movie. So sad. So, so sad.
And of course, the ultimate relationship test, what's your partners favourite BurgerFuel go-to?
Easy, American Muscle Double.
