The owners of Queeny’s and Kingfisher Cocktail Bar will complete their triple crown of Durham’s restaurant scene this week with the launch of QueenBurger, a successful pandemic-era pop-up set to reopen Thursday, September 15, in its own brick-and-mortar spot on American Tobacco Campus.
Sean Umstead and Michelle Vanderwalker debuted QueenBurger in July 2020 as a way to stay afloat while COVID-19 restrictions kept Kingfisher shuttered. The pop-up amassed a cult following in its year of operation, with diners lining up around the block for a chance to chow down on crispy double smash burgers in the Astroturfed paddock behind Kingfisher.
At its new Blackwell Street location, QueenBurger will pick up where the space’s previous tenant, OnlyBurger, left off, with a concise menu of onion and hoop cheese-topped beef and veggie burgers; spicy and salted shoestring fries; ice cream sandwiches from Rose’s Noodles, Dumplings, and Sweets; and, interestingly, craft cocktails.
“Since we come from the bar business, our cocktails won’t be an after-thought; we’ve had fun translating them for a fast-casual setting and think it’s a natural extension of our brand and a backyard burger experience,” Umstead said in a release.
QueenBurger opens on September 15 at 11 a.m.; a ribbon cutting ceremony with Wool E. Bull will take place thirty minutes prior.
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