The Supreme Burger at Bareburger exists because of a McDonald's drive-through.

Euripides Pelekanos ran a bar in Bed-Stuy called Sputnik through the 2000s, a room where KRS-One, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Premier all played and where Pratt students, the housing projects and the Hasidic community all stayed until three in the morning. He would get out at half four, five in the morning, stop at McDonald's on the way home and order four cheeseburgers, large fries, and a Diet Coke. Then he would open every cheeseburger and stuff the fries inside.

"I'm embarrassed to tell you this story," he says, and then tells it anyway.

Tiffany Pham sits down with him over the burger that story became: a grass-fed patty, applewood smoked bacon, an onion ring on top with french fries packed inside it, and a special sauce he will happily tell you is ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, because every special sauce in the world is.

The rest of the conversation is the harder half. His parents came from Cyprus as refugees in 1974, two years before he was born, into a five-room apartment in Astoria. He was stocking sodas at Dom's Deli at twelve. He taught social studies for two years before he opened anything. The first Bareburger was a shuttered bakery in Astoria with a poster of a bear on a unicycle in the window, and the neighbourhood decided they were California hippies. Six months later there were a hundred people waiting outside.

Then fifty restaurants, in Santa Monica and Japan and Germany and Dubai. Then COVID, and the decision to close the ones that were not in his backyard. Thirty restaurants now, in the tri-state area, plus two in Ohio.

Asked who he is making this for, he says: everybody.

Savor with Tiffany Pham, a Representation production, is a companion to the television docuseries premiering May 2027. Cinematography by: Kym Pham.

CHAPTERS
00:00 "So good to see you", and the Supreme Burger
00:38 Old school New York: Cyprus, 1974, and a five-room apartment in Astoria
01:30 Dom's Deli at twelve years old
02:32 Two years as a teacher
02:58 1999: opening Sputnik in Brooklyn
04:00 KRS-One, Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Premier
04:37 2007: the Sputnik Burger
06:21 The 2008 recession
07:49 An old bakery in Astoria
08:00 The bear on a unicycle
08:28 A hundred people waiting outside
09:48 Fifty restaurants: Santa Monica, Japan, Germany, Dubai
10:50 COVID
12:41 Consolidating back to the backyard
13:58 Impossible, plant-based, keto: how the menu changed
15:08 Smash burgers, and 30 restaurants left
16:50 "I'm embarrassed to tell you this story"
17:06 Four cheeseburgers, large fries, a Diet Coke
18:05 The onion ring, and the fries inside it
18:58 It's the Supreme
20:37 The ultimate Wagyu
22:10 Medium rare, and letting the meat shine
23:39 Who are you making this for?
23:49 "Our burgers are for everybody"
24:54 Come here with your kids
25:58 Headwinds, and the North Star
26:27 "This place is the best"

ABOUT BAREBURGER
Bareburger — bareburger.com

🎬 The Savor with Tiffany Pham docuseries premieres May 1, 2027
🌐 savortheuniverse.com

Click here to view the episode transcript.