The Butcher: the UK’s new face of burger joints

What is the history of The Butcher?

The Butcher was founded in 2012 in Amsterdam after a long process of development. I was trying to create the ultimate burger for The Butcher – a very honest burger that’s a great value for money. We have five or six sites in Amsterdam, following which we opened in Ibiza, Berlin and Dubai, and now Manchester. 

Why did The Entourage Group decide to expand the brand to the UK, and why was Manchester chosen as the first site for The Butcher in the UK?

The Butcher was born to be a franchise and it was developed to be a multi-site; we built it to be a brand that we can duplicate and run in any major city. The UK has always been at the top of my top list because I moved here 20 years ago and developed some restaurants in the UK back in the day. Manchester is the second top city in the UK; it has so much charm, it’s more compact than London, it’s bigger than other cities and it’s very metropolitan. I thought it would be great to launch The Butcher in Manchester before London.

What inspired the global expansion?

I created a huge hospitality group with a lot of fine-dining restaurants with Michelin stars, and a lot of other high end restaurants, clubs, bars and some fast food brands. Since we created The Butcher,  I wanted it to be a global brand, to be a flag for The Entourage Group all over Europe, and potentially in the US in the future. But before that, we will launch the brand in the Middle East, like Dubai and Saudi Qatar as I think those countries are big fans of burgers and The Butcher has space in the market there.

What attracted the company to the particular site at Arndale?

Arndale is a really successful mall with all the top brands. With the climate in the UK and in Europe, people are increasingly going to malls, not just for shopping but for more entertainment purposes. It’s safer to launch a food concept in a mall as it’s weatherproof and it’s something that can go on all year round. Our brand fits in well with the Urban Playground – it’s a nice combination of strong brands and concepts.

What is the concept of The Butcher?

It’s all about the burgers; The Butcher is a guy that you trust buying a good piece of meat from, that’s where the name came from. The concept, the brand, the name, the logo and everything around it, surrounds the concept of very honest burgers, ones that are a good value for money. It’s fast food but not junk food and what you see is what you get. Everything is cooked around you, it’s always open kitchens, so there’s no cutting corners. Also, the meat is Angus made with low fat, so you’re not regretting eating it a couple of hours after.

What design features will the new site have?

Everything is around a big open kitchen, with printed tiles on the walls. We usually do all white tiles and we print a lot of stories around the meat with beautiful graphics on the tiles. What we did in Manchester is black tiles with white prints on them, so you see the logos, you see the journey of The Butcher with old school, big fridges to show that The Butcher is very established and that it’s been there for many years.

We always try to keep to the narrative and the DNA of the brand within the design, but the reason we changed the Manchester site is because we always tried to do a twist at our sites. When we launched in Ibiza, we created a twist where we painted ocean imagery on the tiles to fit in with the connotations of Ibiza. In Manchester, we decided that because the Playground surrounding the restaurant is all like black and dark, we thought it would work much better as a dark concept.

Will other areas of the UK see doors opening to The Butcher?

I definitely think there can be a few more sites in Manchester – we have four or five sites in Amsterdam which is a smaller city. We also want to grow in areas such as Liverpool, London and Leeds, all of which will complement The Butcher.

What are the next steps for the company?

We’re looking to roll out some of our sites in Dubai and London. Currently, I’m looking into maybe expanding one of the brands to Manchester as well. With the process of putting The Butcher in Manchester and spending more time here, I think Manchester will merge really well with our brands. It will do good for us and we can do good for Manchester by bringing something different to the city.