“Everything continues to have that Jollity ethos though,” said Chef Brendon Miller, who owns the restaurant with Chef Zackary Weiner. “Everything will continue to be made in house down to the buns.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Customers can expect several new menu items including onion rings.
“We make our own hot sauce that goes into the marinade for those,” Miller said. “They sit overnight in this buttermilk marinade and then they come out and we drudge them in our mix of flour, panko and some other things.”
The restaurant will continue to be “farm heavy” with ingredients changing based on what’s available locally.
For those that have never been to Koji Burger, Miller recommends trying the Classic Koji (two koji-aged patties, American cheese, salted onion, sweet pickle and sesame mayo on a milk bun) and Crispy Spuds (double fried, seasoned potatoes).
He described the taste of the burger as “a little bit sweet.” The meat is a mix of chuck and brisket that they grind fresh, in house.
“The milk bun (is) very, very soft. I’ll say spongey. Very sesame seed forward. The cheese offers that creamy element,” Miller said. “I think the soy kewpie is better than just regular mayonnaise. It’s a little bit sweeter. We put sesame oil in it, so you get a little smokey from that as well.”
“Our pickles are made in house,” Miller continued. “Something that we do different with our onions is when we shave them, we bathe them in salt water at a certain percentage and that kind of takes that bite out of the onion.”
Other burgers on the menu include:
- J.B.B (two koji-aged patties, cheddar cheese, bacon jam, smoked mustard mayo and candied jalapeno on a brioche bun) $13
- Steakhouse Smash (two koji-aged patties, Swiss cheese, miso mushroom, roasted onion and steakhouse aioli on a brioche bun) $14
- Chicken Burger (brined fried chicken thigh, pimento cheese and kimchi relish on a brioche bun) $14
Other items include:
- Cold Noodle (zhong sauce, sweet potato noodles, honey orange peanuts and tons of herbs) $12
- Vegan 3.0 (sesame hummus, roasted squash, carrot, shaved cabbage and golden raisins on toasted sourdough) $12
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
The restaurant’s bar program is going to be set around classic cocktails such as Manhattans, old fashioneds and negronis. They tried to make it very approachable for their guests.
A must-try cocktail is the “I Got Better” — a bacon jam washed Manhattan.
“It’s the same bacon jam we use on the J.B.B.,” said Lead Bartender Andrew Deckard. “It’s going to have equal parts dry and sweet vermouth and a little bit of maple syrup, so it’s really good for fall.
He described the taste as a smoky, bacon, onion-like flavor at first, but then it’s going to finish with like a rye bourbon."
Other beverages offered will include grab-and-go beer and seltzers, as well as nonalcoholic options.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
“I think flipping a restaurant in a month to do this is amazing,” Miller said. “I’m happy to be a larger part of the community. It affords us the ability to take better care of our staff, better care of the guests that we have coming in the door, and with that it allows me and Zack to go on and do other things that we want to do.”
The owners are in the midst of working on another concept that will be located in the Huffman District.
They had originally planned to open Koji Burger in this space, but the brand grew into something bigger than they had expected.
“Fei” will be an intimate, elevated dining experience featuring a tasting menu. This idea evolved from Weiner’s “Champloo” dinners.
MORE DETAILS
Koji Burger will be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, visit the concept’s Instagram page (@kojiburger_dyt).
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