After several successful pop-ups last year, Koji Burger is returning in April to Jollity as the owners work towards opening a brick-and-mortar in 2024.
Lunch pop-ups are scheduled for Friday, April 14 and Saturday, April 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The menu will feature the classic Koji Burger, along with a chicken sandwich and vegetarian option. Sides include the traditional smashed potatoes with a loaded option or kale salad.
Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
Chef Zackary Weiner told Dayton.com they will release additional dates as they see fit.
Koji Burger is the brainchild of Chef Brendon Miller, who owns Jollity with Weiner. The concept was tested and developed during the Miami Valley Restaurant Association’s winter restaurant week in 2022.
“We never wanted to put (a cheeseburger) on our dinner menu because we didn’t want to take away from things we focus so intently on every single day,” Weiner previously said. “When we joined the restaurant association, we decided to put a burger on the menu to try to draw some of the crowd that may not normally dine with us.”
To make a Koji Burger, Weiner explained that it takes the same amount of work and craftmanship as it does to make a dish on Jollity’s dinner menu. He said the meat must age for three days before it can be cleaned and air dried for an additional day, prior to grinding it.
If they have a pop-up on Friday, Weiner said they typically begin prep on Sunday or Monday.
After the initial restaurant week, Weiner explained that people kept asking when they could have another Koji Burger. The owners decided to offer burgers again during summer restaurant week and eventually had a Sunday pop-up.
Weiner recalled that they made almost 300 burgers and sold out within 70 minutes. He said there was a line around the block that passed the library.
He noted they couldn’t produce anymore food for the pop-up in the amount of space they had. From that day forward they knew they had something and wanted to see where they could take it, Weiner said. That’s when they began lunch pop-ups on Fridays and Saturdays.
After much success, the owners are planning to open a second restaurant to house Koji Burger in downtown Dayton.
“We are in the process of talking to a few different developers just to kind of see where we want to be, what we want to do,” Weiner said. “Something that’s important to us is forming a proper partnership. We want to make sure that whoever we decide to work with and whatever area of downtown Dayton that we would be in it is the proper fit for us as a company.”
Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
Weiner said they hope to have a developer picked out in the next three months with a brick-and-mortar space up and running by quarter two of 2024.
“We are super grateful for all of the support we have received both at Jollity and at Koji Burger,” Weiner said.
When asked if he ever thought he would own a restaurant specializing in burgers, Weiner said, “Absolutely not. We just wanted to eat cheeseburgers.”
For more information about Koji Burger, visit the pop-up’s Facebook or Instagram pages. Jollity, located at 127 E. Third Street in Dayton, will not accept reservations for Koji Burger, but guests will be able to order ahead through Jollity’s takeout platform.
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