Burger Machine

In 1981 Fe Esperanza Rodriguez and her sister, who loved hamburgers, turned two old minibuses into burger stands, an idea they had seen in America. The first one parked at a Caltex petrol station on EDSA in Mandaluyong, on the corner where SM Megamall stands today; the second at Aurora Boulevard and Gilmore Avenue in Quezon City. With 40,000 pesos of capital and about two dozen staff they stayed open day and night, which gave the chain its nickname, “the burger that never sleeps”.

The format spread fast: a small counter with a sign and a cartoon dwarf, later named Burger Bart in a 1988 naming contest, by the road or at a petrol station, serving cheap burgers to drivers, students and night-shift workers. In the mid-1990s the chain advertised on television with the rapper Francis Magalona and the band Eraserheads. The Asian financial crisis forced it to close many outlets, but it survived where rivals did not, and by 2011 it claimed more than a thousand stalls, earning the title “the National Burger Stand of the Philippines”.

The menu is about volume and price. Burgers come “jumbo” or “double”, with cheese, egg, bacon or chili, and are often sold buy-one-take-one. Two of them are very Filipino: the longganisa burger, made with the sweet, garlicky local sausage, and the egg burger. There is no delivery service of its own and no single online menu; you walk up to the stall, often late at night.

Small outdoor stalls across the Philippines, many at petrol stations and street corners.

• First Kitchen (Japan, since 1977). A Tokyo burger chain since 1977, famous for its Bacon Egg Burger, flavoured fries and pasta, now run together with Wendy’s. Also built on beef, bacon and egg.
• Zetteria (Japan, since 2023). The new name of Lotteria Japan: the shrimp burger of 1977 and the “Zeppin” cheeseburger, now under the owners of Sukiya. Also built on beef, egg and cheese.
• Burger Bangor (Indonesia, since 2019). Indonesia’s fast-growing local burger chain, started by a basketball star, with burgers named after social ranks. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
• Kua 'Aina (United States, since 1975). A North Shore surf-town sandwich shop that became a Hawaiian burger chain in Japan. Also built on beef and bacon.