Burgermeister

Burgermeister began in 2006 in one of Berlin’s oddest restaurant spaces: a listed former public toilet under the elevated U-Bahn viaduct at Schlesisches Tor in Kreuzberg. The little building was due to be removed until Cebrail Karabelli won permission to turn it into a burger kiosk, and it became a cult spot in the city. The name is a pun on Bürgermeister, the German word for mayor.

A second restaurant opened at Kottbusser Tor only in 2015, and more Berlin branches followed. As it grew, the chain began making more of its own food and now runs a production site of about 3,500 square metres in Tempelhof for buns, patties, cookies and sauces. It opened its first restaurant outside Berlin, in Potsdam, in August 2024, and its first abroad, in Szczecin, Poland, in October 2025.

The burgers use Irish beef, ground in the Berlin production and grilled well done, on brioche buns baked overnight in the chain’s own bakery. Most come with the same fresh base of iceberg lettuce, tomato, dill pickle, red onion and mayo, and several are named with German “-meister” wordplay: the master butcher, the caretaker, and woodruff for the veggie one.

About 30 restaurants in Germany and Poland, from the original kiosk at Schlesisches Tor to Potsdam and Szczecin.

• Holy Cow! (Switzerland, since 2009). The Lausanne gourmet burger chain built on Swiss beef and Swiss cheese. Also built on beef, bacon, barbecue sauce and crispy onions.
• Byron (United Kingdom, since 2007). The London chain that led Britain’s gourmet burger boom, then shrank back to a handful of restaurants. Also built on beef, bacon, barbecue sauce and crispy onions.
• Sunset Boulevard (Denmark, since 1996). Denmark’s biggest home-grown fast-food chain: a sandwich shop from Odense that became a burger chain with a béarnaise habit. Also built on beef, bacon, crispy onions and cooked onions.
• Hundred Burgers (Spain, since 2020). The Spanish burger bar voted best in the world three years running, from two friends who ate their way around the planet. Also built on beef, bacon, barbecue sauce and cooked onions.