Peter Pane

Peter Pane comes out of a split. Patrick Junge, from the Lübeck baking family behind the Junge bakeries, founded in 1897, ran the family business for ten years before selling his share in 2012. His new companies then operated the northern German restaurants of Hans im Glück, the Munich burger chain. In 2016 he parted ways with Hans im Glück and turned his restaurants into a brand of his own: Peter Pane, burger restaurants with a cocktail bar built in.

The chain started in northern Germany and spread across the country, opening in Austria in 2018. It had 41 restaurants in 2020 and 47 by September 2022, with the most in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, and it added a delivery brand, pick-up stores and supermarket products.

Every beef burger uses a 150-gram patty of German beef with lettuce, tomato and the house sauce, and guests choose the bun: sourdough, multigrain or brioche. Most burgers carry playful German names, and meat-free burgers are a real part of the business: the company says about a fifth of the burgers it sold in 2021 were vegetarian or vegan.

Around 50 restaurants across Germany and in Austria, many of them in the north.

• Burgermeister (Germany, since 2006). The Berlin burger chain that started in an old public toilet under the U-Bahn. Also built on beef, bacon, crispy onions and cheese.
• Goiko (Spain, since 2013). Spain’s burger obsession, where the bestseller is named after Kevin Bacon. Also built on beef, bacon, crispy onions and cheese.
• Holy Cow! (Switzerland, since 2009). The Lausanne gourmet burger chain built on Swiss beef and Swiss cheese. Also built on beef, bacon, crispy onions and cheese.
• Hesburger (Finland, since 1980). The Finnish chain that outsold McDonald’s in the Nordics and the Baltics. Also built on beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack.