Sunset Boulevard

Jeppe Droob opened the first Sunset Boulevard in Odense in 1996 as a sandwich shop. He comes from a West Jutland retail family; his father Keld founded the Dansk Discount supermarkets, later Fakta. The chain started out selling itself on lightness, with the slogan “fedtfattig på den fede måde”, roughly “low-fat in a fat way”, until the Danish food authority ordered it dropped in 2008. Over time the menu tipped from sandwiches to burgers, though sandwiches are still there.

Today Sunset is the largest Danish-owned fast-food chain, with about fifty restaurants, headquartered in Kolding since 2018, and outposts in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Germany. It was an early adopter of a fast-food subscription, launched in 2020, which lets members save up to half on the menu, and its kids’ meals come without toys, which the chain says is for the climate.

The menu has a Danish accent. The top burgers use Irish Hereford beef and come with béarnaise mayo, pepper bacon and soft fried onions, a nod to how Scandinavians eat steak; the cheaper ones use grass-fed beef on brioche; and there is a burger made with 20 percent beef heart.

About 50 restaurants across Denmark, plus three in Greenland and one each in the Faroe Islands and Germany.

• 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 cooked onions.
• 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 cooked onions.
• Patty & Bun (United Kingdom, since 2012). The London burger joint that names its burgers after TV characters and soul singers. Also built on beef, bacon, cooked 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.