Appetite for expansion

OLGA LIVSHIN

In the decade since Gerald Tritt and Noah Cantor became co-owners of Vera’s Burger Shack, the local eatery has grown into a successful franchise, a fixture in British Columbia, with 16 locations in the Lower Mainland and one now in Ottawa. The next step in their expansion will come this fall, when the first two of the planned five new locations will open south of the border, in Portland.

In an interview with the Jewish Independent, Cantor talked about how it all started and the importance of having the right partner.

The original Vera’s Burger Shack opened in 1977 as a single store in Kitsilano operated by a husband and wife duo, Vera and Frank. In 2000, the couple decided to retire. The new owners came from two very different professional backgrounds: Tritt has been in the restaurant business for years, while Cantor is a former professional football player.

Football as a career is seldom a Jewish boy’s first choice, but for Cantor it was natural. “Sport has always been big for me. I was good at it, and it was in the family,” he told the Independent. “My great-uncle played pro football, too. It must’ve been about 60 years ago.” So Cantor continued the family sporting ethos, playing for the Toronto Argonauts and the B.C. Lions, winning multiple Grey Cups before finally retiring in 2007.

The business partners first met in 1998, when Cantor signed with the Lions and moved to British Columbia. “Our wives, Gerald’s and mine, went to university together,” he explained. At that time, he was still a full-time athlete, so his collaboration with Tritt started as a financial investment. Later, Cantor became involved with the day-to-day operations, devoting his time to the restaurant between seasons, but he still relied heavily on Tritt. “Gerald is a great partner,” he said. “When I temporarily returned to football from retirement in 2006, I was away from Vancouver for six months. Gerald did everything.”

Tritt is also pleased at the workings of their partnership. “Noah and I share the duties,” he said. “While Noah might gravitate towards the operational side of things and myself towards the business development, we communicate daily and make joint decisions on everything.”

Now permanently retired, Cantor can dedicate himself and his considerable charisma to the restaurant. “I love it,” he said. “It’s fun to serve customers, to talk to people.”

As the franchise spreads across Vancouver and beyond, the owners spend more and more time in the office, tackling financial, marketing and legal issues, but they remain, at heart, hands-on guys. “I try to visit as many branches as I can every day,” Cantor said. “But I don’t work on Friday nights.”

The limitation has its roots in his Jewish origins. “My family was Conservative. We followed Jewish traditions, and I want to pass the tradition onto my children. We have Shabbat dinner every week,” he explained.

Tritt, also Jewish, sees what he says are shared values as one reason for their success. “I don’t know if you can say being Jewish plays a role in the operation of our partnership (we are still a work-in-progress, success is a relative term), but I definitely see it as a mutual point of understanding, and I think when you look at our overall lives, there are similar goals,” he said.

Another Jewish tradition manifests itself in the Vera’s menu: there are no pork burgers on it, although Cantor was reluctant to attribute the fact to ethnic considerations. “We try to be different,” he said instead. To widen their selection, Vera’s owners are offering beef burgers but also chicken and turkey burgers, hot dogs and, even, veggie burgers.

Cantor’s pride in his business is especially apparent when he talks about the services Vera’s provides: “It’s all about quality. Every store makes fresh patties every day; we don’t use frozen meat…. We have organic beef burgers, too. Although they’re not our number one, we thought it important to present as a choice,” he added.

The owners’ endeavors to serve the best haven’t gone unnoticed. Vancouver burger lovers have voted Vera’s Burger “Vancouver’s Best Burger” for the last eight years. The restaurant’s well-deserved motto, “You can’t beat Vera’s meat,” and its winking Vera logo also have contributed to its upcoming expansion to the United States. The expansion was unplanned and started as a fluke last year, when an American businessman, Paul Brown, arrived in Vancouver, looking for potential locations for a frozen yogurt franchise. Brown passed one of Vera’s restaurants, decided to try a burger, and came away a convert. He knew instantly that Vera’s would do great business in the Pacific Northwest burger market. “Vera’s will be the undisputed champion of all hamburger restaurants in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. I believe the burger franchise they’ve developed stands second to none,” he said in a statement. The deal was signed at the beginning of this month.

Like every expansion, the enterprise carries a certain risk, but Cantor didn’t seem worried. “Of course, there is a competition there,” he said. “But we have pride in our product. We can compete with anybody…. Our biggest challenge would be finding the right people for the job, the right managers. We’ve been the best in Vancouver for years. We can be the best in Portland.”

Tritt concurs. “I think that in the food industry, especially [with] the burger space, people find comfort in the food. Burgers are an iconic food, one that wraps people in nostalgia. I also think that people recognize a good burger when they taste one. Our development in Portland is a direct result of a burger being eaten; our food is our secret.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She’s available for contract work, at [email protected].

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