During a time when many restaurants are shutting their doors, Burger Patch is planning to open a third location near Sacramento State in early 2021. 

The new spot will be located off of 65th Street and Folsom Boulevard where a Starbucks previously was. This will be the second location Burger Patch has opened this year, the first being near the UC Davis campus.

Burger Patch, a locally-owned vegan burger spot, has a design that’s focused on quick, grab-n-go service. This gives the restaurant an edge over other restaurants struggling to survive during pandemic restrictions. Chief operating officer and general manager Stephen Leopold said the nature of the Burger Patch business model made adapting to new safety standards relatively seamless. 

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“We were very quick and proactive in the whole process,” Leopold said. “Even before the mandates came out from the CDC and the health department and the state, we were already putting things like masks and plexiglass barriers in place, just kind of anticipating that would happen.”

Leopold said the Midtown location on K and 24th Street now serves up burgers with contactless ordering, pickup and delivery. He said the COVID-19 food service restrictions have even helped the business become more efficient.

“It helps us to innovate and change with the times, but also looking forward,” Leopold said “I think restaurants in general, you’re going to probably see starting to innovate into this more contactless and more streamlined pickup and delivery system.” 

Burger Patch founder Phil Horn said the idea of opening a location near the Sac State campus has been on his radar since the beginning. 

“My wife Danea, our co-founder, is an alumni from Sac State,” Horn said. “She received her graduate degree in economics there. Similar to how it is for us in Davis where she’s currently enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate, Sac State was sort of near and dear to our heart for personal reasons as well as being a great location for the demographics that typically are our customers at Burger Patch.”

Horn said he’s felt fortunate for Burger Patch’s continued success and strives to give back to the Sacramento community. Each month, Burger Patch donates a portion of proceeds to a different local nonprofit organization. In March, the restaurant donated 100% of profits to local restaurants that were negatively impacted by COVID-19, Horn said. 

“I think to date we’ve donated over $30,000 of cash back to our community,” Horn said. “We launched our T-shirts in support of Black Lives Matter this summer. With those, 100% of the profits from those shirts go back to local organizations that are supporting positive change in the lives of our Black community.”

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Sac State junior Nick Mahedy is a fan of Burger Patch because of its community-conscious business practices in addition to its cruelty-free comfort food. 

“I heard about Burger Patch from some friends in the marching band and also some environmental science friends,” Mahedy said. “They said it was a vegan burger place and I was a little skeptical at first because I usually prefer preparing my own stuff that’s gonna be like that, but when I went out and tried it with a couple of my friends, I’ve just been going back ever since because it’s in my opinion, my favorite burger.”  

Mahedy said he eats at Burger Patch a couple of times a month and is looking forward to the new location being close to campus.

“I think that’s dangerously close,” Mahedy said. “I will definitely be out of a few bucks very soon.”

Burger Patch is currently hiring for their new location, which will open sometime in early 2021 according to its press release.