What’s the secret to Patty & Bun’s success?

Essentially Patty & Bun has created a gang which everyone seems to want a bite of. Do they ever argue? You bet. ‘These two [Grossman and Trussell] are awful,’ laughs Monaghan. ‘We did a shift together and ended up screaming at each other,’ says Trussell, while Grossman happily admits that he’s not allowed to work shifts any more as he had a tendency to ‘f*** things up’. It’s clear though that there’s a deep friendship evident throughout the brand. Grossman and Trussell have been close friends since school — Latymer Upper — with Grossman recruiting Trussell from Pitt Cue when he started P&B. Monaghan came on board after Grossman met him working in a bar in Hoxton. ‘He was texting me over and over again, saying that he had this great idea for a burger brand,’ says Monaghan, ‘so I agreed to meet him for a drink.’ Grossman pitched him what he thought was the dream and Monaghan signed up, only admitting to Grossman a few years later that he thought he was a ‘complete lunatic’.

The brand now regularly mentioned in the world’s best burger lists (from The Huffington Post to Bloomberg to Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar) started out seven years ago, after Grossman quit his job in insurance underwriting. ‘Essentially I was just unemployable and I was a bit like, “See you later!” I knew I wanted to get involved in the food industry, so started working at Roast in Borough Market.’ From there a stay in New York and the discovery of burger bars — ‘When I was there, Shake Shack and all of those pop-ups were really starting to simmer and I didn’t think there was anything quite like that here’ — led him to open Patty & Bun. Starting out life touring London boozers, their first big break came with a pop-up at the (now sadly closed) Endurance on Berwick Street, which, according to Grossman, ‘really gave us a platform to spring from’. They continued to ‘evolve organically’ until investment from New World Private Equity in November 2005, but not before they’d opened their first permanent bricks and mortar site on James Street in 2012, which they now affectionately call ‘the mothership’. They now have 10 sites including Old Compton Street, Goodge Street and Notting Hill, with several in the pipeline for next year, most notably at the old BBC Television Centre in White City, Borough and Brighton.

‘Great burgers and great food is primarily the spine of what we do,’ says Grossman, ‘but I think for us it’s really important that people get the full Patty & Bun experience rather than just the food, which is what people know us for.’ It’s their personalities which shine through: hard-working. fun-loving boys who like to have a good time. ‘Everyone’s characters come out,’ says Grossman. ‘We have a range of absolute nutters in the best possible way working for us and they’re the people who make us what we are.’ The opening of their Redchurch Street store culminated in an arms-in-the-air, dancing-on-chairs type of night, with DJ talent drafted in from local club night Sink the Pink. ‘We’re all Londoners born and bred,’ says Grossman, ‘so when we go into a new area, it’s really important that what we do there is right for that crowd — a cookie cutter mentality just doesn’t work any more. Those days are gone.’

To that effect, the brand’s Richmond Road site in east London is used to host Family Style, a series of pop-up nights with guest chefs — the most recent being Claude Bosi, the two-star Michelin chef who hosted a night in November. ‘We know all of these amazing chefs and just really wanted to create a communal dining event,’ says Grossman. ‘We don’t make any money out of the Family evenings,’ adds Trussell, ‘but we have this big space and we like to eat out and have a great time, so for us it started from that and they’ve become really exciting.’

‘I think it’s clear if people are just financially driven,’ says Grossman, ‘You end up cannibalising your business and staffing, product and rent costs are all going up — it’s a hard business to be in.’ The boys are known for their collaborations, too — with T-shirts, prints and music partnerships. ‘None of the collaborations are ever premeditated,’ says Trussell, ‘they’re just fun and great to do with our mates and they also keep us entertained. In this day and age you have to be constantly evolving to stand out.’

So what next? ‘World domination, baby,’ shouts Grossman. He’s joking, of course. Well, half-joking.

Photographs by Dom Fleming