A New York smash burger chain with late-night hours was welcomed Wednesday by the Harvard Square Advisory Committee, but put on notice that claims to be “local” can’t be made lightly.
The chain, 7th Street Burger, wants permission to open at 37 Brattle St., where Harvard Square’s Marine Layer clothing store closed this summer. The chain, founded in 2021 in New York City’s East Village, does made-to-order smash burgers in 18 locations, including in South Boston and on Boston’s Newbury Street. It expects to ask for licensing to sell in Cambridge until 2 a.m. daily to serve “students who are studying late, coming home from the library, people who are coming out of other places looking for some food before they head home,” said Jeff Emanuele, the chain’s head of construction.
The committee gave it unanimous support for an upcoming Board of Zoning Appeal hearing, when it asks permission to come in as a “formula business” with trademarked branding in an area where zoning is supposed to favor nonchain businesses.
This is a formula people like: The menu is just cheeseburgers ($6.50, or $9.50 for a double), with patties smashed thin to the grill for crisped edges, and fries ($4.50). All burgers come with grilled onions, house sauce and pickles. The design of the shop proposed to the committee is equally simple, a stark white tiled space with splashes of red, room enough for 20 in 954 square feet, and a couple of tables outside.
“Our design is tailored to the specific communities that we get into,” said Emanuele, describing how in Philadelphia he was working with artists on a mural to go up on the side of the restaurant’s building “so that we can further connect with clientele. So, yeah, we despise the term ‘chain.’”
So far, so good, but Emanuele and attorney Sarah Rhatigan pushed some buttons after Rhatigan said “7th Street Burger really is more of a local burger place” while Emanuele extolled the quality and freshness of ingredients from New Jersey’s Driscoll Foods and Pennsylvania’s Martin’s. (Four years ago, Martin’s drew boycott talk for an owner’s politics. Kevin Rezvani, a 7th Street Burger founder, told Eater that it wasn’t easy to quit the bun supplier, and the chain hasn’t.)
“You’re not local”
Ivy Moylan, executive director of The Brattle theater and a committee member, was surprised. “Everything’s trucked in from out of state and you don’t source anything from local businesses,” she said in an exchange with the chain’s representatives. “It’s not appropriate to call yourself local when you’re not local. There’s local businesses in the area, and you’re not local. It’s okay, but you shouldn’t call yourself local if you’re not.”
Another committee member, Nicola Williams, pushed the 7th Street Burger representatives toward the Sustainable Business Network based in Central Square, where she worked with an “abundance” of local food providers and farmers who could hook them up with the ingredients they need. “I really encourage you to please not use the word ‘local’ if you’re not, because the ears really pay attention to that and it can backfire,” Williams said.
There are other ways to be local, the representatives said, including through partnerships with independent businesses, such as a book sale promotion a 7th Street Burger ran in New York. (Emanuele produced another wince by telling Moylan that the eatery could help promote The Brattle if she had “a big play coming up.” The Brattle is a cinema.)
“We would definitely use local stuff if it was available, but that’s just not really economical,” a team member said.
Lines, takeout and hours
Based on its experience opening on Newbury Street in February, the 7th Street Burger team expected potentially “crazy” lines for the first two or three weeks before residents got used to the shop. It was doubtful the location would do food delivery, but “at some point, we will entertain the likelihood of takeout,” Emanuele said.
He asked about requesting later hours “if the demand is there.”
It is, Moylan assured him, and fellow committee member and architect Matt Simitis encouraged “the later hours that the square and Cambridge is trending toward.”
A Tasty Burger nearby in the square is open until midnight on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on weekends.
“There isn’t anything quite like this,” said Rhatigan of 7th Street Burger. “There are other burger places, but this one has a real niche approach both in its simplicity and its price point.”
