The Biz Beat: San Jose restaurant sells burgers for $1.99

There’s a new burger joint in downtown San Jose, with prices cheap enough to keep even the most hungry university student fed.

Campus Burgers is one block from San Jose State University and will undoubtedly be a magnet for students look for a fast, affordable lunch or dinner. And the demand is there: the restaurant served more than 1,000 free hamburgers to a long line of future customers on its opening day last month.

Owner Jim Angelopoulos has the restaurant business in his blood. One of his proudest moments was working his first 24-hour shift as a 10-year-old at his parents’ truck stop diner in San Martin, the Square Meal Cafe.

“We lived in the Rose (Garden) District of San Jose,” he told San José Spotlight, “and I used to take the Greyhound bus after school every day. All I remember is peeling sacks and sacks of potatoes, hundred-pound sacks of potatoes, one at a time.”

Angelopoulos’ parents, Bill and Barbara, came from Greece in 1968 when Jim was six. They opened their cafe in 1972, and Jim worked there until he left to attend San Jose State University.

“Knowing that my parents had a language barrier, I quit school,” he said. “Basically, that’s how I got into the business, and I’ve opened around 10 different restaurants since then.”

Scrambl’z, in Morgan Hill, might be the best known of Angelopoulos’ restaurants. It was a family-fun-themed breakfast and lunch restaurant famous locally for its 32-oz. sundaes, complimentary popcorn at every table and free Bazooka gum after meals.

Launched in 2004, Angelopoulos managed it for 10 years before it was reincarnated as “Yolked,” which he sold five years ago to follow a dream sparked by a film.

“I wanted to go more for simplicity,” he said. “I got the idea for Campus Burgers when I was watching ‘The Founder,’ a movie about Ray Kroc and McDonald’s. I watched it about three times, and it made me want to create something price-sensitive for any family.”

Angelopoulos started calculating how inexpensively he could make a burger and still offer value.

“It came down to $1.99,” he said. “Which is pretty darned low, but you can see how people appreciate it, and that’s what I love — watching the customers and hearing their comments.”

Everything about Campus Burgers is stripped down to the basics, focusing on economic rather than culinary value. Its menu is intentionally limited to a handful of items: single or double hamburgers, single or double cheeseburgers, shoestring fries made from fresh-cut Kennebec potatoes and sodas.

The burgers come with one to four 2-ounce patties, cooked onions, pickles and a house-made chipotle sauce; lettuce and tomato are unavailable.

Customers can order their burgers plain, but the business model is based on volume and a low price point that leaves no room for further modifications.

“There’s a lot of things that slow down the kitchen,” he said. “Things like ‘I want no onions, I want no pickle, want no sauce and no pickle, I want no onions and no pickles.’ I want to please our customers, but it hurts us. For this to succeed, it’s about the speed of service.”

Angelopoulos said he wants Campus Burgers to be the opposite of the full-service restaurants he owned previously, creating an easily duplicatable system where any job can be taught to an employee in 10 minutes.

Customer Gerdain Chavarria tried Campus Burgers for the first time on the advice of a friend and said, considering the price point, the burger did not disappoint.

“It might not have the flavor of some other places,” he told San José Spotlight, “but you’re paying what it’s worth. It tastes like it was actually well put together, and the price is amazing — honestly, a lot better than Five Guys.”
Angelopoulos’ goal with Campus Burgers is not just to provide fast, affordable food for the college crowd. He hopes the almost automatic nature of the business will allow him time for another interest: marathon running.

“I’m getting older,” he said. “I’ve loved running ever since high school, and I’ve done over 20 marathons. I want to get back into that and do something other than work 15-hour days.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].