BuffBurger--Burgers Built by a Community

By Amy Scott / Photography By BuffBurger | November 10, 2018

Houston loves its burgers. Among the many beloved burgers in this city, not many claim—and even fewer actually live—a loyalty to sourcing local products. Sara Morris Burden and Paul “Buff” Burden started BuffBurger in March 2015, after five years of planning and preparation. It’s been built on their belief in local food from the very beginning.

“Buff is from England, and they’re really big into buying everything that’s English. He saw how Texans loved supporting Texans and connected with it. We wanted to keep everything as local as possible.” Sourcing was so important that “before we even had a location, we decided to source our beef from 44 Farms. We’ve been with them from the beginning,” said Sara.

BuffBurger’s commitment to quality runs deep. Aside from sourcing locally, they hand-make almost everything in their dishes. They bake their buns from scratch, smoke their own bacon and whip up sauces and condiments fresh daily. “We love putting in all the effort. It makes everything taste so much better and we end up with such a good, clean product,” said Sara. She laughed as she described their name, aside from its reference to Paul’s nickname. “Why BuffBurger? Things are better in the buff. Everything is better made from scratch!”

And Houstonians have been responding with enthusiasm. Great reviews have been following the restaurants since they opened, and it’s only served to encourage them to go bigger. Since opening, they’ve obtained a kitchen next to their Wirt location to bake their own buns and smoke bacon, hand-form patties and make sauces. They’ve introduced breakfasts at all locations, and will be introducing a cocktail menu at their Montrose location. Soon they’ll be providing onsite catering and delivery of catering orders across Houston. With three locations opening in just over three years, Buff and Sara are keeping themselves busy, and their third location, 10550 Westheimer in Westchase, recently opened January 2019.

When asked what she’s most excited about, Sara beamed as she spoke about their homemade burger buns. “We started doing our own buns this summer. It was a huge step for us. Now the bun you’re eating was baked that morning, it makes such a difference!” She said it took a long time to decide on the recipe. They’d been using Cake & Bacon buns before they leased the kitchen but once that kitchen was leased there was no turning back on baking their own. “So even though they were already selling us their buns, Max [Torres of Cake & Bacon] offered to help us figure out the recipe for our bun. He came over and worked with Buff and they figured out the recipe and perfected it. They made exactly what we needed.”

What might be surprising is that Cake & Bacon’s generosity isn’t out of the ordinary in Sara’s experience. “There are so many other restaurants owned by couples in town. We’re always calling and texting and asking each other questions. Everyone is so happy to help each other, because they know how hard it is.”