Member Spotlight: Flying Cows Burgers

Professional smash patty purveyors Flying Cows know a thing or two about serving up a delicious burger.

Recently crowned ‘most instagrammable burger van in England’ to add to their host of previous awards, we caught up with owner Dan to find out more about their mouthwatering buns of goodness:

In your opinion, what makes a perfect burger?

I think obviously you need good quality meat to start with. We’re talking obviously grass fed, dry aged, really top quality. We actually put a bit of bone marrow with ours to get the fat content – obviously you don’t want it too fatty, but you do need I’d say at least 25 to 30% of that to give it the flavour. That bit extra goes a long way.

Can you tell me about one real career highlight?

Winning Best Burger at the British Street Food Awards was pretty special. That was back in 2017 and it was a huge deal for us at the time, we were absolutely over the moon.

What is something that you think has been significant towards you achieving longevity?

Hard work and building relationships with people has definitely helped. And we’ve always just tried to stay consistent, to keep customers happy and coming back. I find it’s simple things like just being respectful to people that goes a long way.

I’ve got some real good friends in this game who I probably consider lifelong friends. You’ve got to do the best job you can do, but of course it’s important to just enjoy yourself with it too. I think that’s the key thing. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not going to stick with it. I still love it, about twelve / thirteen years in. I’m still really enjoying what I do. Obviously it’s hard graft, but like I said, if I didn’t really enjoy it, I wouldn’t be doing it.

If you could go back now and give one piece of advice to yourself when starting up, what would it be?

That it’s really tough work and as much as I made a lot of mistakes along the way, I’ve definitely learned from them and they’ve helped as we’ve gone on. There’s probably a lot of things I’d do differently but at the same time those mistakes and the journey I’ve had have got us to where we are now.

When I first started I was on my own for quite a long time and looking back I’m not sure how far I would have got like that. Bringing others on board was definitely a big help and one I’d recommend.

What do you find most rewarding about running your own business?

I’ve got two lads, Cole and Max, who have been with me for a long time now – one’s been here 11 years and the other one’s been here 10 years – which is a bit of a shock to me as I didn’t think they’d still be here at this moment.

So I’ve seen them develop from teenagers into young men and it’s been great to have them along on this journey as they’ve both become really strong workers. I’d be lost without them – and my manager Liam too, I think seeing the progression that everyone has had has been really pleasing, they all benefit the business massively.

What would you say inspires you most in independent hospitality?

I have always had this passion for making the highest quality product, so I really wanted to just make a solid burger that people liked.

I just love it when someone enjoys what we’re what we’re doing. That’s the main thing, even if we’re doing a bog standard cheeseburger for someone and we get them coming back with compliments.

For instance, we were trading recently at the Birmingham City football ground and no end of people came back and told us it was amazing, that it was the best burger they’ve had down here. And it’s so nice to hear that appreciation and know you’ve provided a good experience.

I fully believe that you can make someone’s day with a good burger, which is what we strive to do.

With regards to the customers I like to try and befriend them.

Give them the extra 20/30 seconds when there’s a massive queue to be nice. I think it makes a difference, it just creates a better and more welcoming environment for all. I think if the team’s in a good mood, the food tastes better as well.

You can turn the queue to your advantage: Sometimes I say silly things when I’m taking the orders to people. And they they’ll start laughing and the person behind starts laughing, before you know it it’s filtered throughout the queue, people are getting on with each other and you’ve created a bit more of a party atmosphere and everyone’s excited when they get to order.

What would you say is the most important lesson that you’ve learned while running the business?

Try not to go bankrupt! Maybe don’t push yourself too far.

I think that’s what I’d say to myself if I started off now. Work your hardest but don’t work too hard. You can do too much and end up stretching yourself too thin which is never a good thing.

It’s quite easy to get sucked into chasing the dollars, and you can agree to do a bit too much. We’ve just had a super busy month fulfilling a packed calendar and the team is a bit burnt out now, but then again with the summer season for example it’s quite a short window that you have so you’ve got to make the most of it.

It’s about finding a balance of trading enough but also not pushing things too much.

What would you say that success looks like to you?

When we’ve got a diary full of bookings, happy customers, happy event organisers, happy team. And no financial stresses. To me a successful year is one where everything has gone well – no hiccups or big problems, everyone’s happy.

Find out more about Flying Cows and follow their journey here.