This pandemic pop-up brought us hope before closing. What are its chefs cooking up next?
Through the panic and fog of the ongoing pandemic, one burger joint became a beacon of hope.
In March, the kitchen crew of Cary’s Postmaster paused their upscale menu and fired up a flattop grill, launching Gov’t Cheeseburger as an indefinite pop-up.
But after months of slinging crispy, gooey burgers and debaucherous specials, Gov’t Cheeseburger burned out in a blaze of glory earlier this month, closing up shop.
Don’t fret, though, Christopher Lopez and sous chef John Kleinart have a new pop-up planned to take on downtown Raleigh. The new concept, Fine Folk, is opening in Fayetteville Street cocktail bar Foundation.
Lopez said Gov’t Cheeseburger’s breathless run feels like a fever dream, born out of necessity in the narrow window where the old world became the new one. As North Carolina shut down its dining rooms to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Lopez and Kleinart thought up Gov’t Cheeseburger in 18 hours.
“We were able to do something bright in such a dreary time,” Lopez said. “It was our no (cares) given attitude. It was something everyone wanted to vocalize.”
The power of the burger
Burgers have emerged as one of the pandemic’s most powerful food trends, a life raft for fine dining restaurants and cocktail bars, leveraging the enduring comfort of cheeseburgers in an unprecedented time.
In the past few months, burgers have popped up in unexpected places. St. James Seafood in Durham has one on the menu, cocktail bar Kingfisher shut down to become the backyard cookout Queen Burger. Even Copenhagen’s Noma, one of the world’s best restaurants, pivoted entirely to burgers for a while.
Gov’t Cheeseburger found its audience, as burger-lovers and restaurant fans made their way to Cary to see the show. News & Observer dining critic Greg Cox called the following “cult-like” and fell in love with the pop-up’s proprietary cheese.
Lopez said eventually, Gov’t Cheeseburger no longer worked in the Postmaster space. Now that the pop-up has ended Postmaster’s Instagram account teased an impending return.
“We gave it the old college try,” Lopez said. “It was a success in some ways, but not necessarily in the numbers. Like any other restaurant right now, it’s a week to week game. There’s no telling how long it can go, you just play it by ear.”
Beyond its burgers, Gov’t Cheeseburger will be best remembered for its unrelenting parade of devil-may-care specials, including many odes to fast food favorites. There was the Hamburger Helper fried rice, the softshell crab Frito pie, the McRib with pork cracklings. Perhaps the wildest, Lopez said, was a Monte Cristo corndog, which was a beef corndog made with doughnut batter, cheese and pepper jelly.
The Fine Folk menu
Lopez said the pandemic threw out the rules so Gov’t Cheeseburger was free to create.
“If you approach it with a sense of confidence, if you’re not taking yourself too seriously, people will come,” Lopez said. “We did this out of necessity, no strings attached. We just decided to start slinging burgers and sell as many as possible.”
Fine Folk comes from the tagline of Gov’t Cheeseburger, which was explained only as “A temporary pop-up from the fine folk at Postmaster.”
With Fine Folks there will be a new burger, but only one. The opening menu has a patty melt with horseradish sauce, a whitebread sandwich with crispy Nashville hot chicken skins, a veggie chili and a few bar snacks. The only untouched menu item to live on is the whiskey-cured pickle.
“Fine folks stems from that confidence and voice we found at Gov’t Cheeseburger,” Lopez said. “The spirit of Gov’t Cheeseburger will live on.”
