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Luxe brings custom burgers to Springfield

Date: 1/2/2014

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD – There is a new gourmet burger restaurant in the area with a decided difference: it allows a patron to customize his or her own sandwich.

Luxe Burger Bar opened last week at 1200 West Columbus Ave. in the building that once housed the city’s tourist information center.

Ted Newcomer, senior vice president of Operations at Luxe Burger Bar, pointed to a pad sitting on every table. On it a diner can specify the type of burger, the temperature, cheese, toppings, sauces, buns and sides among others variables.

He explained Luxe uses only a proprietary blend of Hereford beef, which delivers a different flavor than the Black Angus beef used at other restaurants.

Newcomer called the “Build Your Own Burger” the restaurant’s “biggest attraction.”

The menu also includes salads, specialty sandwiches other than hamburgers, a build your own mac and cheese option and the “Frankenstein, a sandwich consisting of “four Gold Label Burgers, two Jumbo Nathan’s all beef hot dogs, four slices of smokehouse bacon, four slices of American Cheese, topped with Hereford black bean chili, cole slaw and relish on two buttered rolls served with a double order of fries.” If a customer can finish this meal, he or she receives a free t-shirt.

The Springfield location is the second Luxe Burger Bar, the other being in Providence, R.I. the two restaurants are part of the Rhode Island-based Chow Fun Food Group, which owns other restaurants.

Newcomer said the company was interested in the Springfield site because “it’s a very good location with a lot of traffic flow.” He called Springfield a city “on the edge of rebirth” and added, “It’s good to be coming in at the ground floor.”

Since opening he said his staff “has heard some very positive things” from diners.

Newcomer described the restaurant as family friendly and said there are 180 seats in the building, including the bar stools. The new business has created 65 full and part time jobs and Newcomer said he is still hiring more people.

The restaurant is open seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. with exception of Friday and Saturday when it closes at midnight.

For more information go to www.luxeburgerbar.com.