Burger Theory

Founded in 2011 by Dan Mendelson and Rob Dean as a food truck,^[1] the company is credited with bringing the food truck movement to South Australia.^[2] They started before the Adelaide City Council had legislation regarding food trucks in place,^[3] preventing the truck from working on city streets.^[4] However, a pilot program was created by the council later that year permitting Burger Theory to operate on a limited number of street sites in the central business district.^[1][5]

In 2012, Mendelson and Dean opened Pearl's Diner as their first brick and mortar premises,^[6] before opening a dedicated Burger Theory store in Adelaide the following year.^[7] They subsequently opened outlets at Flinders University and the University of Adelaide.^[8] In late 2015 they opened a store in Melbourne,^[9][10] but this proved unsuccessful.^[11] Still looking to expand, in 2016 they signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese investor in which it was planned to open 120 franchises of Burger Theory in China.^[12]

In 2017, they announced that they would no longer sell chicken and bacon at their store, and their existing beef burgers would be a combination of beef fat and kangaroo meat.^[13]

In 2019, Burger Theory closed two stores, with one remaining.^[14] The final store was later rebranded under Flinders University's The Tavern student bar.

• List of food trucks
• List of South Australian manufacturing businesses
• South Australian food and drink

34°55′22″S 138°36′31″E / 34.922878°S 138.608659°E / -34.922878; 138.608659