It’s not often a burger joint can say it gets its lettuce, tomato, onions and beetroot from a farm down the road.

“We don’t use a lot of ingredients in our burgers, so everything has to be spot on,” Daniel Sullo, owner of Superior Burger, tells Broadsheet. “Our Wakeley shop is 10 minutes away from our farmer, so we pick up produce from him on a daily basis.”

Superior Burger opened in the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley in 2016, and a year later Sullo converted a 1950s school bus into a food truck and started selling burgers at festivals and markets around Sydney. Because of Covid restrictions, that part of the business has been put on hold indefinitely.

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“Everyone is trying to figure out what to do with their food trucks right now,” Sullo says. “I wanted to create a space where people feel safe and comfortable to come and eat, because no one knows how long this is going to last for.”

Sullo found an empty warehouse in his home suburb of Mortlake and set up a permanent sister eatery to his Wakeley diner. The vintage bus that once travelled to festivals now takes pride of place out front in the car park and functions as the eatery’s kitchen. The warehouse’s roller door is permanently open, revealing a charmingly kitsch space with astroturf on the ground, palm trees in pots, a handful of low seats and a retro turquoise and white caravan where customers place orders. As Covid restrictions relax Sullo will add more permanent seating.

The core food menu is the same as Wakeley’s, although the two shops sometimes run different specials. Regular menu items include the signature Superior Burger with two hand-pressed patties, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato and a house-made secret sauce; an exceptionally crunchy, juicy chicken burger; a vegetarian field mushroom burger; and a fish burger. There’s also a rotating menu of more elaborate specials. Sullo is working on getting licensed, and for now desserts and milkshakes are only available at the Wakeley diner.

You can also get plenty of sides at Mortlake, including loaded fries, coleslaw and mash. Sullo recommends the potato scallops. “A lot of people know us for our potato scallops. They’ll blow your mind, these scallops.”

When Sullo bought the bus from a seller in Port Kembla, it was derelict. “It was only $3000, but it was bad. There were fairies painted on the side, there was a bed inside and all this old furniture. You needed to have a bit of imagination to see what it could be,” he says.

Sullo fitted it out himself with the occasional help of specialists for things like power and gas. He painted the bus cream with dark green accents, and at night, light strips accentuate the curved design and highlight the words “Hot Food, Cold Drinks, Good Times”.

Superior Burger

1 Bertram Street, Mortlake

Hours:
Wed 6pm–9pm
Thu to Sun 12pm–3pm, 6pm–9pm

instagram.com/superior.burger